Original Front Men of Rock Trivia Quiz

Answer: Anders Colsefni

Anders Colsefni was on vocal duties for the first Slipknot release, "Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat." (1996). Although this was a full length album, it is now considered to be demo by the band and the majority of the tracks have since been re-recorded and released on future Slipknot albums.
Following his parting with Slipknot, Colsefni went on to form bands such as Painface and On A Pale Horse, while Slipknot appointed Corey Taylor as vocalist.
Taylor was vocalist with Stone Sour prior to joining Slipknot and has continued to work with the band, releasing their debut album, "Stone Sour" in 2002.

Answer: Dave Evans

AC/DC were formed in Sydney in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. The rest of the band was Larry Van Kriedt on bass, drummer Colin Burgess and Dave Evans on vocals.
Evans didn't get to record an album with the band, but did sing on their debut single, "Can I Sit Next to You, Girl" (1974) before being released and replaced by Bon Scott in 1974.
Evans went on to join the band Rabbit and had minor chart success in Australia with "Wildfire" and "Too Much Rock n Roll" (both 1976) while AC/DC with Scott on vocals would go from strength to strength with albums such as "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" (1976) and "Highway to Hell" (1979).

Answer: John Spence

No Doubt formed in 1986 and the earliest incarnation of the band featured founder member John Spence on lead vocals with Gwen Stefani on backing vocals.
Spence committed suicide in 1987 and although No Doubt initially disbanded, they reformed after a brief hiatus with trumpet player Alan Meade taking over vocal duties. Meade left the band soon after though and backing vocalist Stefani moved into the spotlight as lead vocalist.
The band gigged hard and eventually secured a record deal, releasing their debut album, "No Doubt" in 1992 and going on to have a massive worldwide hit in 1996 with "Don't Speak".

Answer: Chuck Mosley

Faith No More were originally known as Faith. No Man. and as such had vocalists Mike Morris and Courtney Love. They changed their name in 1985 though and their first album as Faith No More, "We Care A Lot" (1985) saw Mosley on lead vocals.
Mosley would continue as vocalist for the band's follow up album, "Introduce Yourself" (1987) which included re-recorded tracks from the first album and gave the band chart success as the single, "We Care A Lot" (1987) charted in New Zealand and UK.
Mosley frequently clashed with his band mates and was dismissed in 1988, being replaced by the vocalist from Mr. Bungle, Mike Patton, with whom Faith No More released the best selling albums, "The Real Thing" (1989) and "Angel Dust" (1992) as well as the hugely successful singles "Epic" (1990) and "Easy" (1993).

Answer: Paul Day

Paul Day was the first Iron Maiden vocalist, being with the band from their formation in 1975 until the following year, when he was replaced by Dennis Wilcock who was with the band until 1978. Wilcock's replacement was Paul Di'Anno, who sang on their first two albums, and gave the band a taster of success as both hit the top 20 in UK as well as giving them four top 40 singles.

The band found their greatest success though when they fired Di'Anno and brought Samson vocalist, Bruce Dickinson a.k.a. the human air raid siren, on board. While Iron Maiden went on to be more successful than Day, he was the first member of the band to play the Monsters of Rock festival at Castle Donington, when his band More appeared there in 1981, a full seven years before Iron Maiden.

Answer: Rod Evans

The first three albums of Deep Purple's long career all featured Evans on vocals but when the band wanted to move more towards a hard rock sound, it was decided that Evans' voice wasn't suitable and he was replaced by Ian Gillan from Episode Six.
With Gillan, the band released four consecutive albums that charted in the top five in UK album chart, before he was replaced by David Coverdale.
Rod Evans went on to join Captain Beyond, made up of himself and former members of Iron Butterfly and the Johnny Winter Band, but although they released two albums, they never achieved mainstream success and Evans eventually retired from the music business.

Answer: Ronnie James Dio

Dio is sorely missed within the rock community and what a career the man had. He was vocalist for Black Sabbath, fronted his own band named Dio and co-organised Hear 'n' Aid, the rock world's version of Band Aid and USA for Africa.
It was fronting Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow though that led to his big break and with them he recorded three very successful albums before Blackmore decided to take the band in a more commercial direction, for which Dio's vocals weren't suited.
Dio was replaced by Graham Bonnet who was in turn replaced by Joe Lynn Turner and Blackmore's decision paid off as the albums "Down To Earth" (1979), "Difficult To Cure" (1981) and "Straight Between the Eyes" (1982) were all more successful than those from the Dio era.

Answer: Al Atkins

You just can't keep a good musician down and Al Atkins embodies that feeling. He was a founding member of Judas Priest back in 1969, but due to frustrations involved in not being able to secure a record deal coupled with having a young family to support, he quit the band in 1973.
This allowed Rob Halford to join, and the band went from strength to strength, their most successful period being the early 80s when they rode high on the crest of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal wave.
Having to get a 9 to 5 job didn't stop Atkins making music though and he released several solo albums in the 1990s as well as fronting the Atkins/May Project, releasing five albums between 2011 and 2020.

Answer: Greg Rolie

Greg Rolie cut his teeth as a member of Santana with whom he made four albums between 1969 and 1972. In 1973, Rolie, along with Santana guitarist Neil Schon, Prairie Prince from The Tubes and Ross Valory and George Tickner, both of Frumious Bandersnatch, formed a new band, eventually settling on the name Journey.
Despite attracting some success, the record company wanted the band to be more in the vein of bands such as Foreigner, so a new vocalist was hired in Robert Fleischman, with Rolie remaining as keyboard player and contributing backing vocals.
Fleischman didn't work out for the band, and in his place, Steve Perry was hired and the band went on to have hugely successful singles such as "Who's Crying Now" and "Don't Stop Believin'" (both 1981).
Rolie left Journey in 1980 and released several albums, both solo and with the Gregg Rolie Band, before getting the call from Carlos Santana to say he wanted to reform the classic Santana line up.
In 2016, the twenty-fourth album from Santana, but the fourth from the classic line up including Rolie was released, fittingly titled "Santana IV".

Answer: Syd Barrett

Barrett was a founding member of Pink Floyd and either wrote or co-wrote all tracks on their debut album, "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" (1967). During the recording of the band's second album, "A Saucerful of Secrets" (1968), Barrett became increasingly erratic with his drug use increasing and his mental health deteriorating, to such a point he was asked to leave the band.
David Gilmour was recruited to replace Barrett and the band grew increasingly successful, becoming one of the best known bands on the planet.
Barrett released two solo albums, "The Madcap Laughs" and "Barrett" (both 1970) but by 1972 had retired from the music industry, devoting his life instead to gardening in his hometown of Cambridge. He became a near recluse, but did have a steady income as the members of Pink Floyd ensured he continued to receive royalties from his work with the band up until his death from pancreatic cancer in 2006.