Bands With No Original Members Left In Them

According to The Philosophy Foundation, there's a metaphysical thought experiment called the Ship of Theseus that asks a simple question: If you slowly replace every piece of a ship over time so that nothing original remains, is it the same ship? If not, when exactly is the turning point? That might seem like some pretty out-there stuff to ponder, but it has a very practical application: Figuring out when a rock band is no longer the same band but something completely new. 

Successful rock groups tend to stick around for a long, long time — The Rolling Stones have been active for over 60 years — and that means they suffer a pretty high rate of attrition. Age, burnout, personality conflicts, and mortality all peel away members over time, but if there's money to be made, those members are usually replaced, and the outfit carries on. But when does a band stop being the same band and become something new? If a group has replaced every founding member over the years, is it still the same band, or has it become a very complicated tribute band? It's hard to believe anyone would consider a lineup without Keith Richards and Mick Jagger to be The Rolling Stones. With that in mind, here are some bands with no original members left in them.

Quiet Riot burned very brightly for a very short period of time, but the band has a surprisingly deep history. It was originally founded all the way back in 1973 by guitarist Randy Rhoads (who would go on to superstardom with Ozzy Osbourne) and bassist Kelly Garni. The original lineup also included Drew Forsyth on drums and Kevin DuBrow as lead singer. The group managed to make two albums but didn't work well together. Ultimate Classic Rock confirms that Garni once literally threatened to murder DuBrow, which explains why this iteration of the band broke up in 1979 after Rhoads departed to play with Osbourne.

Luckily for heavy metal fans, DuBrow reformed the band with drummer Frankie Banali, bassist Rudy Sarzo, and guitarist Carlos Cavazo, and he even got Rhoads' blessing to keep using the name. The result was "Metal Health," the group's biggest and best-known album. That means that as far back as 1982, DuBrow was the last original member. The band went through several more incarnations over the years, but after DuBrow died in 2007, the group working under the name Quiet Riot has only a thin connection to the original. Technically, bassist Chuck Wright is the oldest member, but he only played on two songs on "Metal Health."

Formed in 1968 by Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Peter Banks, Tony Kaye, and Bill Bruford, Yes is one of those bands that has had several different lineups. In fact, there have been around 20 musicians in Yes at some point during the group's history, and since the 2015 death of co-founder Squire, there are no original members in it at all. That doesn't mean the current band is completely divorced from the progressive rock legend that gave us songs like "Long Distance Runaround" or the more pop-oriented 1980s version of the group. Current member Steve Howe's involvement with the band dates back to 1970, and Alan White first joined the group in 1972.

One element of confusion with Yes is the fact that almost all of its best-known songs were sung by Jon Anderson, whose distinctly high-pitched voice and New Age-influenced lyrics helped define the band's sound. Anderson is still alive and active and was part of Yes Featuring Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, and Rick Wakeman, featuring two other former members of Yes, Rabin and Wakeman. They were legally prevented from using the name Yes but performed Yes songs in concert until their breakup in 2020.

When you think of Heart, you think of the Wilson sisters — Ann with the impossibly huge voice and Nancy with the shredding guitar licks in songs like "Barracuda." But neither Wilson sister is an original member of Heart, although they took over almost immediately after they joined. Heart's history actually goes back to 1967, when guitarist Roger Fisher and bassist Steve Fossen formed a band called the Army. Over the next few years, the group's name and lineup changed frequently, at one point becoming White Heart, then Hocus Pocus. In the early 1970s, Ann Wilson joined the band, and the name changed again — this time to Heart. Nancy joined shortly afterward.

By the time that classic 1970s lineup saw its big break come in 1975 with the release of "Dreamboat Annie" — which featured the hits "Magic Man" and "Crazy on You" — it was a very different band than the one Fisher and Fossen had founded. The group remained a force throughout the 1970s, but by the early 1980s, it had run out of steam. Fisher left in 1979, and Fossen departed in 1982, leaving no original members. The Wilsons set about reinventing Heart, transforming it into a 1980s hard rock outfit and releasing the ultimate comeback album, 1985's "Heart," without a single founding member's contribution.

Blood, Sweat and Tears was formed in 1967 with founding members Al Kooper, Jim Fielder, Fred Lipsius, Randy Brecker, Jerry Weiss, Dick Halligan, Steve Katz, and Bobby Colomby. You might think with that many founding members, some of them must have stuck around, but you'd be almost totally wrong. Led by Kooper, the band quickly got to work on recording songs that were definitely unusual for rock 'n' roll — simply having a full-on horns section set the group apart from the rest. The group released its first album, "Child is Father to the Man," in 1968 to moderate success. But the band fell apart almost immediately due to simmering tensions between the members — Kooper, Brecker, and Weiss left before work on the second album had even started. Since then, almost 200 people have officially been members of Blood, Sweat and Tears.

Over the course of those lineup changes and legal battles, all of the original members of the group exited and were replaced, then replaced again. The one thread holding everything together is Colomby, who still owns the band name and rights to the music. Technically, he isn't in Blood, Sweat and Tears anymore, though — he manages and produces, hiring musicians to fill out the band as needed.

Named in honor of rock n' roll legend Buddy Holly, The Hollies formed in England in 1962, the brainchild of Allan Clarke and the legendary Graham Nash. They eventually added Tony Hicks, Bobby Elliott, and Bernie Calvert to form the lineup that gave us classic hits like "Bus Stop." The group is arguably criminally underrated as a 1960s outfit — as author Peter Doggett points out in his book "Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young," the band was a huge success in England and probably second only to The Beatles in terms of hit songs and influence.

After years of success, Nash and Clarke began having creative differences, which came to a head when the band rejected Nash's song "Marrakesh Express" (considering that song is still a staple of classic rock radio, The Hollies might have some regrets about that). Nash left in 1968 to form a little band called Crosby, Stills and Nash. Clarke wanted a solo career and left the band in 1971, only to rejoin in 1973 when a song he'd co-written for The Hollies, "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress," became a huge international hit. In 1999, Clarke retired from music altogether. The band today is led by Hicks and Elliott, who are very, very close to being original members — but not quite.

The term "supergroup" has lost some of its luster in an age when every pop song has a few bars devoted to a superstar rap artist and vocalists routinely guest on each other's songs. But back in the 1960s, it was a novel idea when Small Faces guitarist Steve Marriott formed Humble Pie with bassist Greg Ridley of the band Spooky Tooth, Peter Frampton from The Herd, and teenage drumming phenomenon Jerry Shirley. Considered one of the first supergroups, the band had a string of hit songs, including the timeless classic "30 Days in the Hole."

Frampton left in 1971 and would eventually release one of the most successful live albums of all time. The band continued until 1975, Marriott and Shirley reformed it in 1979, and the project fell apart again in the early '80s. In 1989, Shirley secured the rights to the name Humble Pie and reformed the outfit. There was some hope that Marriott and Frampton might join again, but Marriott died tragically in a fire at his home in 1991, ending that dream. These days you can still go see Humble Pie in concert — but you won't see any original members in it. Drummer Shirley still owns the name, and he manages the band but doesn't tour with them.

You probably instantly recognize Canned Heat's most famous song, "Going Up the Country." It's a staple of classic rock playlists, movie soundtracks, and commercials — the sort of song that has become a foundational piece of the background noise of American life. The band was formed in 1965 by Alan Wilson and Bob Hite, who were huge fans of American blues music. From the very beginning, the group's lineup was in flux — the first musicians hired left within days. But appearances at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and the outfit's iconic performance at Woodstock in 1969 made its members superstars.

Sadly, Wilson died of a drug overdose in 1970. The band powered on with Hite until 1981, when he also died of a drug overdose in the darkest way possible. Hite — who had grown to be over 300 pounds and was nicknamed "The Bear" — regularly passed out due to his drug use. So when he collapsed after using heroin, the band just left him in the dressing room and did a gig without him. Then they put him in the back of their tour van and left him there, where he died the next morning. The band never broke up — it just keeps hiring new members and plugging on. It's currently anchored by drummer Adolfo "Fito" de la Parra, who has been in the band since 1967.

Judas Priest is a heavy metal legend, with songs like "Living After Midnight" and "The Ripper" regarded as classics of the genre. And the band is still going strong, though it has exactly zero original members. That shouldn't be a surprise, though — it hasn't had any original members for the vast majority of its existence.

The group was formed in 1969 by lead vocalist Al Atkins, bassist Brian "Bruno" Stapenhill, guitarist John Perry, and drummer John Partridge. Interestingly, Judas Priest was originally a blues-rock band with an entirely different sound. In fact, according to Neil Daniels' book "The Story Of Judas Priest: Defenders Of The Faith," guitarist K.K. Downing, who came to define the group's sound along with eventual lead singer Rob Halford, auditioned for the outfit — and was rejected by Atkins.

The collective broke up in the early 1970s, and Atkins joined a band called Freight featuring Downing on lead guitar, which took on the Judas Priest name. But by 1973, the only original member left was Atkins, and the group's lack of success convinced him to give up, so he quit. Halford joined, setting the stage for the band's most successful period as its sound evolved into harder rock. From that point on, not a single founding member has had anything to do with the outfit.

In the annals of one-hit wonders, there's a special place for Iron Butterfly. Founded in 1966 by Doug Ingle, Jack Pinney, Greg Willis, and Danny Weis, the band is famous for exactly one nearly endless song — the extremely 1960s, 17-plus-minute-long "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida." But that song is so iconic and instantly recognizable it's provided a living for the group since its release in 1968, with the eponymous album selling over 30 million copies.

And the people who have made their living off of that one song at some point over the last 50-plus years make a pretty long list. Iron Butterfly rivals Blood, Sweat and Tears for sheer number of people who have been in and out of it — more than 65 musicians have been official members over the years. The band started a revolving door of members almost immediately when the guitarist and bassist both left after the first album. The outfit broke up in 1971 but reformed in various incarnations over the years, as "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" racked up millions of sales.

In 1997, the band reformed with Ingle and Ron Bushy, who joined a few months after its founding. Ingle retired in 1999, leaving Bushy in charge of the group. Iron Butterfly is essentially a tribute band at this point, though Bushy almost counts as an original member.

Sometimes bands bring on musicians to fill in gaps, and the new player slowly takes over the band. That's what happened with one of the first Australian bands to crack the American market, The Little River Band. The group formed in 1975 as a bit of a supergroup in its native Australia, as founding members Beeb Birtles, Graham Davidge, Graeham Goble, Derek Pellicci, and Glenn Shorrock were all pretty established performers in their home country. The band enjoyed almost immediate success with its first album and ended the 1970s as one of the biggest-selling outfits around.

The 1980s weren't so kind, however. Wayne Nelson joined the group in 1980 as a new bassist and also sang on a couple of songs. In the years after, the band went through a prolonged period of mutation — Shorrock, Birtles, Goble, and Pellicci all left at some point, though some of them continued to shuffle in and out of the lineup until 1998, when all the original members had left more or less permanently. Wayne Nelson took over lead singing duties and pretty much runs the outfit today. The current lineup features musicians who only date back to 2004 at the earliest.

Unless you're into grindcore metal, you might not know much about Napalm Death, but within the heavy metal community, the band is legendary and influential. The group is also the record holder for the shortest song ever recorded, with the 1.316-second-long "You Suffer." The outfit has also been around for more than 40 years, having been founded in 1981, though none of the current members were there at the time.

The band was launched in 1981 by Nic Bullen and Miles Ratledge, who brought in guitarist Simon Oppenheimer. After a few years of lineup changes, demo recordings, and live shows, Bullen and Ratledge began to evolve in different musical directions, and the group split into two, with Bullen leading the official Napalm Death. Bullen's frustrations continued until he quit the band in 1986, just after recording a final demo that became side one of the outfit's first official album, "Scum," released in 1987. Napalm Death's lineup has been steady ever since — but the fact is this band's most well-known lineup only solidified after the original members were gone.

Blackfoot has had an extremely complicated history. Originally formed in 1969 with Rickey Medlocke, Greg T. Walker, Charlie Hargrett, and Jakson Spires, the group chose the name Blackfoot to honor the Native American heritage many of the members shared. But before the group could really gain any traction, Medlocke was asked to join Lynyrd Skynyrd and didn't hesitate for a second, so Blackfoot was put on hold for a few years.

Medlocke, Walker, Hargrett, and Spires reformed the group in 1974 and finally released its first album, "No Reservations," the following year. This kicked off a stable and successful period for the band, during which it released its signature songs "Highway Song" and "Train, Train," both of which were chart hits. Blackfoot's fortunes turned in the mid-1980s, and the band broke up in 1986. Medlocke continued on with 1987's "Rick Medlocke & Blackfoot," which tried for a more modern sound, and in the 1990s, he tried to mold the outfit toward a more hard rock approach with new members. Then, in 1996, Medlocke was once again invited to join Lynyrd Skynyrd and, again, left Blackfoot without a second thought.

Today, the other founding members of the band have moved on, while Spires died in 2005. Medlocke rebooted the group in 2012 — with himself as manager and producer and hired hands playing the instruments. Apparently, the other members are not happy with his decision. In 2021, Medlocke put together another lineup for the group to hit the road. It's essentially a totally different band, with a sound the founding members wouldn't recognize.

Formed in 1969 by childhood friends Brian Downey and Phil Lynott, Thin Lizzy had established itself as one of the most ferocious and successful rock bands in the world by the late 1970s. Downey and Lynott's twin-guitar sound peaked with the release of the 1976 album "Jailbreak," which contained the group's biggest and most-recognized hit, "The Boys Are Back in Town." But by the early 1980s, the outfit was struggling. Between the changing sound of pop music and Lynott's growing heroin addiction, the band simply couldn't survive, and it broke up in 1983. 

In 1986, Lynott died, and that seemed to be that for Thin Lizzy, but founding member Downey put together a new lineup in the mid-1990s. Eventually, in 2013, Downey himself left the band, leaving Thin Lizzy with zero original members, though guitarist Scott Gorham had joined the group in 1974 and played on its most famous and successful albums.

After Downey left the band, Gorham formed Black Star Riders as a way to create original music that was distinct from Thin Lizzy. Then, in 2021, he left that group to concentrate on Thin Lizzy. That means you'll likely see the band be more active on the touring scene, original members or not.

As former member Danielle Stampe put it to The Guardian, GWAR is best described as a sort of "punk-rock opera." Known for wearing outrageous latex costumes and adopting stage names like Oderus Urungus or Techno Destructo, non-fans have been wondering if they should take GWAR seriously as a band ever since its formation in 1984. But GWAR was always meant to be a form of performance art that melded heavy metal music with a parodic sense of the absurd — it's always been purposefully over the top.

Making things even more complex is the ever-changing lineup of the band, with more than three dozen performers having been part of GWAR at one time or another. All that turnover means it's not too surprising that there are no longer any original members in GWAR at all and haven't been since the 2014 death of Dave Brockie (the aforementioned Oderus Urungus). How much this matters, of course, is an open question. The members of GWAR are hidden behind ludicrous latex costumes and outrageous stage names, and they often cycle in and out of the band constantly — you might not even know who, exactly, is playing on stage if you catch a GWAR show. All that's guaranteed is that it won't be any of the original members.

Legendary rock group The Yardbirds led directly to several other seminal rock bands. Former members created Led Zeppelin, the Jeff Beck Group, Cream, and a group called Renaissance, which included former Yardbirds members Keith Relf and Jim McCarty. The original lineup included Relf's sister, Jane, keyboardist John Hawken, and bassist Louis Cennamo. Both Keith and Jane Relf were gone after recording two albums, so McCarty reformed the outfit with an entirely new lineup by 1971, including Annie Haslam as the new lead vocalist. Then McCarty himself left the band, and the lineup began to stabilize under the direction of manager Mile Copeland. By 1975, with the release of the classic album "Scheherazade and Other Stories," the band had established itself as a leading progressive rock group.

But the tumultuous early years of the band mean that the original lineup lasted just about two years, and the vast bulk of the outfit's material — including its most commercially successful work in the late 1970s — had nothing to do with any of the founding musicians. Even more complicated, the band did a farewell tour in 2024 with Haslam, but as of late 2025, she was collaborating with McCarty to launch a touring event called "The History of Renaissance." According to the website, it's "a conversation with Annie and Jim accompanied by a visual presentation that reflects the band's extraordinary history, followed by a performance by Renaissance, Annie and Jim of classic songs from both eras of the band." 

Molly Hatchet was never the biggest band in the world, but it was very influential in the genre of Southern rock. The group was pretty successful in its time, logging several million-selling albums, including 1979's "Flirtin' with Disaster," which hit No. 19 on the Billboard charts and has sold more than 2 million copies. If that makes you want to see Molly Hatchet in concert, you're in luck — the band is still on the road regularly, per its website. Except you won't be seeing a single original member on the stage, because the last living original member, Steve Holland, died in 2020. 

Holland actually left Molly Hatchet in 1984, but founding member Dave Hlubek was playing with the group when he died in 2017. This officially left the band with zero original members — vocalist Danny Joe Brown died in 2005, guitarist Duane Roland died in 2006, bassist Banner Thomas died in 2017, and drummer Bruce Crump died in 2015. That means there's no possibility of ever seeing Molly Hatchet in its true form ever again — the longest-serving member in the current lineup is guitarist Bobby Ingram, who joined the outfit in 1987.

Opeth may not be a household name, but it's had a significant impact on the metal subgenre of progressive metal. The band has its origins in death metal, with a vocal style spiced with "death growls." But the group's style has evolved to include intricate arrangements and a surprisingly wide variety of instrumentation that has been very successful too, with multiple albums landing in the Top 40 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), Opeth has also embraced a wide variety of band members. In fact, the outfit hasn't had an original member in it since 1992, just two years after the group was founded. At the band's 1990 inception, lead singer David Isberg invited Mikael Åkerfeldt to join the group as its new bassist — without telling the current bassist or any of the other members. A fight broke out, and every other member of the outfit left.

Isberg and Åkerfeldt forged ahead, but the next few years were tumultuous. The band added and lost multiple different members until 1992, when Isberg himself left, and Åkerfeldt took over singing duties. The group released its debut record in 1995 and has been going strong ever since, with Åkerfeldt as the only consistent member.

The Drifters initially formed almost 70 years ago, but it remains one of the most famous band's of the era. Even if you're not into 1950s doo-wop, you may very well know a bunch of the group's songs like "There Goes My Baby," "On Broadway," or "Under the Boardwalk." And you can still hear The Drifters perform those classics on stage, as long as you don't mind the fact that the band hasn't included original members since 1954.

Clyde McPhatter formed The Drifters in 1953 at the urging of the legendary Ahmet Ertegun, co-founder of Atlantic Records. After the original lineup recorded in 1953, they were swapped by another the same year, with McPhatter still sticking around. He ultimately left the group in late 1954, and things got super complicated because he sold his half of the outfit to his manager, George Treadwell. Treadwell recruited a band called The Five Crowns, led by the legendary Ben E. King, to become the new Drifters.

More lineup changes ensured — promotor Larry Marshak told The Washington Post that at least 20 different singers recorded songs for The Drifters in the band's heyday. By the early 21st century, as many as a dozen groups were touring simultaneously under the name, some with members from an official version of the band. But none had a truly "original" member, which would be impossible since the last remaining OG, Bill Pinkney, died in 2007.

There was a time when Foreigner dominated the music charts. In fact, it was an impressively long period: Between 1977 and 1990, the band logged 22 songs in the Top 100, with nine in the Top 10, and one No. 1 smash ("I Want to Know What Love Is" in 1984). The group also had six Top 10 albums, including "4," which hit No. 1 in 1981.

Then, in 1989, lead singer Lou Gramm left the band. Instead of breaking up, the outfit hired a new singer, Johnny Edwards, and released an album without Gramm. Although Gramm returned to the group in 1992, a precedent had been set. When Gramm left again in 2003, founder and lead guitarist Mick Jones hired another singer, Kelly Hansen, and soldiered on.

Fast forward to today, and Mick Jones is now the only original member still associated with Foreigner — though he no longer performs due to Parkinson's disease. Jones — who will be 81 years old in 2025 — had heart surgery in 2012 and has been an unreliable presence with the band ever since. In fact, when the group toured Israel in 2018, Jones was too ill to join, so the entire tour lacked original members. His last performance was during the outfit's initial "Historic Farewell Tour" in 2022.

Sepultura, the legendary Brazilian thrash metal band, has had an outsize influence on the genre. The group combined thrash and death metal with traditional tribal rhythms from its native country on classic albums like "Roots" and "Chaos A.D." to forge a sound that directly influenced what would become known as nu-metal. Not many bands have had that kind of impact.

In terms of original members, Sepultura is a bit of an edge case. The band was formed in 1984 by Max and Igor Cavalera, and the initial lineup included bassist Roberto "Gato" Raffan, who was quickly replaced by Paulo Júnior. Max left Sepultura in 1996 after a dispute involving his wife, who was also acting as the group's manager, and Igor left in 2006, technically leaving the outfit without any original members. With that said, Júnior has played on every single Sepultura release and has almost been present from the very beginning. And guitarist Andreas Kisser has been with the band since its second album and was a big part of its classic era in the 1990s. Max and Igor Cavalera now play together as the Cavalera Conspiracy, while the "official" Sepultura continues to record and tour.

Considering that the history of the Oak Ridge Boys dates back to 1943, it's not too surprising that no original members remain in the group. Gospel music legend Wally Fowler first founded a band called the George Clodhoppers before changing the name to the Oak Ridge Quartet. The outfit disbanded in the early 1950s, and Fowler sold the rights to the name in 1957. The band continued to perform, sometimes calling itself The Oak Ridge Boys — a name that became permanent in 1966.

The group concentrated on Southern gospel music throughout the 1960s, but by the 1970s, the band had crossed over into mainstream country music and scored its biggest hit with the song "Elvira" in 1981. While the Oak Ridge Boys continue to record albums and tour, the longest-serving member of the collective, William Lee Golden, only joined the outfit in 1965, when the band's history already stretched back more than 20 years. Duane Allen joined the next year, while Richard Sterban joined in 1972, and Joe Bonsall joined in 1973. While these four musicians make up what most people would think of as the iconic Oak Ridge Boys lineup, none of them were there in the beginning.

The Kingston Trio was a key group in the folk music revival movement of the 1960s, releasing a string of hit traditional songs culled largely from public domain sources, including "Tom Dooley" and "Here We Go Again." As music historian Dick Weissman notes in his book "A New History of American and Canadian Folk Music," the band's influence wasn't always viewed as a positive. In fact, many in the folk world regarded their slick, professional recordings, scripted banter, and apolitical approach to be a betrayal of the movement's true values. Weissman also notes that The Kingston Trio no longer has any original members in the group and never will — the three founding members (Bob Shane, Dave Guard, and Nick Reynolds) have all died. According to the band's official website, the current members of the band are Mike Marvin, Tim Gorelangton, and Buddy Woodward.

The band first broke up in 1967, setting off a decades-long series of new configurations, starting off when Bob Shane launched The New Kingston Trio in 1969. Shane later acquired the rights to the original name in 1976, allowing him to launch a new outfit called simply The Kingston Trio. Shane continued to perform with various other singers under the name until 2004, when he retired, but the group has continued to perform with an ever-growing list of singers.

Christian Death could have been a truly important band. The group's 1982 debut album, "Only Theatre of Pain," is regarded as a seminal heavy metal release and possibly the first album in the death-rock genre in America. The outfit was notable for its heavy, "post-apocalyptic" sound and its commitment to an anti-religion philosophy that was purposefully aggressive and confrontational. The New York Times describes the band as "the preeminent American Gothic rock act."

Formed by Rozz Williams in 1979, the band was unstable from the very beginning, going through several lineup changes until Williams was the last original member standing. He left the outfit in 1985, and the group continued without him, sparking a bitter feud not just between the musicians but also between different camps among the band's fanbase. Complicating matters even more, Williams then formed a new project — also called Christian Death — with his wife on vocals. He briefly reunited with his band in 1993 and attempted to forge a new musical direction before dying by suicide in 1998.

Lynyrd Skynyrd's tragic real-life story is familiar to fans of Southern rock, particularly the 1977 plane crash that claimed six lives, including frontman Ronnie Van Zandt, guitarist Steve Gaines, and his sister, backup vocalist Cassie Gaines. That tragedy effectively ended the band at the height of its popularity. That, however, was not the end. A decade later, Skynyrd reformed with the surviving members and some new additions, joined by Van Zandt's younger brother, Johnny Van Zandt, taking over the frontman duties. The group continued on for more than 35 years after that, with various members shuffling in and out until 2023, when founding guitarist Gary Rossington — the sole original member of the outfit by that point — died.

Rossington was replaced by guitarist Damon Johnson. Guitarist Rickey Medlocke, who rejoined the band in 1996 after a stint in the early '70s, was interviewed by WDHA FM in 2024 and defended the group's decision to continue under the Lynyrd Skynyrd moniker despite the absence of any founding members. "So when [his death] happened, Johnny [Van Zant] and I talked," Medlocke said, admitting it was not an easy decision (via Ultimate Guitar). But in the end, the response from fans convinced them to keep going. "The one deciding factor was the fans always said, 'Please don't let this be the end of it," he added. 

British prog-rock band Soft Machine was formed in 1966 by drummer-vocalist Robert Wyatt, bassist Kevin Ayers, guitarist Daevid Allen, and Mike Ratledge on organ. Allen exited in 1967, replaced by future Police guitarist Andy Summers. Summers was fired in 1968 by Ayers, who then quit himself, which ultimately resulted in Soft Machine disbanding. However, contractual obligations forced the group to reunite to record an album, with Wyatt and Ratledge recruiting the outfit's road manager, Hugh Hopper, to play bass. Wyatt then cut ties with the band in 1971, followed by Ratledge — at that point the sole original member — in 1976.

Yet the band has continued with various permutations of members since then. As of 2025, John Etheridge, who joined in 1975, was the longest-tenured member. "People talk about the lineup of Soft Machine Third [the iteration that recorded the group's 1970 breakthrough album, "Third"] being the classic band, but that had two non-original members on it," current band member Theo Travis pointed out in an interview with The Guardian.  

The way Travis sees it, he and the other members of Soft Machine version whatever are simply continuing the musical exploration that began six decades earlier. "Each chapter in Soft Machine's history is almost like a different band but with this thread going through it," he explained. "I personally like to keep it artistically ambitious and forward looking but, at the same time, respecting this amazing history."

First dubbing themselves The Domingoes in 1954, the quintet of Henry Fambrough, Billy Henderson, Pervis Jackson, Bobbie Smith, and Philippé Wynne went on to rename the band as The Spinners. Under that moniker, the vocal group churned out an extraordinary string of hits, including "The Rubberband Man," "I'll Be Around," and "Then Came You," the 1974 collab with Dionne Warwick that hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts. Wynn parted ways with the outfit in 1977, when his attempt to rename the band "Philippé Wynne and the Spinners" was met with resistance from the other members. He was replaced by John Edwards, and just a few years later, in 1984, 43-year-old Wynne suffered a fatal heart attack while performing in a nightclub. In 2004, Henderson was the next OG member to exit the band, fired after suing the group's business manager to see financial records. He died at age 67 in 2007. The following year, Jackson, known for the group's deep bass vocals, died at the age of 70.

After that, The Spinners continued on with new musicians joining Smith and Fambrough, the sole original members left. When Smith died at age 76 in 2013, The Spinners continued to tour with Fambrough as the only original member until he retired in 2023. He died the following year at age 85. As of late 2025, the outfit — consisting of Jessie Peck, Marvin Taylor, Ronnie Moss, and CJ Jefferson — continues to tour.

The Ventures is arguably one of the most prolific bands in music history, logging its first hit with 1960's "Walk, Don't Run" and recording over 250 albums worth of guitar-driven surf-rock instrumentals. Founding guitarists Don Wilson and Bob Bogle remained the two constants in the band as the lineup shifted over the years. When Bogle retired in 2005 and died four years later at age 75, Bob Spalding took over, sharing guitar duties with Wilson. 

Wilson continued to lead the band until his retirement in 2015. At this point Spalding took over as The Ventures' de facto leader, and his son, Ian, took over Wilson's guitar duties. The band was, essentially, The Ventures without any of The Ventures. Jack DeFranco, the band's former tour manager, conceded that the musicians had gained Wilson's permission to continue as The Ventures. But he also pointed out that Wilson's cognitive abilities had diminished significantly toward the end of his life (he died in 2022, aged 88). "I guess they're paying some royalty to use The Ventures' name, but again, it doesn't matter," he told ClassicBands.com circa 2020. "They're not The Ventures."

The Ventures stopped touring in 2023. As for the band's status, no official announcement appears to have been made, but a contributor to the SurfGuitar101 forum claimed that "a reliable source" revealed the band had broken up. The reason: The estates of Wilson and Bogle didn't renew the band's contract to perform as The Ventures when the band name and assets were sold to a music licensing firm. Take that with a grain of salt. 

The Four Freshmen formed in 1948, consisting of brothers Don and Ross Barbour, cousin Bob Flanigan, and pal Hal Kratzsch. The vocal quartet charted its first hit in 1952, "It's a Blue World," and over the years it released 50-plus albums and 70 singles, received six Grammy nominations, and became one of Beach Boys' visionary Brian Wilson's biggest influences.

In 1953, recently married Kratzsch was sick of touring, so he quit. He was replaced by Ken Errair, who exited the following year. Don Barbour was killed in a 1961 car crash, while Ross Barbour retired in 1977 and died in 2011, aged 82. Flanigan was the member to continue performing the longest, remaining a mainstay with the group until retiring in 1992. He died in 2011 at 84.

These days, The Four Freshmen is made up of Bob Ferreira, Jake Baldwin, Tommy Boynton, and Chris Peters, a new arrival who joined in 2025. As of November 2025, the group was in the midst of an ongoing tour of supper clubs, hotel lounges, and the like. "We've kind of equated it to being on a sports team," Ferreira told the Toledo Blade of continuing the Four Freshmen's legacy more than seven decades after the outfit formed. "The organization stays the same, but the players have changed over the years. People say, 'We saw the original group.' But the original group was no longer the original group in 1953 [when Kratzsch left]."

Founded in 1953, the Four Tops delivered numerous soul-tinged hits that remain radio staples, including "Reach Out (I'll Be There)," "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)," and "Baby I Need Your Loving." The band's original roster — Levi Stubbs, Abdul "Duke" Fakir, Renaldo "Obie" Benson, and Lawrence Payton — remained intact until Payton's death in 1997. For a time, the group continued as a three-piece called The Tops until Theo Peoples was brought in as the new fourth member. In 2000, a stroke forced Stubbs into retirement, and he died eight years later at age 72. Peoples took over Stubbs' lead vocals, and Ronnie McNeir joined to fill Peoples' position. Benson died of lung cancer in 2005 and was replaced by Payton's son, Roquel.

The outfit continued on, with Fakir left as the sole original member until retiring in 2023, just a few months before his death in 2024 at age 88. He was replaced by Michael Brock, who joined Payton, Peoples, and McNeir in what became a whole new band. As of late 2025, the Four Tops was in the midst of a tour that extended well into 2026.

The Grass Roots originated in 1965 — or, to be precise, was manufactured in a manner similar to that of The Monkees. Record producer Lou Adler created the outfit, tapping songwriting duo Steve Barri and P.F. Sloan to write and record a single, "Where Were You When I Needed You." With Sloan on vocals — and the help of Barri and studio musicians for the rest — the song became a hit, so Adler put together a band to go on the road sans Barri and Sloan. The group consisted of Rob Grill on lead vocals and bass, guitarists Warren Entner and future "The Office" star Creed Bratton, and drummer Rick Coonce.

"Where Were You When I Needed You" was rereleased with Bill Fulton's vocals, appearing on The Grass Roots' debut album of the same name. Barri and Sloan wrote just over half of the songs for a second album, 1967's "Let's Live For Today," while Bratton and Entner wrote the rest. The title track, an English rerecording of an Italian song, became a hit, but Sloan ended up leaving the band. In a later interview with Scram Magazine, he cited his disgust with how the record company allegedly treated and underpaid the musicians under him. The follow-up, 1968's "Feelings," was written by the band members and didn't do well, but Barri stuck around to produce another single, "Midnight Confessions," the group's highest-charting hit.  

The band began fraying after that. By 1974, Grill was the sole remaining member — albeit of the second incarnation — until exiting to focus on a solo career. In the early 1980s, he revived The Grass Roots (albeit without his original bandmates) and remained active in the group until his death in 2011 at age 67. The band continued on without him and remains a popular oldies act.

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