15 Musicians These Bands Wanted You To Forget

15 Musicians These Bands Wanted You To Forget | Society Of Rock Videos

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Bands changes their line ups, it happens. But not all members get to be remembered after quitting, or getting fired. We list down 15 musicians who became a part of these rock bands, but have little mention, or worse, not mentioned in anything at all, as if they have never existed.

1. Michael Anthony (Van Halen)
Michael Anthony was the bassist and backing vocalist for the band from 1974 to 2006, until the late Eddie Van Halen suggested his son Wolfgang to replace Anthony. In an interview with Billboard, Eddie said: “Every note Mike ever played, I had to show him. Mike’s voice is like a piccolo trumpet, but he’s not a singer.” Following the change of lineup, fans noticed that Van Halen had airbrushed Anthony out of the band photos on their official site. Anthony admitted in a 2007 Rolling Stone interview: “That bummed me out quite a bit. I’m proud of all my history with Van Halen, and maybe they feel otherwise.”

2. Brian Wilson (Beach Boys)
Brian Wilson was fired from the band on November 5th, 1982. In 1998, Carl Wilson died of lung cancer and on that same year, Mike Love was granted the sole right to use the “Beach Boys” name while touring. Fast forward to 2012, the remaining Beach Boys reunited to perform at the Grammy Awards and toured together and released a new album, That’s Why God Made the Radio. However, Love continued to maintain rights to the Beach Boys’ name in touring and decided not to perform with the rest of the members, Wilson, Al Jardine and David Marks. Wilson told CNN back then: “I’m disappointed and can’t understand why he doesn’t want to tour with Al, David and me. We are out here having so much fun. After all, we are the real Beach Boys.”

3. Darryl Jones (Rolling Stones)
Following Bill Wyman’s departure from the band, Darryl Jones has been the Rolling Stones bassist since 1993. However, he’s not seen in the group’s official photos and not regularly included in their music videos. The BBC dubbed Jones the “Unknown Stone.” Jones told the BBC: “In terms of the membership of this very small and exclusive club, I guess I’ll always be like the new guy. In terms of playing with the band, though, I feel like a bit of an old hand now.”

4. Bill Ward (Black Sabbath)
Bill Ward left the band in 2012, but prior to that he was all set along with his former founding members for a Black Sabbath reunion album and tour. Until Ozzy Osbourne claimed that he wasn’t physically able to perform. A public war of words happened and in the end, Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler continued as Black Sabbath. While, Ward found himself removed from the band’s official website, which is a request from his own lawyer, “so as to not give the public the wrong impression about his involvement in the current Black Sabbath lineup.”

5. John Corabi (Motley Crue)
John Corabi took Vince Neil’s place and was part of the Motley Crue their self-titled 1994 album. But, when Neil later returned, the band pretended that Corabi never existed. After the reunion, Neil even said he’d never heard any of the recordings where Corabi was a part of. The band never performed the songs in their concerts and the album wasn’t included in their reissue series. Corabi told Rock Revolt in 2013: “I think deep down [Motley Crue] know that we made a great record together. Is it their best record? I’m not going to be the one to say that, but for that time period and time frame, I think we made something really special.”

6. Phil Rudd (AC/DC)
Phil Rudd was a member of AC/DC from 1975 to 1983, and then again beginning in 1994. However, in 2014, he was sentenced to eight months of home detention following his arrest for threatening to kill two people and possession of cannabis and methamphetamine. Now, fans won’t even find any mention of Rudd on the band’s official website even though he was the longest drummer of AC/DC.

7. Don Felder (Eagles)
Don Felder was fired from the Eagles in 2001 after questioning his financial stake and compensation. He went on to file a lawsuit against Don Henley and Glenn Frey and ever since then, their relationship was permanently torn. Felder wasn’t invited to be a part of the lengthy History of the Eagles tour that started in 2013. Felder said in 2012: “The only time that I hear back from them is through their attorneys. That’s just the way it is.”

8. Jimmy Crespo (Aerosmith)
Jimmy Crespo stepped in when Joe Perry was out of Aerosmith. He was with the band from 1979 to 1984 and appeared on six of the 10 songs on 1982’s Top 40 album Rock in a Hard Place, including “3 Mile Smile” from 1979’s Night in the Ruts. However, drummer Joey Kramer disowned the album. Kramer said in 2009’s Hit Hard: A Story of Hitting Rock Bottom at the Top: “There’s some real good stuff on it. But it’s not a real Aerosmith record, because it’s just me, Steven [Tyler] and Tom [Hamilton] – with a fill-in guitar player.” But despite these comments, Crespo took part in Kramer’s side project Renegade, prior having back the classic-era lineup of Aerosmith.

9. Geoff Nicholls (Black Sabbath)
Geoff Nicholls appeared on every Black Sabbath album between 1980’s Heaven and Hell and 1995’s Forbidden. He was also a regular member of their touring band, as heard on 2007’s Live at the Hammersmith Odeon. Outside the band, Tony Iommi produced Nicholls’ band Quartz’s self-titled debut. Later, Nicholls also toured with former Sabbath singer Tony Martin’s band Headless Cross. However, fans have little knowledge about him since the band made Nicholls perform backstage, assuming that having a keyboard player didn’t seem “metal” enough. Bill Ward said following Nicholls’ 2017 cancer death: “To me, he was a great musician, because he never stepped out. He always respected the privacy of wherever we were in our thinking and in our balance. And that’s what makes a good musician — when you can see where the other guy is, and you can make room for them.”

10. Peter Criss (Kiss)
Peter Criss quit the band twice, but he officially left Kiss in 1980 and retired from touring in 2017. Criss co-wrote and sang the 1976 No. 7 smash “Beth,” Kiss’ highest-charting Billboard single, the first of two Top 10 singles (along with the 1990’s No. 8 hit “Forever”), and one of only two gold-selling songs in their catalog (preceding 1979’s “I Was Made for Lovin’ You”). But following his departure, the band re-record the song with Criss’ replacement Eric Carr and made him wear Criss’ signature Catman makeup. After the remake appeared on 1988’s Smashes, Thrashes and Hits, Criss fired back and told Kerrang: “It’s really ridiculous; it’s sad. [Kiss] didn’t tell me they were gonna redo ‘Beth’ with Eric on vocals.”

11. Mitch Malloy (Van Halen)
Mitch Malloy had already started working on new music with the band before David Lee Roth famously joined Van Halen onstage during MTV’s Video Music Awards, which was his first appearance since leaving in 1985. Malloy felt like he had been stabbed in the back when he found out that he wasn’t going to take over for Sammy Hagar in Van Halen while watching MTV in the mid ’90s. Malloy said in the documentary Van Halen’s Lost Boy: “I was, like, ‘What?’ My jaw just dropped. When I saw Dave come out with them, that was it for me. It was over. This can’t work for me.”

12. Dave Mason (Fleetwood Mac)
Dave Mason was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a founding member of Traffic, but his mid-’90s tenure in Fleetwood Mac wasn’t so popular. He appeared only in one album, 1995’s Time, and Stevie Nicks was gone by then, while Lindsey Buckingham only contributed backing vocals for one song. It became the first Fleetwood Mac album that failed to chart in the U.S. since 1968. The band didn’t tour in support of the album and the songs weren’t performed. Co-founder Mick Fleetwood, blamed the absence of Nicks. He said in Fleetwood Mac on Fleetwood Mac: Interviews and Encounters: “We may as well not have made that album. In retrospect, it should have stopped.”

13. Bob Kulick (Kiss)
Bob Kulick ghost play for Kiss’ Ace Frehley and appeared on three tracks (“All American Man”, “Rockin’ in the U.S.A.” and “Larger Than Life”) from 1977’s Alive II. He was also the one who played on “Naked City” from 1980’s Unmasked, but he wasn’t credited for any of those. Kulick held onto his secret for many years. He told UCR in 2018:
“It was important to me that when they said ‘This has to be between us and us only,’ that I’m going to keep my word. It’s all about integrity, and that’s how I’m able to keep going.”

14. Dave Navarro (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
Dave Navarro was part of the band from 1993 to 1998 and appeared on one studio album, 1995’s One Hot Minute, which produced three singles on the way to a No. 4 ranking on the Billboard charts. Navarro told MTV in 1995: “I still love those guys to death, and being a Chili Pepper was one of the best experiences of my life.”

15. Jeff Scott Soto (Journey)
Jeff Scott Soto had a brief tenure with Journey from December 2006 to June 2007. He never entered the studio with the band. Soto said back then: “I was looking forward to a long, prosperous future with these guys but it seems they wanted something different than I brought to the table. I wish them all the best but now it’s time to continue working on my own path again.” Following Soto’s departure, Journey discovered Arnel Pineda on YouTube and officially became their lead singer.

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