How often does this happen? The only example I could think of would be Daniel Corchado's short time in Incantation circa Diabolical Conquest. Sure Corchado's first band Cenotaph were influenced by Incantation themselves during their death metal years.

Ripper fronting Judas Priest is probably the most famous example.

Jarvis Leatherby in Cirith Ungol - he was a fan who helped revive the band and steer them back to making music in the modern industry, and is now their bassist.

Blaze Bayley in Iron Maiden

Christian Linderson in Saint Vitus. He proclaimed being the biggest Vitus fan in Sweden at that time.

Probably Tommy Karevik fits here as well. I do not know that, but the style of Seventh Wonder is kinda similar.

Niklas Kvarforth briefly fronted Bethlehem, he had been inspired by the band's early albums very much. He recorded vocals for the album "A Sacrificial Offering to the Kingdom of Heaven in a Cracked Dog's Ear" and the mini-album "Stönkfitzchen".

At the time of being in their lineup he stated in the interview, that it was strange to front his idols. Later he left Bethlehem and all other projects, he had participated in, except Skitliv, in order to concentrate on Shining.

Andy Sneap had a very close relationship with Dave Halliday from Hell and cites the band as a big influence on him. Dave dies while Andy makes music in his own band, Sabbat, and he no doubt must've been devastated. Years later when Hell revived, Sneap was right there to join them as their guitarist, writer, and producer. Not the vocalist, but still a very important place within the band.

Martin Lacroix was apparently a big Cryptopsy fan before he took over vocals. Too bad he never appeared on a studio album, he sounded great on None So Live and you can definitely hear some Worm in his performance.

Not metal, but I love that the current lead signer of Journey was found by the band, on youtube, playing Journey covers. He already had a music career in The Philippines and Hong Kong, but still, quite a step up.

Robert Lowe and Candlemass. Michael Sweet and Boston. Probably this happens a lot in hard rock and AOR. Journey? Didn't they hire basically a Steve Perry clone?

edit: beaten haha

Joseph Michael's influence from Warrel Dane was pretty transparent when listening to Witherfall, so it only made sense when he was announced as the new singer for Sanctuary.

Alyssa Gluz Whit counts too, doesn't it?

Not a frontman, but Chewy from Voivod is a good example of this, especially considering how integral Piggy was to their sound.

Tommy Karevik in Kamelot. They were a big influence on him before and Seventh Wonder and Kamelot were pretty open about admiring each other's music before Khan left Kamelot.

A non-metal example: Tommy DeCarlo grew up a fan of Boston, and he posted audio of him singing Boston songs to MySpace in the mid-2000s. When Brad Delp died in 2007, he sent the MySpace recordings to Boston's management, and he was asked shortly afterwards by Tom Scholz to sing at the band's memorial concert for Delp. They then hired DeCarlo as Delp's replacement, and he's been the lead singer of Boston ever since.

Not singers, but both Jason Newsted and Rob Trujillo are good examples.

Not sure if a gig was ever played, but Corey Taylor is a huge Anthrax fan, and was certainly rehearsing and writing music with the band at one point.

Rich Walker of Solstice fame played with Pagan Altar about a decade ago. He was a fan of the group going back to the early 80's.

Does Lars Ulrich recording drums on an old Mercyful Fate demo count?

Nibbs Carter's favourite band was Saxon, and he joined the group in 1988. He's been there ever since.

Scott Travis was a huge Judas Priest fan before joining in 1990.

Andreas Neuderth in just about every fucking band he's been in since about 2007, since he formed Roxxcalibur, including Savage Grace, Griffin, Jamison Raid and Manilla Road.

Magic Circle's singer Brendan Radigan was surely inspired by Pagan Altar. The band definitely has taken influence from Pagan Altar, and after the passing of Terry Jones, folks probably thought Pagan Altar would fold. They didn't and recruited Brendan Radigan to sing for them! At least live, I'm not sure if he's considered a full fledged member, since M-A just lists him as a live member.

Lee Altus, while not fronting Exodus, has said Exodus was his favorite band prior to joining them, and said he had been waiting for 20 years to get the call to join.

i think this is pretty unavoidable for big old classic bands - like when frank mullen stepped aside, who is suffocation gonna get to front them that hasn't been influenced by them?

Yngwie Malmsteen was a huge Yngwie Malmsteen fan before he fired every singer he ever had and decided to do it on his own. He finally got to front his favourite band. Good for YJM.

Order from Norway may be a special case that should be mentioned here despite the differing circumstances.

Not fronting, but watching Ben Ash playing alongside Bill Steer in Carcass after seeing videos from him that praise and analyze Steer's playing style was a good feeling! Wonderful live show too!

Rather like Tobi Sammet in that regard ?

Todd La Torre in both Queensryche and Crimson Glory.... guy's seemingly found a niche in doing it too.

Oh so true. Please just hire a singer and second guitar player Yngwie. Your albums suck now.

Joacim Cans from Hammerfall cited Warlord as a big influence, and he briefly fronted them sometime in the 2000s.

ZP Theart of Dagonforce is the current lead singer of Skid Row. I guess I don't know if ZP wasn't particularly inspired by Skid Row in his career to date, but he's in his 40's so he's in the right age range to have been listening to Skid Row in their heyday.

I really wish this guy was fronting a band like that at their musical prime; he's so much better than what he's doing now, although the last QR album wasn't bad at all.

Singwie Malmsteen.

Amazing post, sigged.

Thank you, friend!

Tomi Joutsen, now with Amorphis, used to be a huge fan

Dude.... When I first saw that post by Alan Jones that they were no longer going to go by the name The Time Lord and go back to Pagan Altar, and continue to play.... I was utterly disgusted. Considering Terry was Alan's dad, and the fact that Alan initially felt it would be best with just one last show as tribute then lay it to rest, then all of a sudden change his mind, with the band and himself finally getting some due after all these years.... left me with a really bad taste in my mouth. I never wanted anything to do with this Terry-less Pagan Altar.

And then in 2019 they announce they are playing their first and very most likely last ever dates in the United States (my home country). Never ever thought I'd see them play here. Two dates: New York and L.A. I live a mere few hours away from L.A. And I had plenty of vacation time to burn. So I FINALLY looked up Pagan Altar with Brendan Radigan on youtube.... He sounded quite good, and quite close to Terry, which really shocked me. So I said, fuck it, I'll buy a ticket. And I go.

It was in the top 3 concerts I've ever been to in my life. By fucking FAR the very best concert I've been to that wasn't a huge name (the other top 3 are Black Sabbath and Metallica). Brendan sounded awesome and a dead fucking ringer for Terry. The band was awesome. The acoustics were awesome. The setlist was awesome. They played every song I wanted to hear and some I didn't really appreciate before then only hearing the studio versions, but enjoyed the hell out of at the show. Alan Jones hang out after the show, I bought a Temple of Mystery Records remastered CD copy of Lords of Hypocrisy at the merch table just so I had something for him to sign, and sign it he did (otherwise I would've been happy with my old copy... which I believe is the Oracle Records original).

ONE complaint.... ONE single complaint... when I first listened to The Room of Shadows, in the title track when Terry sings "and turn his legs to stone" and Alan comes in with that solo..... that was fucking MAGICAL for me.... Definitely best part of the album and maybe even my favorite snippet of any Pagan Altar song. I was so happy when they played that song, and was heavily anticipating Brendan singing "stone" the way I so love Terry singing it on the record.... instead he sang it in a completely different tone and I was taken aback in negative way. But that was the one single blight on an otherwise magical concert that any time prior to me looking up their current lineup on youtube, if you said I was going to see a Terry Jones-less Pagan altar live and it would be a magical experience for me I would've laughed in your fucking face.... But that's exactly what I did and what it was.


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Anyway, to the topic at hand.... The only possiblities I can come up with are it being plausible they were influenced by the bands they would join, but also plausible they were not so much influenced by them. Like all the post 70s singers in Black Sabbath, including Rob Halford (who briefly sang for them live when Dio abruptly left around 1992-1993). It's definitely easier to believe that some those singers were influenced by Sabbath as a whole rather than by Ozzy, but you never know....

The only other possibility I can come up with is Wino joining Saint Vitus. I know The Obsessed was around before he joined Saint Vitus, but I remember the tracks on that 80s EP being a lot more Motorheadish than doomy.

Mark ´´Barney´´ said he was a huge fan of Napalm Death before enter

I was gonna mention this. I'm pretty sure Skid Row is ZP's favorite 80s band too, so he really is living a dream right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p72nJkbX88k

They're the first ones he names on his top 5 80s bands here.

what about the manowar guy who joined after logan got booted? didn't he play in some sort of manowar tribute band before that?

It is a pretty inspiring story: kid from bumfuck nowhere rural South Africa dreams of something more than being a farmer for the rest of his life, moves to the UK in pursuit of stardom, hits it big with an emerging band but eventually wants something different, and winds up joining one of his biggest inspirations that helped motivate him to get out of South Africa in the first place.

Newsted is probably one of the most notorious cases. The guy went to his audition with the mindset of getting the gig no matter what and he was easily the most enthusiastic guy on stage since he joined. He went to not having kids to be fully committed to Metallica.

Non-metal example, but Zak Starkey, Ringo Starr's son, grew up idolizing The Who, and his father was so close with that band that Keith Moon was Zak's godfather. As it is, Zak grew up to be a drummer, first learning on a kit Keith Moon gave him as a child, and he ended up becoming The Who's drummer in the mid-90s, where he has shown himself to be Moon's natural successor ever since.