I read an interview with Timothy B. Schmit of the Eagles & took exception to a few things he said. There’s nothing wrong with the Eagles continuing without Glenn, despite what he & possibly the rest of the group think. I believe that they may have used it as an excuse to retire without the fan base getting pissed, and they may have used it to get out of contracts, and they may have used it as a social scheme because that’s just the thing you’re supposed to say, that you can’t go on without someone, and considering that these guys are pushing 70, it’s possible they’d had enough, but obviously that was bullsh*t as they got back together with Glenn’s son Deacon & added Vince Gill, and the fans & myself love it.

The comment Timothy made about the illegitimacy of some bands having few or no original members is short-sighted as well. If you have a band that’s using the name officially and has NO original members, that’s OK as long as there’s not a competing group that would be more faithful to the original lineup that should have the legitimate rights to the name. Case in point for the good part of this is Foreigner, which at this point has NO original members since Mick Jones has been sidelined due to his health, but they sound great & the singer sounds just like Lou Gramm & I believe it’s as good or better than the original talent-wise. Blood, Sweat & Tears has no original members left, and Bo Bice has been fronting them & doing a killer job. Boston is another act that has only Tom Scholz in the line-up anymore & they’re great. The Who is just Daltrey & Townshend, and realistically, that’s all you need to recreate the sound, though hardcore Who fans will lament that statement. Styx technically only has 1 original member in James “JY” Young, but Tommy Shaw has been with them since they started getting uber-popular in 1975 & has written & sang many of their hits. Most of the old 50’s & 60’s & even 70’s R&B & Rock/Pop groups have 1 or 2 at the most & sometimes NO original members left (or alive for that matter), but they all operate under the official band banner & with many of them, there’s no competition for them from other acts comprised of other original members or by someone claiming to own the band name. In those cases, it’s great to have at least somebody playing the music & keeping it alive.

But then you have some situations where someone legally owns the band name & it’s not seen as legitimate, but the more-legitimate group has to use a different name & they are the ones who people go to see, not the band with the official name . . .

CCR is now actually Creedence Clearwater REVISITED (not “Revival” anymore), and it doesn’t have John Fogerty, so who cares, especially since you can go see John Fogerty & you’ll have a better show.

Little River Band now has no original members and just 1 guy from 1 album who played guitar, but you can see “BSG” on YouTube (were together from 2002-07), which is the original 3 guys who did all the vocals — Beeb Birtles, Glenn Shorrock & Graham Goble, and it’s infinitely better.

The Guess Who is just the bassist only, who wrote much of nothing & sang nothing, but why see them if you can see Randy Bachman & Burt Cummings instead.

The Byrds & Foghat both had 2 touring & competing groups at one time or another, and Great White has the “official” band with a different singer, or you can see the original singer Jack Russell with his own band or maybe some of his namesake dogs (LOL) — just make sure you know where the emergency exits are if you go to one of their shows — surely they’re not still using pyro?

Speaking of competing groups, we have the unique (and fantastic) situation of having 2 YES bands as of 2019 — one that has Steve Howe, Alan White & usually Jeff Downes (if not Oliver Wakeman, Rick’s son, or maybe Tony Kaye) and had Chris Squire, which was the only YES until he died, and a 2nd one called YES Featuring ARW, which is Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin & Rick Wakeman.  I enjoy them both, but the ARW lineup is more to my liking.

“The Orchestra” was formerly ELO 2 until the drummer quit & sold his rights to the ELO name to Jeff Lynne, but for a time (at least while Kelly Groucutt was alive), they were a way-better alternative to the crummy band Lynne put together for his Zoom tour that went nowhere, although Jeff finally recruited a good stage band as of 2019. Now with Groucutt dead & the replacements they’ve gotten lately, The Orchestra is not nearly as good as it was & with just the violinist & orchestra leader left, The Orchestra is just a cover band in my opinion.

Foreigner is also just an official tribute act as long as Mick Jones owns the name, but I’m sure they’ll be sidelined for at least a little while is Mick gets back together with the original lineup as rumored from time to time.  He’d be better off to bring in Lou Gramm to sing a few with the existing tribute band as a guest & keep the current singer.  That’s what Styx does with the original bassist, but they actually do something original and use 2 bassists on stage together when he sits in.

Heck, Glenn Miller’s band continued without him after he died & they’re still playing gigs some 70+ years later. Surely there’s no original members there, eh? I believe it’s quite possible that we’ll see a number of Classic Rock bands touring with no original members just like Foreigner. It’s not that unusual as a number of 50’s & 60’s acts are doing that right now — they’re simply groups who have licensed the use of the name to make a buck & give the people what they want – a faithful rendition of the music they like. And I’ll gladly pay to see the music I like performed live by anybody who’ll do it right. Speaking of which . . .

There’s a group based in Birmingham, AL called Black Jacket Symphony that has a somewhat revolving door of hired musicians who are selected for each show based upon the talent needed, and they do entire shows dedicated to 1 artist’s music. The first set is a note-for-note recreation of a classic album by the group, which is the name of the performance (e.g., Black Jacket Symphony presents “Dark Side Of The Moon”) and it’s played in the exact order as the original album, then they introduce the band, take a break, sell tickets to the next show in the lobby, then come back and do a greatest hits set of the same band. They don’t try to look like the original acts — they all dress in a black t-shirt with black slacks & a black jacket (hence the name) and some of the singers they get do spot-on perfect impressions of the original singers. One in particular was a performance of Queen’s “Night At The Opera” in which they enlisted Marc Martel to sing the parts, and not only did he nail the voice of Freddie Mercury, he even looks like Freddie’s twin brother and he also plays guitar & piano at times — really freaky & incredible good to say the least. There are plenty of tribute acts there who have a singer who looks & sound like the original — for that matter, Boston got a guy who worked at a Home Depot in North Carolina named Tommy DeCarlo who sounds & looks just like Brad Delp, the original Boston singer. There are guys who look and sound like Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Steve Perry, Elvis (thousands of those), the Beatles (go see the Fab Four & you’ll walk away thinking you just saw the original Beatles as they look, talk, play & sound just like them), you name it.

The fact is that some of these Classic Rock acts & some of these so-called “tribute” acts that use the name legally that parade as a legitimate continuation of the original are actually very good & some are very lame.  The public is mostly ignorant to what’s good or bad, so as long as they want to hear the music, they will all continue making money.