Skid Row & Johnny Solinger voted the ‘Worst Band With A Replacement Singer” by 1,000 Metal Heads.

Johnny Solinger of Skid Row. Congrats, you’re the worst replacement singer according to 1,000 metal heads.

Skid Row & Johnny Solinger voted the ‘Worst Band With A Replacement Singer” by 1,000 Metal Heads.

Congratulations to Johnny Solinger and Skid Row for winning the “Worst Band With A Replacement Singer” poll.

Metal Sludge has brought back our awesome Sludge Poll and decided to let YOU the fans vote and decide on all kinds of stuff. Last week we asked you what album from 1983 you liked best. The overwhelming majority picked Motley Crue’s “Shout At The Devil” followed closely by Def Leppards “Pyromania.”

Well now it’s onto a Sludge topic that everyone  seems to be talking about in recent years. The replacement singer.

This first became a big deal when Van Halen and David Lee Roth went their separate ways back in the mid 80s. Then Sammy Hagar stepped in and it was a much debated topic for years. Many refused to call the band Van Halen and the group seemingly adopted Van Hagar as a secondary name overtime. But nonetheless, the music products and concert tours continued to be promoted as Van Halen.  Soon Motley Crue followed with a replacement singer of their own (John Corabi) and eventually Ratt (Jizzy Pearl) and L.A. Guns who have had several.

So with that said, we decided to ask 1,000 metal heads. What current band has the worst replacement singer.

Now to be fair. It’s clear that some of these ‘replacement’ singers can sing their ass off. That’s really not the heart of the question though. It’s more of a poll for the fan  favorites. Or least favorites. Die hard fans of these bands speak the truth about what they like, or don’t like. And for the record, many of these singers noted do a great job. But in reality, the fans are voting for who they think has the biggest shoes to fill, and just might not be filling them the way the fan expects. Or maybe the fan just doesn’t think that the ‘named’ singer should be in the ‘named’ band.

Also we must add that some of these bands have been left no other option than to add a new voice to the band as a few guys have left us. We send respect to our fallen comrades Kevin DuBrow of Quiet Riot, Jani Lane of Warrant and Dave Williams of Drowning Pool.

Okay, enough Sludge babble. Here are the poll results and it looks like this.

1st place Johnny Solinger & Skid Row got 27.1% of the votes!
2nd place isn’t a singer. Our poll had an 11th option that simply said “All of them Suck” which got a lot of votes too. 26.8% to be exact.
3rd place Terry Ilous & Great White with 10.4% of the votes.
4th place Chester Bennington & Stone Temple Pilots with 9.2%
5th place Scott Vokoun & Quiet Riot with 8.1%
6th place Robert Mason & Warrant with 6.6%
7th place Jasen Moreno & Drowning Pool with 3.5%
8th place Arnel Pineda & Journey with 3.4%
9th place Todd La Torre & Queensryche with 2.4%
10th place Bobby Amaru & Saliva with 1.8%
11th place Kelly Hansen & Foreigner who got less than 1 % with a .07% of the votes.

Let’s review.

Kelly Hansen kicks ass in Foreigner.
Journey is still doing huge business even with a karaoke singer from the Philippines.
Drowing Pool are Texas style L.A. Guns and have had multiple singers.
Queensryche & La Torre are getting some love. People seem to dig the guy & Geoff’s throwing fans iPhones into the air doesn’t  help his case.
Saliva. Really? Josey Scott was the band.
RIP to Kevin DuBrow and respect to Frankie for carrying on the flag.
Robert Mason is a pro and fills Jani Lane’s shoes well. Good for the Down Boys.
Chester is a millionaire and this is a fun side project for now.
Jack is back. But not in Great White. Terry is a stand up guy, but the die hard fans really miss Jack Russell in Great White.
Lastly, Johnny Solinger is without a doubt the best guy for this job. And he does it well. Is he at Bach’s level? No he’s not. But to be fair, Sebastian Bach is no longer at Sebastian Bach’s level either. The goofy on 10 personality that lit up the stage at 19 years of age is still there. But to a percentage of the fan base – that annoying cocky 19 year old attitude don’t work as well at 45. Sebastian has an ability to entertain that you just can’t teach but he is also hit or miss on his performance. He’s either on like a mothertrucker, or a way out of key moody bitch. All in all, a great frontman but if Solinger has 1 thing on Bach, it’s his ability to sing in key. Johnny Solinger can sing those Skid Row songs in key – better than Sebastian Bach can. So even though Solinger gets voted the “worst” by the fans, we’ll still back him that he can sing his ass off. And in key.

See the official Metal Sludge poll results below.

Metal Sludge
Worst Sludge