The unluckiest musicians ever

[sneakyblueberry]

Pete Best.

[Kotowboy]

Green Day's original drummer left the band right before they recorded Kerplunk! And Tre Cool Joined.

Oops !

That must be awful...

" Well guys I don't see this going anywhere... i'm going to University instead..."

Couple years later Dookie sells 10 million copies.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Clive Burr

[Kotowboy]

Dave Mustaine 

[millahh]

Buddy Holly.

... Too soon?

[TheCountOfNYC]

I always thought Derek Sherinian got a raw deal with Dream Theater. He joins the band after their original choice declined, gets to record an EP with them (a stellar one at that), then the studio doesn't allow them to record a new album for a year, finally let's them but with their influence, and the band has inner turmoil as a result. Then he gets kicked out when the band's first choice decides he wants to play with them this time, and they go on to release one of their most critically acclaimed albums with some stuff that he wrote on it. Jordan is my favorite keyboard player of all time and without him SDoIT, 8vm, and TCoT probably wouldn't have happened, but I wonder what they could have done had they stuck with Kevin past one album, especially considering the only other official release that he played on was freaking ACoS.

[KevShmev]

Patrick Moraz

He played in two of the biggest prog rock bands of the 70s - Yes and the Moody Blues - and basically got the shaft from both.

[TAC]

I always thought Derek Sherinian got a raw deal with Dream Theater. 

I felt that he was actually lucky to join DT. It really catapulted and legitimized his career.

[TAC]

Jason Becker

God bless him.

[MirrorMask]

I always thought Derek Sherinian got a raw deal with Dream Theater. He joins the band after their original choice declined, gets to record an EP with them (a stellar one at that), then the studio doesn't allow them to record a new album for a year, finally let's them but with their influence, and the band has inner turmoil as a result. Then he gets kicked out when the band's first choice decides he wants to play with them this time, and they go on to release one of their most critically acclaimed albums with some stuff that he wrote on it. Jordan is my favorite keyboard player of all time and without him SDoIT, 8vm, and TCoT probably wouldn't have happened, but I wonder what they could have done had they stuck with Kevin past one album, especially considering the only other official release that he played on was freaking ACoS.

I agree, he really arrived in the band in the wrong moment.

[bundy]

Clive Burr

Two names come instantly to mind for me. Burr is one.

Randy Rhoads is the other. His passing at such a young age was not due to lifestyle choices (as has been the case with many others) but was simply bad luck. We can only begin to wonder at what such a talented, good looking and charismatic performer would have achieved by now if he were still alive.    RIP

[Lowdz]

Jason Becker

God bless him.

Was coming here to post this(apart from the God bless bit - I think it's pretty poor to say such a thing when if there is a God he is to blame for it in the first place) and say you can lock the thread. I know you Americans  won't agree but proof that there is no god. Or there is a God and he was jealous of jason's talent?

[erwinrafael]

Jason Becker

God bless him.

You just made me sad.

I don't know if it's appropriate, but I think Criss Oliva would also qualify for the unlucky label. He pour his heart out on the Edge of Thorns record because of the pressure of carrying the load for Savatage after Jon Oliva took on a lighter role. Came out with the best guitar album of his career.  Finally produced a charting hit for Savatage. Then BAM, got killed in an accident. Savatage would then morph into TSO which achieved the mainstream success that Savatage deserved.

[Bertielee]

Jason Becker

God bless him.

So much this. Just imagine what a monster he would have been but for that effing ALS (he was already a monster, but you get what I mean)!
B.Lee

[ThatOneGuy2112]

Dave Mustaine 

Speaking of...

Ron McGovney

[Mladen]

Buddy Holly.

... Too soon?

I feel guilty for laughing my ass off. And so sorry I'm quoting it. 

Blaze Bayley get my vote. Now, he is successful, talented, intelligent, he sang in one of the world's biggest bands, some people love him, but damn, he's had his share of trouble.

[sneakyblueberry]

Jason Becker

God bless him.

Oh god, yeah. 

[wolfking]

Blaze Bayley get my vote. Now, he is successful, talented, intelligent, he sang in one of the world's biggest bands, some people love him, but damn, he's had his share of trouble.

Blaze was actually the first one I thought of too funnily enough, and then probably the unluckiest is definitely Jason Becker.  What a crime to humanity that that man got struck down with such a crippling disease.

[Elite]

How about Brian Jones?

[Architeuthis]

John Rutsey
 Even though he kind of followed his own path. He was more of a straight forward rock drummer, but liked to party and had diabetes.
 A blessing in disguise to the band, their "new" drummer is pretty darn good..

[SoundscapeMN]

Joey Eppard and 3: just see Coheed's success, yet they predated them and Coheed's drummer Josh Eppard used to be 3's drummer, lol. Also listen to the ending of I want to say their debut album Paint By Number, and a voicemail kind of illustrates their bad luck with record labels.

Also how Roadrunner signed them after Progressive Nation in 2008, and then went on to drop them before they even made a record under the contract they signed.

Members of King's X..playing at Woodstock'94 could have made them a household name, yet it didn't
Members of Galactic Cowboys..they were being looked at by the same Geffen label people at the same audition as Nirvana. Both got signed, and Cobain was even quoted as saying they were better singers. But they were on Geffen for 2 albums,  barely ever promoted, and then dropped.

[Adami]

John "Stumpy" Pepys
Eric "Stumpy Joe" Childs
Peter "James" Bond
Mick Shrimpton
Joe "Mama" Besser
Richard "Ric" Shrimpton
Sammy "Stumpy" Bateman
Scott "Skippy" Scuffleton
Chris "Poppa" Cadeau

[millahh]

John "Stumpy" Pepys
Eric "Stumpy Joe" Childs
Peter "James" Bond
Mick Shrimpton
Joe "Mama" Besser
Richard "Ric" Shrimpton
Sammy "Stumpy" Bateman
Scott "Skippy" Scuffleton
Chris "Poppa" Cadeau

Well-played.

[Phoenix87x]

Definitely Randy Rhoads

He was a god to me as a young guitar player and still is. That god damn plane...

[bl5150]

Definitely Randy Rhoads

He was a god to me as a young guitar player and still is. That god damn plane...

Ditto that/


I suppose Mark Stone - original bass player for Mammoth (later Van Halen) - could be considered pretty unlucky.

[SystematicThought]

I remember they interviewed Mark Stone in one of the Van Halen DVDs and he seemed okay with it. He didn't really want to be in a band, if I remember correctly. He's performed with the cover band, Fan Halen.

Concerning Buddy Holly, the one thing that always sticks with me is the autopsy report saying Lacerated Scrotum. I grew up hearing about that crash a lot because my uncle was a big Buddy fan

[bundy]

John Rutsey
 Even though he kind of followed his own path. He was more of a straight forward rock drummer, but liked to party and had diabetes.
 A blessing in disguise to the band, their "new" drummer is pretty darn good..

Don't know if Rutsey was unlucky, in that I cannot conceive of Rush achieving what they did musically and commercially if he had remained in the band rather than them recruiting the "new" guy.

A few others I would put in the same category (ie not unlucky, but rather, if they had remained in the lineup, the band would not have achieved what they did.)

Dianno being replaced by Dickinson.
Rod Evans makes way for Gillan (Deep Purple - the 3rd studio album is my favourite in the band's entire discography, but they would never have achieved what they did as a band if Evans had remained vocalist).
Kaye replaced by Wakeman (I cannot imagine Yes recording Fragile and CttE without Wakeman's input)
Peter Banks makes way for Steve Howe
Mayhew gets the chop from Genesis, who go on to replace him with Collins. 

[Architeuthis]

Good post bundy!  I guess the same could be said for DT,  after they got JLB they soared to new heights with Images and Words. Perfect voice for their music.

[Stadler]

Jason Becker

God bless him.

Was coming here to post this(apart from the God bless bit - I think it's pretty poor to say such a thing when if there is a God he is to blame for it in the first place) and say you can lock the thread. I know you Americans  won't agree but proof that there is no god. Or there is a God and he was jealous of jason's talent?

How do you know it's not a blessing? How do you know he's not being used as an inspiration for others to pursue their talent?  How do you know that there's not a bigger purpose?

Using that one event as proof of whether there is a God or not simply shows how little we as humans can see of the bigger picture. 

[Lowdz]

 :hefdaddyu

Jason Becker

God bless him.

Was coming here to post this(apart from the God bless bit - I think it's pretty poor to say such a thing when if there is a God he is to blame for it in the first place) and say you can lock the thread. I know you Americans  won't agree but proof that there is no god. Or there is a God and he was jealous of jason's talent?

How do you know it's not a blessing? How do you know he's not being used as an inspiration for others to pursue their talent?  How do you know that there's not a bigger purpose?

Using that one event as proof of whether there is a God or not simply shows how little we as humans can see of the bigger picture.

Show me even the slightest bit of proof for any of this and I'll consider it. But that's against the rules. And someone has to suffer for this? Your god is sick and twisted if that is the case. Jason inspired many without having this curse, and he's inspired many, including me, with his response to it, which might sound like it supports your idea. But that is a really sick idea and it amazes me that religious people can think that their god choosing to do something this awful to someone for the benefit o others is ok

[gmillerdrake]

I'd say James Labrie. I love James and DT isn't DT without him...he's a part of their sound. But that food poisoning that ruptured his chords from vomiting so severely was just horrid luck. He was in a no win situation with them set to tour for AWAKE and the Dr. telling him NOT to sing for an extended period of time. He did...doing it for the band (and I assume his livelihood) and it forever altered his voice...his instrument.

I've enjoyed and love every musical output from DT and James....even James side stuff.....but you have to wonder what would have been had he not gotten food poisoning as far as the strength of his voice.

[TheCountOfNYC]

:hefdaddyu

Jason Becker

God bless him.

Was coming here to post this(apart from the God bless bit - I think it's pretty poor to say such a thing when if there is a God he is to blame for it in the first place) and say you can lock the thread. I know you Americans  won't agree but proof that there is no god. Or there is a God and he was jealous of jason's talent?

How do you know it's not a blessing? How do you know he's not being used as an inspiration for others to pursue their talent?  How do you know that there's not a bigger purpose?

Using that one event as proof of whether there is a God or not simply shows how little we as humans can see of the bigger picture.

Show me even the slightest bit of proof for any of this and I'll consider it. But that's against the rules. And someone has to suffer for this? Your god is sick and twisted if that is the case. Jason inspired many without having this curse, and he's inspired many, including me, with his response to it, which might sound like it supports your idea. But that is a really sick idea and it amazes me that religious people can think that their god choosing to do something this awful to someone for the benefit o others is ok

[Adami]

I'd say James Labrie. I love James and DT isn't DT without him...he's a part of their sound. But that food poisoning that ruptured his chords from vomiting so severely was just horrid luck. He was in a no win situation with them set to tour for AWAKE and the Dr. telling him NOT to sing for an extended period of time. He did...doing it for the band (and I assume his livelihood) and it forever altered his voice...his instrument.

I've enjoyed and love every musical output from DT and James....even James side stuff.....but you have to wonder what would have been had he not gotten food poisoning as far as the strength of his voice.

Honestly, I think his whole vocal incident thing has been blown way out of proportion. Yes, it affected the few years since it happened, but he has himself admitted a long time ago that he completely recovered. It's not like he'd sound like he did on I&W. If the accident never happened, he'd most likely sound exactly like he does right now.

[pogoowner]

I'd say James Labrie. I love James and DT isn't DT without him...he's a part of their sound. But that food poisoning that ruptured his chords from vomiting so severely was just horrid luck. He was in a no win situation with them set to tour for AWAKE and the Dr. telling him NOT to sing for an extended period of time. He did...doing it for the band (and I assume his livelihood) and it forever altered his voice...his instrument.

I've enjoyed and love every musical output from DT and James....even James side stuff.....but you have to wonder what would have been had he not gotten food poisoning as far as the strength of his voice.

Honestly, I think his whole vocal incident thing has been blown way out of proportion. Yes, it affected the few years since it happened, but he has himself admitted a long time ago that he completely recovered. It's not like he'd sound like he did on I&W. If the accident never happened, he'd most likely sound exactly like he does right now.

Agreed, Adami. It's become this legendary event among many DT fans, but it's not like we're talking about Bo Jackson destroying his hip or something.

[Prog Snob]

I'd say James Labrie. I love James and DT isn't DT without him...he's a part of their sound. But that food poisoning that ruptured his chords from vomiting so severely was just horrid luck. He was in a no win situation with them set to tour for AWAKE and the Dr. telling him NOT to sing for an extended period of time. He did...doing it for the band (and I assume his livelihood) and it forever altered his voice...his instrument.

I've enjoyed and love every musical output from DT and James....even James side stuff.....but you have to wonder what would have been had he not gotten food poisoning as far as the strength of his voice.

Honestly, I think his whole vocal incident thing has been blown way out of proportion. Yes, it affected the few years since it happened, but he has himself admitted a long time ago that he completely recovered. It's not like he'd sound like he did on I&W. If the accident never happened, he'd most likely sound exactly like he does right now.

Agreed, Adami. It's become this legendary event among many DT fans, but it's not like we're talking about Bo Jackson destroying his hip or something.

By now I think he has healed as much as he is ever going to, but that is not to say it healed to the full capacity that it was before the incident. Sometimes things never go back to 100% regardless of how much time has passed. I'm not talking about his singing, but his actual vocal cord.