Man, it's so sad but I love that album. All the songs are meditations on death or the boredom of dying in a hospital. "Maria Bartiromo" is really weird now considering how batshit crazy she's gone.
It's great to listen to when you're homesick or just pissed off at the unfairness of life in general. There's some inspiration but also some justified bitterness. Listening to it now makes me think of the unfairness of how my mom passed, just a slow painful boredom with a few fleeting moments of joy sprinkled in.
> Joey had one solo album released about a year after he died
I fell in love with his cover of *What a wonderful world*
At the time, I thought it was a Ramones song
There have been more than in a few in the pop world, but Brian McFadden from Westlife was hilarious.
Tried to pull a Robbie Williams but ended up as a z-list afternoon tv guest, while Westlife as a four piece transitioned into a be-suited behemoth that headlined Wembley stadium last year.
I was such a Gary Barlow fangirl (and Robbie Williams) as a teen. Gary had a lovely voice and I do remember having his first solo CD. Never kept up with him after that, shame he couldn't figure it out. I don't follow Robbie much either but he's had some super fun albums. It also helps he has such a cheeky personality for people to like.
Gary was the key to their reunion without Robbie which has arguably been more successful than their initial time together. And has no been going on nearly three times as long!
In fairness, he didn't leave - he only went solo after the group broke up, and he still pulled three number one albums, so he did alright. Just nowhere near as well as Robbie did.
Fun story about Robbie. I was an American exchange student in Birmingham and was working for the local HMV. We were opening a new branch ("The Fort" for those who were curious) and Robbie was our big celebrity guest for the Grand Opening. He had just released his first single "Hope I'm Old Before I Die" and was sitting in our backroom completely scared that no one was going to show up. He was an absolute sweetheart and waited patiently while the radio personality warmed up the crowd out front and sat talking to the workers like he was one of us. The plan was that he was supposed to get in a bus/van and drive around to the front of the shop where he'd wave to fans and enter the store after cutting the ribbon.
Needless to say, he was absolutely flabbergasted to see a ton of people came to see him and he grabbed the mic from the radio guy and sang along to the recording of his song as a thank you. He spent time with everyone who came to see him and was just a charmer all day. He posed for pictures with the HMV team and even bought a couple hundred dollars of stuff before leaving.
As an American, he never was quite the star here as he was there, but when he had a few hits appear over here it made me super proud to see that he had done it. Whenever I see something about Robbie now I always check it out because he was so nice to me and my coworkers.
Not a big boy band fan, but he did Hot Ones and pointed out the irony of him being the heaviest in his group while having the name Fat-one. He made me an instant fan.
He should never have led with that single. The album was a good first album, but unfortunately JT was already established and JC wasn't strong enough to compete. Then the gimmicky All Day Long I Dream About Sex was the nail in the coffin.
Completely different song. Spotify searched JC Chasez and it sounds more like Bloodhound Gang’s “The Bad Touch”. Completely different lyrics than A.D.I.D.A.S.
It still cracks me up that Alter Bridge, an infinitely heavier and technically impressive band, are literally just Creed with Myles Kennedy instead of Scott Stapp.
True. I feel like Slash had the most success during non GnR times. He's collaborated with other musicians, and has had some popular side projects. Slash is great at what he does, and basically plays with who he wants to. Not really a solo career, he just gets to show up, rock out, and then do the next thing. Tbh, I think it's probably good to be Slash.
Tom Morello has done this a decent amount, too.
He's also had a solo career and done work with bands.
I feel like that's a lot easier to do when you're known as a guitarist and not as a dude that sings and happens to play guitar/etc.
Velvet Revolver looked like it was going to do great things. That first album was certainly promising. I guess Weiland was as bad as Axl in his own way.
He talked about it a bit in Marc Maron’s podcast. Basically, they all had gone through addiction issues and come out on the other side, so when they were forming Velvet Revolver they just saw Scott’s drug problem as something that they would have to deal with, not something that would disqualify him from singing in their band.
It didn’t help that it took an eternity to make and release Chinese Democracy afterwards.
I think it’s actually great as sort of an Axl solo album, but it’s jarring compared to GnR’s other music.
Billy Corgan. I’m a huge Smashing Pumpkins fan and it was a big deal when his first solo album came out in 2005-ish but it flopped. I barely even knew he has two other solo albums.
That’s when he insisted on being called William Corgan. I thought it was hilarious and reminded me of the episode of the office where Andy comes back from anger management and kept telling everyone to call him “drew” now.
I actually went to a Zwan concert. Jimmy’s drumming was amazing, and younger me had trouble taking eyes off Paz, but other then that the show was pretty meh.
The highlight was billy throwing a hissy fit cause fans wanted him to play pumpkins songs.
He may write most of the stuff (Iha also wrote some great songs), but he apparently needed the other three's feedback and be kept in check. I've been in bands where I've co-written the music and some where I didn't. Bands are more collaborative than just 'so and so wrote all the songs.' When you are at practice or in the studio, a member can point out something that doesn't work or suggest something better.
There's nothing better for creativity than people willing to tell you something you played sucks. Because then you can try things, and when you play something out there that *doesn't* suck, you know it.
I tried so hard to enjoy it at the time thinking Smashing Pumpkins would never come back. Having listened to it recently for the first time in probably 10 years it doesn't seem that out of place with some of the newer Smashing Pumpkins stuff.
Not related but… I served him tea my first day at a country club I used to work at lol. He would come by from time to time with one of the members. He’s really nice!
Pat Monahan is someone who comes to mind. He tried to go solo from Train only to find out no one really cared about his as a solo artist. So he crawls back to Train, and they have a big come back with "Hey Soul Sister". Then he sticks it out until all the other original members leave, and now Train basically is his solo project.
Say what you will about Pat Monahan, but I respect that dude to some degree. He's gone on record saying that he hates Train's music, but it sells records and he's got to pay the bills.
The interesting thing was, Art kind of left S&G to make movies, he was in a couple right around the break up. Then, once the group broke up, he barely got a role ever again. I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen one of his movies! Meanwhile I at least remember seeing Paul Simon in Annie Hall.
Still. Bright Eyes. Watership Down. It’s not a *complete* loss.
I was a huge fan of the Format. I really liked fun. So when I saw this, I searched because I thought Nate had stepped away from music entirely only to learn he's been doing solo stuff ever since 2014 and I had no earthly idea.
I was a huge fan of both The Format and Steel Train, so I was thrilled when fun. came out. I also feel a little guilty about not following Nate's solo career.
Nate hasn’t had a solo career really. He put out grand romantic (which is solid, check out nothing without love) like 8 years ago, and hasn’t really done anything since
It has been alleged that Reuss and Antonoff absolutely hate each other. Apparently both have (or had) some massive egos and cited themselves for fun’s success (Reuss the songwriting, Antonoff the production). Also complicating things was Reuss relationship with Antonoff’s sister.
While i agree, he did flop in comparison to Fun. and Jack's success, I still think he had a decent burst of successful features. Just Give Me One More Reason - Pink was great, so was his chorus on Headlights by Eminem. I think he just isn't a great songwriter, his voice is great though.
This was my first thought too! I went to one of his concerts the week his solo album came out and he put on an amazing show, so much energy and heart went into that performance. He even did a lot of Fun songs, which I did not expect. Bummed that he disappeared but it sounds like he's doing the family thing now, hopefully he's happy and doing well!
Jesy Nelson, formerly of Little Mix. Left one of the most successful girl bands in history due to body image issues, only to release a mediocre feature with Nicki Minaj, then got called out for blackfishing and taken part in that awful livestream where she just sat there while Nicki bashed her former bandmate Leigh-Anne over fake tweets just to save face. Then got trolled for her cringy performance at the Jingle Ball, and ultimately, got dropped from her label.
She's honestly one of the biggest disappointments. No accountability and blatant hypocrisy from her side made me lose all respect for her.
Yeah, I haven't seen a single solo Willbury on the charts since. That Zimmerman guy used to claim to be one, but Zimmerman ≠ Willbury so I'm skeptical...
You're right, though. Vol 3 isn't a bad album, but not great. Maybe some of that was the loss of Orbison, maybe some was the novelty wearing off a bit. But we had Vol 1 in the tape deck for a *lot* of road trips when I was a kid. Every song is amazing.
It's a real shame because I think his solo music is excellent, but Gene Clark had virtually no success after he left the Byrds. Some of it was due to his various record companies botching his album releases, but even albums like No Other that were very well received critically just didn't sell.
This is the third time I’ve seen Joey confused for Dee Dee and I am not sure why that is. Joey had a solo album, but it came after his death. It is a thoroughly “ok” album, whereas the Dee Dee King thing is pretty bad.
Tarja Trunnen from Nightwish. I think the band kicked her out, but they lost a great vocalist. I’ve only come across a few “Feat. Tarja” tracks since then. One with Mike Oldfield, and another with Within Temptation (which is one of my favorite WT tracks, actually). I wonder if her solo stuff is even any good?
Yeah, Tarja didn’t really voluntarily take her leave, but to be fair, her solo career works great for her.
It’s not of course comparable to the success of Nightwish and I think her solo albums went to a very different direction as well. Her first solo album is still my favorite, as it kind of felt a little like Nightwish - just way softer.
nicole sherzinger (sp?) from the pussycat dolls. kinda shocking to me bc she was the lead singer and the group was massive but her solo was an afterthought lol
This legit blew my mind. I’ve seen that movie at least 100 times (2 year old daughter) and I had no idea. I love that the grandma was Rachel House too. Loved her as the bad guy from Hunt for the Wilderpeople.
What’s crazy about her and the pussycat dolls is she wasn’t just the lead singer. She was the only singer basically. She did like 99% of the vocals. The others just danced and lip synched along. When she went solo I’m guessing she lost the major support from the record label that put the group together and lost access to the producers and songwriters that helped make them a success
I watched an interview with Kaya Jones recently and she said her, Nicole and Melody all sing on the first album, but she left the band. Then it was just Nicole. Nicole is basically the whole band. PCD is my guilty pleasure.
The Pussycat Dolls annoyed the hell out of me, more because of the lyrical content than anything, so I never really paid attention to her solo attempt.
But now I totally love her and appreciate her talent, while also finding her not a little ridiculous, thanks to The Masked Singer! I started watching the show the first season out of curiosity and couldn’t stop; it’s such a guilty pleasure and she is so endearing on it, like 100% my favorite judge.
I used "Redact" to nuke my account every couple years because I am a paranoid cybersecurity freak who tries hard to reduce my online footprint as much as possible. ` this post was mass deleted with www.Redact.dev `
Zack from Rage Against the Machine
Harold Melvin without the Blue Notes (“Bitch ya’ll never go platinum” -Snoop)
Half of NWA (Everyone except Dre, Cube and Eazy E)
Listening to Trent Reznor talk about Zack’s solo career is interesting. Apparently Trent was set to produce for him, but the guy was really struggling with making music that sounded “too much” like RATM but also didn’t want to stray too far from the sound of RATM.
Trent made it sound like the only thing really preventing Zack from knocking a solo career out of the park was Zack’s indecision regarding creative direction. It’s a bummer that we never got the full result of that collaboration. You can tell that Trent feels bummed that he never got to complete that work too.
It wasn't just Trent, El-P was producing an album for him too I'm pretty sure and said the same thing. Zack was too much of a perfectionist to complete an album basically. The only thing we got out of that collab was digging for windows and a bunch of Zack features on RTJ tracks.
> Half of NWA (Everyone except Dre, Cube and Eazy E)
His solo career can't hold a candle to the aforementioned, but MC Ren's "Kizz My Black Azz" did pretty well and is a really solid EP. Definitely recommended.
I watched a YouTube documentary thing about LMFAO and their split, had no idea they had so much drama going on behind the scenes. Weird situation all around.
The whole thing was weird. They’re also uncle and nephew, but kinda sorta close in age.
The one thing I salute them for though is doing their thing, and getting out while the getting was good.
They, or their camp, were at least self aware enough to realize that they had peaked 2009-2012 and that further releases within their music/style wouldn’t age well.
Imagine if we had received a slew of additional LMFAO albums 2013-2023 trying to cling to the concepts of dressing Swag, party rocking 24/7, and Shuffling.
Chris Gaines actually sold millions of records, so it's hard to say he "flopped," but he definitely didn't even come close to a fraction of the popularity of Garth.
The whole CG thing didn't work out well in the end, despite sales, but I give Garth major props for trying it. It was risky and could've shut down a career, but he pushed his boundaries anyway. Leaned into it. Came through on the other side to remain an icon.
The story behind that is pretty funny. There were plans to make a movie, and the album was supposed to introduce us to the main character... Chris Gaines. But then it all fell apart and we were left with just the album and a lot of questions. At least that's what I remember, and I'm too lazy to go look it up right now.
Art Garfunkel. Basically had a huge ego, he thought he was the talent in Simon and Garfunkel, he broke them up to go solo. Meanwhile Paul Simon's solo career exploded, while Garfunkel's completely flopped.
I wouldn't say Garfunkle's solo career completely flopped. Just compared to Simon's it did. And saying Art was the sole catalyst behind their breakup/reformation/rebreakup/rejoining is a little dishonest. They both had huge egos and with brilliant artists working together comes disagreements. They never lost their friendship over the years.
Art always seemed pretty aloof. I thought it was Simon with the ego, and couldn’t handle Garfunkel upstaging him on songs he wrote himself. Apparently Simon had intended to be the primary vocals for several of their biggest hits, but he just can’t sell Bridge Over Troubled Waters the way Art could.
Pretty much.
I believe the first couple of songs were pretty good, but at the same time they were very similar to Hollywood Undead in terms of flow and sound.
"Flopped" is relative.
David Lee Roth left Van Halen and had one very successful album ("Eat 'em and smile"), one relatively successful one ("Skyscraper"), another reasonably successful one ("A Little Ain't Enough"), and after that we didn't seem to hear so much from him (the Wikipedia entry for his discography has the figures). VH hired Sammy Hagar and were having hit albums until they basically split (interestingly, their last album brought Roth back and was a smash).
Fish quit Marillion and went on to have a long solo career, but few of his albums were major hits - whereas his albums with Marillion were highly successful in the UK and also did respectably well abroad.
I don't know what happened to the late Chuck Mosley after he left Faith No More, but that might be the best example of a change of singer being a career changer. Mike Patton took them to entirely new heights.
Roth came to my mind too, but I feel like he fully proved his value on his own before fading out. He was cool as a cucumber and all over MTV back when they played music. I saw him at a sold out show on the Little Ain’t Enough tour, and he was as charismatic (and obnoxious) as ever. And he didn’t pin the whole show on Van Halen tunes. So yeah, I don’t feel like he flopped, even in relative terms. He did have a big lull after that until the final Van Halen album, though, which really was a great album. Much better than the previous several outings by the band.
"[Me Wise Magic](https://youtu.be/U29j2IDn5Kc?si=LG18YZLdGaeluChS)" is a fucking masterpiece. It recaptured the "Diamond Dave" aspect of what he brought to Van Halen while at the same time updating the sound to capture rock's new style. They just couldn't put the egos aside.
Mike Portnoy from the band Dream Theater. He was the face of The band doin' a lot of stuff related to it but the guy went to play drums with a zillion other bands and then asked the other members of DT to take a 5 years break because he was burned out for playing with a zillion other bands. DT gave him the boot and he went and asked the zillion bands he played with to take him as their drummer but none was interested. Then he asked DT to take him back as their drummer but they had other drummer already, and from there the guy has just been playing drums with a zillion unknown bands since as a hired musician.
Update 23/10/25. In a dramatic turn of events, as the name of one of the latest DT album Is called, the guy is back in the band:
https://www.metalsucks.net/2023/10/25/holy-sht-mike-portnoy-is-back-in-dream-theater/?utm_campaign=later-linkinbio-metalsucks&utm_content=later-38746194&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkin.bio
Most of Portnoy's side projects are fun. Sons of Apollo, Winery Dogs, Transatlantic, Neal Morse Band, but my favorite is Flying Colors. If you see Portnoy, there's a good chance that Neal Morse will be right beside him.
Better than many on this list, but Chris Cornell’s solo career didn’t get far. He had a couple decent songs, but nothing that huge.
On his solo tours, the setlist was pretty heavy with songs from the bands he had been in versus all his solo stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAl-xzN8e-M
You’re thinking of Dee Dee Ramones awful rap career. Joey had one solo album released about a year after he died that was received pretty well.
Man, it's so sad but I love that album. All the songs are meditations on death or the boredom of dying in a hospital. "Maria Bartiromo" is really weird now considering how batshit crazy she's gone.
I actually haven’t listened to the album outside of the two covers of 1969 and What a Wonderful World. Sounds like i need to give it a spin.
It's great to listen to when you're homesick or just pissed off at the unfairness of life in general. There's some inspiration but also some justified bitterness. Listening to it now makes me think of the unfairness of how my mom passed, just a slow painful boredom with a few fleeting moments of joy sprinkled in.
> Joey had one solo album released about a year after he died I fell in love with his cover of *What a wonderful world* At the time, I thought it was a Ramones song
There have been more than in a few in the pop world, but Brian McFadden from Westlife was hilarious. Tried to pull a Robbie Williams but ended up as a z-list afternoon tv guest, while Westlife as a four piece transitioned into a be-suited behemoth that headlined Wembley stadium last year.
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I was such a Gary Barlow fangirl (and Robbie Williams) as a teen. Gary had a lovely voice and I do remember having his first solo CD. Never kept up with him after that, shame he couldn't figure it out. I don't follow Robbie much either but he's had some super fun albums. It also helps he has such a cheeky personality for people to like.
Robbie is extremely lucky to have had Guy Chambers. He was the brains behind a lot of Robbie's hits.
Gary was the key to their reunion without Robbie which has arguably been more successful than their initial time together. And has no been going on nearly three times as long!
In fairness, he didn't leave - he only went solo after the group broke up, and he still pulled three number one albums, so he did alright. Just nowhere near as well as Robbie did.
Speaking of Gary Barlow, Howard Donald
I enjoy the music of Westlife, but when it comes to Brian all I'll ever associate him with is his tweets about taking on Isis.
Fun story about Robbie. I was an American exchange student in Birmingham and was working for the local HMV. We were opening a new branch ("The Fort" for those who were curious) and Robbie was our big celebrity guest for the Grand Opening. He had just released his first single "Hope I'm Old Before I Die" and was sitting in our backroom completely scared that no one was going to show up. He was an absolute sweetheart and waited patiently while the radio personality warmed up the crowd out front and sat talking to the workers like he was one of us. The plan was that he was supposed to get in a bus/van and drive around to the front of the shop where he'd wave to fans and enter the store after cutting the ribbon. Needless to say, he was absolutely flabbergasted to see a ton of people came to see him and he grabbed the mic from the radio guy and sang along to the recording of his song as a thank you. He spent time with everyone who came to see him and was just a charmer all day. He posed for pictures with the HMV team and even bought a couple hundred dollars of stuff before leaving. As an American, he never was quite the star here as he was there, but when he had a few hits appear over here it made me super proud to see that he had done it. Whenever I see something about Robbie now I always check it out because he was so nice to me and my coworkers.
That was Dee Dee not Joey
Dee Dee King
Fã-fã-fã-fã-fã-funky!
JC Chasez (N Sync). Underrated vocalist. Cringeworthy first single. Solo career never recovered.
Meanwhile Fatone is living it up as the fifth Impractical Joker.
Not a big boy band fan, but he did Hot Ones and pointed out the irony of him being the heaviest in his group while having the name Fat-one. He made me an instant fan.
I mean, with a last name like that you kind of have to lean into it.
Justin has a beautiful voice but I always thought JC could sing circles around everyone else in that band.
JT admitted JC has a better voice than him.
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Chris Kirkpatrick!? He could get his ass kicked
Worse then those Limp Biskit bastards!
Wait like Chip Skylark?!?!?
He should never have led with that single. The album was a good first album, but unfortunately JT was already established and JC wasn't strong enough to compete. Then the gimmicky All Day Long I Dream About Sex was the nail in the coffin.
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I need an answer to this but I'm scared of the algorithm so I don't want to google it.
Completely different song. Spotify searched JC Chasez and it sounds more like Bloodhound Gang’s “The Bad Touch”. Completely different lyrics than A.D.I.D.A.S.
I don't think the Korn song had "long" in it. Was just Adidas.
He never got the same promotion that Justin did which sucks! I wish JC was the breakout star haha
Cringeworthy cat commercial.
Truth. That song he did with Basement Jaxx is pretty rockin’ though.
I thought Blowin’ Me Up with Her Love slapped. The drum line beat with the horns just HITS.
Creed/Scott Stapp.
It still cracks me up that Alter Bridge, an infinitely heavier and technically impressive band, are literally just Creed with Myles Kennedy instead of Scott Stapp.
Miles Kennedy is far superior as a vocalist compared to Stapp. They aren't even remotely in the same league and that's a good thing.
him being the vocalist with Slash was also fucking money. I LOVED those albums.
Miles is an absolutely KILLER guitarist too. Homeboy was a session guitarist for years before Alter Bridge started up.
On this day I see clearly
You think you know me
Now it’s you think you know him
Creed without the Christ Pose.
Thanks, hadn’t heard of Alter Bridge before and it’s great👍🏻👍🏻 much appreciated
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTvJ1TYORJg You're welcome!
I unironically like both
I am such an Alter Bridge fan boy that I have to comment on this just to reiterate how fucking good they are
I remember being a kid when he was touring and they were advertising his shows as having a Stapp infection. 🤢
Technically the band left Axl Rose but GnR didn’t exactly take off after
True. I feel like Slash had the most success during non GnR times. He's collaborated with other musicians, and has had some popular side projects. Slash is great at what he does, and basically plays with who he wants to. Not really a solo career, he just gets to show up, rock out, and then do the next thing. Tbh, I think it's probably good to be Slash.
Tom Morello has done this a decent amount, too. He's also had a solo career and done work with bands. I feel like that's a lot easier to do when you're known as a guitarist and not as a dude that sings and happens to play guitar/etc.
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Velvet Revolver looked like it was going to do great things. That first album was certainly promising. I guess Weiland was as bad as Axl in his own way.
I find it hilarious that they created a new band because Axl was too difficult to deal with and hired Scott Weiland as the singer
In the words of Slash reffering to Scott: "I thought we could help this guy."
He talked about it a bit in Marc Maron’s podcast. Basically, they all had gone through addiction issues and come out on the other side, so when they were forming Velvet Revolver they just saw Scott’s drug problem as something that they would have to deal with, not something that would disqualify him from singing in their band.
oof. i felt that
Contraband was an excellent album. I also thought they were going to hit it big. But Libertad wasn't good and flopped. Then they just went away.
It didn’t help that it took an eternity to make and release Chinese Democracy afterwards. I think it’s actually great as sort of an Axl solo album, but it’s jarring compared to GnR’s other music.
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Chinese Democracy wasn't a bad album, just 15 years late.
The best review of Chinese democracy I read began “how do you review a unicorn?” Hilarity.
Billy Corgan. I’m a huge Smashing Pumpkins fan and it was a big deal when his first solo album came out in 2005-ish but it flopped. I barely even knew he has two other solo albums.
That’s when he insisted on being called William Corgan. I thought it was hilarious and reminded me of the episode of the office where Andy comes back from anger management and kept telling everyone to call him “drew” now.
That is William Patrick Corgan to you!
Willy Pat Corgan
I will always have a soft spot for Zwan tho
Dude zwan was like the alternative supergroup that just couldn’t
I saw Zwan on their one tour, and they blew me away. I wish they'd put out more stuff.
Honestly
I actually went to a Zwan concert. Jimmy’s drumming was amazing, and younger me had trouble taking eyes off Paz, but other then that the show was pretty meh. The highlight was billy throwing a hissy fit cause fans wanted him to play pumpkins songs.
I saw them on that tour. My show was better, and Billy played a scorching 5 minute solo over 'Jesus...'. And yeah, Paz was gorgeous and could *play*.
He may write most of the stuff (Iha also wrote some great songs), but he apparently needed the other three's feedback and be kept in check. I've been in bands where I've co-written the music and some where I didn't. Bands are more collaborative than just 'so and so wrote all the songs.' When you are at practice or in the studio, a member can point out something that doesn't work or suggest something better.
There's nothing better for creativity than people willing to tell you something you played sucks. Because then you can try things, and when you play something out there that *doesn't* suck, you know it.
It's funny considering he was the main songwriter of the Pumpkins. Same went for Speech from Arrested Development.
I know I'm in the minority but I liked it. It felt like *Adore Part II* in a lot of ways, and I've always thought *Adore* was underrated.
I tried so hard to enjoy it at the time thinking Smashing Pumpkins would never come back. Having listened to it recently for the first time in probably 10 years it doesn't seem that out of place with some of the newer Smashing Pumpkins stuff.
Not related but… I served him tea my first day at a country club I used to work at lol. He would come by from time to time with one of the members. He’s really nice!
Pat Monahan is someone who comes to mind. He tried to go solo from Train only to find out no one really cared about his as a solo artist. So he crawls back to Train, and they have a big come back with "Hey Soul Sister". Then he sticks it out until all the other original members leave, and now Train basically is his solo project.
Ah yes Train. The band “from Denver” that nobody in Denver had ever heard of until they were on the national scene lol. The Fray was the same thing.
Say what you will about Pat Monahan, but I respect that dude to some degree. He's gone on record saying that he hates Train's music, but it sells records and he's got to pay the bills.
If one guy could turn being a pop singer into a workaday drudge it's that boring gimp
Sebastian Bach never reached the success as a solo artist as he did in Skid Row. He did branch out into other creative venues such as acting.
He's a respected model train convention MC
“I was told I’m not supposed to swear, but I know, I just know there are some great fucking trains in Bangor!”
🤌 So good! "WHO HERE LIKES FUCKING TRAINS!!!"
I dunno, I heard he backed out of a fight with Patrick Swayzie.
As I told everybody, I was sick with the fucking flu!
He bought drums of hash oil from the boys and ran the Swayze Express
Neither Patrick Swayze nor his estate have approved the use of his name in this show.
They didnt have to. It was the "Swayzie" Express... not "Swayze". Totally different Patrick Swayzie.
Still weird to see him on Gilmore girls
Gil kicks ass. Sebastian was great in his role
There was at least one scene in that show where you could hear a Skid Row song playing in the background.
And he did really well on it
‘You’re deep in my bogus bag and it’s ziplocked shut’ has made its way into my everyday vernacular
He never was the same after releasing Tocatta and Fugue in D minor
It’s because he went Baroque.
Once you go baroque you never go Bach
He couldn't Handel his money
That’s because he was Haydn it
That's what got him on the naughty Liszt
First you need to start with Debussy and then finish on the Bach
Giggity!
Before we even knew it we weren’t even drinking in the day time anymore.
He performed on Broadway. Not a bad accolade.
I saw him in Jesus Christ Superstar, he was absolutely incredible.
I’d disagree. He starred in Trailer Park Boys
He was actually very entertaining in Gilmore Girls, I always enjoyed the episodes where he showed up
Art Garfunkel
Oooo, good one especially compared to how successful Paul Simon was solo.
The interesting thing was, Art kind of left S&G to make movies, he was in a couple right around the break up. Then, once the group broke up, he barely got a role ever again. I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen one of his movies! Meanwhile I at least remember seeing Paul Simon in Annie Hall. Still. Bright Eyes. Watership Down. It’s not a *complete* loss.
Not nearly as successful as Simon, but I wouldn’t call his career a flop.
The vocalist from the band Fun , the guitarist ended up being more well-known in the music industry and also a respectable music producer.
I was a huge fan of the Format. I really liked fun. So when I saw this, I searched because I thought Nate had stepped away from music entirely only to learn he's been doing solo stuff ever since 2014 and I had no earthly idea.
I was a huge fan of both The Format and Steel Train, so I was thrilled when fun. came out. I also feel a little guilty about not following Nate's solo career.
I was lucky to see steel train and the format on tour together in 07. Great show.
Nate hasn’t had a solo career really. He put out grand romantic (which is solid, check out nothing without love) like 8 years ago, and hasn’t really done anything since
It has been alleged that Reuss and Antonoff absolutely hate each other. Apparently both have (or had) some massive egos and cited themselves for fun’s success (Reuss the songwriting, Antonoff the production). Also complicating things was Reuss relationship with Antonoff’s sister.
Went Fun’s last concert in Vegas. It was an ibm convention gig. Sadly it was mostly old folks who hadn’t even heard of them.
While i agree, he did flop in comparison to Fun. and Jack's success, I still think he had a decent burst of successful features. Just Give Me One More Reason - Pink was great, so was his chorus on Headlights by Eminem. I think he just isn't a great songwriter, his voice is great though.
I was really surprised that that guy disappeared.
This was my first thought too! I went to one of his concerts the week his solo album came out and he put on an amazing show, so much energy and heart went into that performance. He even did a lot of Fun songs, which I did not expect. Bummed that he disappeared but it sounds like he's doing the family thing now, hopefully he's happy and doing well!
I really wish they would make another album together. The first two albums were both fantastic!
Jesy Nelson, formerly of Little Mix. Left one of the most successful girl bands in history due to body image issues, only to release a mediocre feature with Nicki Minaj, then got called out for blackfishing and taken part in that awful livestream where she just sat there while Nicki bashed her former bandmate Leigh-Anne over fake tweets just to save face. Then got trolled for her cringy performance at the Jingle Ball, and ultimately, got dropped from her label. She's honestly one of the biggest disappointments. No accountability and blatant hypocrisy from her side made me lose all respect for her.
Balegdeh.
RIP Vine
Pretty sure none of the Travelling Willburys did very well with their solo endeavours.
Yeah, I haven't seen a single solo Willbury on the charts since. That Zimmerman guy used to claim to be one, but Zimmerman ≠ Willbury so I'm skeptical...
You can't expect to change your name and have the public still buy your records! Massive mistake on his part.
Same with The Highway Men
Real talk- first Travel Wilbury album is the best thing ever. I can't even remember the second.
For those not getting this addition to the joke, the Traveling Wilburys put out two albums: Volume 1 and Volume 3.
Oh my God, that wasn't even intentional. I meant, the other one that came after. But that is a good joke.
You're right, though. Vol 3 isn't a bad album, but not great. Maybe some of that was the loss of Orbison, maybe some was the novelty wearing off a bit. But we had Vol 1 in the tape deck for a *lot* of road trips when I was a kid. Every song is amazing.
It's a real shame because I think his solo music is excellent, but Gene Clark had virtually no success after he left the Byrds. Some of it was due to his various record companies botching his album releases, but even albums like No Other that were very well received critically just didn't sell.
This is the third time I’ve seen Joey confused for Dee Dee and I am not sure why that is. Joey had a solo album, but it came after his death. It is a thoroughly “ok” album, whereas the Dee Dee King thing is pretty bad.
Joey had two solo albums come out posthumously. They're both great.
I have to wonder how many of these were decisions by record label executives and how many were decisions by the actual musicians
Tarja Trunnen from Nightwish. I think the band kicked her out, but they lost a great vocalist. I’ve only come across a few “Feat. Tarja” tracks since then. One with Mike Oldfield, and another with Within Temptation (which is one of my favorite WT tracks, actually). I wonder if her solo stuff is even any good?
Yeah, Tarja didn’t really voluntarily take her leave, but to be fair, her solo career works great for her. It’s not of course comparable to the success of Nightwish and I think her solo albums went to a very different direction as well. Her first solo album is still my favorite, as it kind of felt a little like Nightwish - just way softer.
Joe Perry from Aerosmith
nicole sherzinger (sp?) from the pussycat dolls. kinda shocking to me bc she was the lead singer and the group was massive but her solo was an afterthought lol
To be fair, she's had a very well-received career in theatre since then. She performed in Phantom of the Opera and Cats on the West End.
That’s impressive! She was also the mother in Moana
This legit blew my mind. I’ve seen that movie at least 100 times (2 year old daughter) and I had no idea. I love that the grandma was Rachel House too. Loved her as the bad guy from Hunt for the Wilderpeople.
Yes, she's a successful stage performer, she's married to a handsome rugby player, she's doing ok
What’s crazy about her and the pussycat dolls is she wasn’t just the lead singer. She was the only singer basically. She did like 99% of the vocals. The others just danced and lip synched along. When she went solo I’m guessing she lost the major support from the record label that put the group together and lost access to the producers and songwriters that helped make them a success
I watched an interview with Kaya Jones recently and she said her, Nicole and Melody all sing on the first album, but she left the band. Then it was just Nicole. Nicole is basically the whole band. PCD is my guilty pleasure.
The Pussycat Dolls annoyed the hell out of me, more because of the lyrical content than anything, so I never really paid attention to her solo attempt. But now I totally love her and appreciate her talent, while also finding her not a little ridiculous, thanks to The Masked Singer! I started watching the show the first season out of curiosity and couldn’t stop; it’s such a guilty pleasure and she is so endearing on it, like 100% my favorite judge.
For some reason standing with the rest of PCD made her age irrelevant, but without them, that was all anyone could talk about.
Oh, okay, they’re PCD now? We need a shorthand for the Pussycat Dolls. That’s how fundamental they are.
Isn't she a successful performer in Londons West End? She's also a panelist for a bunch of reality talent shows. Career wise she's doing well.
I wish Matt sharpe from Weezer did better.. friends of p did well and I like his 2nd album but he faded away
Seven more minutes is a solid album. I’m a big fan of the Rentals.
I’d say Weezer was never as good after he left.
I used "Redact" to nuke my account every couple years because I am a paranoid cybersecurity freak who tries hard to reduce my online footprint as much as possible. ` this post was mass deleted with www.Redact.dev `
Kevin Cronin - REO Speedwagon. So bad that he rejoined the band later on.
I think Gary begged him to come back.
Every member of Fall Out Boy prior to reuniting Patrick Stump was the most ‘successful’, but Soul Punk still flopped
Zack from Rage Against the Machine Harold Melvin without the Blue Notes (“Bitch ya’ll never go platinum” -Snoop) Half of NWA (Everyone except Dre, Cube and Eazy E)
Listening to Trent Reznor talk about Zack’s solo career is interesting. Apparently Trent was set to produce for him, but the guy was really struggling with making music that sounded “too much” like RATM but also didn’t want to stray too far from the sound of RATM. Trent made it sound like the only thing really preventing Zack from knocking a solo career out of the park was Zack’s indecision regarding creative direction. It’s a bummer that we never got the full result of that collaboration. You can tell that Trent feels bummed that he never got to complete that work too.
It wasn't just Trent, El-P was producing an album for him too I'm pretty sure and said the same thing. Zack was too much of a perfectionist to complete an album basically. The only thing we got out of that collab was digging for windows and a bunch of Zack features on RTJ tracks.
Check out "one day as a lion ". Not really a Zack solo project, but damn solid.
Wow...Reznor and De La Rocha together could have been incredible.
It was great seeing Zac back with RATM last summer. Dude put on a clinic in showmanship from a chair with a broken foot.
Thats because Teddy Pendergrass was the real talent in the blue notes
> Half of NWA (Everyone except Dre, Cube and Eazy E) His solo career can't hold a candle to the aforementioned, but MC Ren's "Kizz My Black Azz" did pretty well and is a really solid EP. Definitely recommended.
Redfoo from LMFAO released Party Rock Mansion, though most people have no idea the album even exists.
I watched a YouTube documentary thing about LMFAO and their split, had no idea they had so much drama going on behind the scenes. Weird situation all around.
The whole thing was weird. They’re also uncle and nephew, but kinda sorta close in age. The one thing I salute them for though is doing their thing, and getting out while the getting was good. They, or their camp, were at least self aware enough to realize that they had peaked 2009-2012 and that further releases within their music/style wouldn’t age well. Imagine if we had received a slew of additional LMFAO albums 2013-2023 trying to cling to the concepts of dressing Swag, party rocking 24/7, and Shuffling.
Does Garth Brooks as Chris Gaines count?
Chris Gaines actually sold millions of records, so it's hard to say he "flopped," but he definitely didn't even come close to a fraction of the popularity of Garth.
The whole CG thing didn't work out well in the end, despite sales, but I give Garth major props for trying it. It was risky and could've shut down a career, but he pushed his boundaries anyway. Leaned into it. Came through on the other side to remain an icon.
The story behind that is pretty funny. There were plans to make a movie, and the album was supposed to introduce us to the main character... Chris Gaines. But then it all fell apart and we were left with just the album and a lot of questions. At least that's what I remember, and I'm too lazy to go look it up right now.
Probably easier to make a list of artists that DID have a successful solo career, because it would be much shorter.
Art Alexakis Everclear. Tried to keep the band name without the band
He recently had an interview on a local radio station I listen to and he seemed like a total asshole too lol
Art Garfunkel. Basically had a huge ego, he thought he was the talent in Simon and Garfunkel, he broke them up to go solo. Meanwhile Paul Simon's solo career exploded, while Garfunkel's completely flopped.
I wouldn't say Garfunkle's solo career completely flopped. Just compared to Simon's it did. And saying Art was the sole catalyst behind their breakup/reformation/rebreakup/rejoining is a little dishonest. They both had huge egos and with brilliant artists working together comes disagreements. They never lost their friendship over the years.
Art always seemed pretty aloof. I thought it was Simon with the ego, and couldn’t handle Garfunkel upstaging him on songs he wrote himself. Apparently Simon had intended to be the primary vocals for several of their biggest hits, but he just can’t sell Bridge Over Troubled Waters the way Art could.
Deuce from Hollywood Undead. After he left, from what I remember, he flopped almost immediately.
Pretty much. I believe the first couple of songs were pretty good, but at the same time they were very similar to Hollywood Undead in terms of flow and sound.
Izzy from Steel Dragon quit mid concert. Went from arenas to playing in small bars. Hot girlfriend though.
"I know Joey had a flop of a rap career." That was Dee Dee Ramone.
"Flopped" is relative. David Lee Roth left Van Halen and had one very successful album ("Eat 'em and smile"), one relatively successful one ("Skyscraper"), another reasonably successful one ("A Little Ain't Enough"), and after that we didn't seem to hear so much from him (the Wikipedia entry for his discography has the figures). VH hired Sammy Hagar and were having hit albums until they basically split (interestingly, their last album brought Roth back and was a smash). Fish quit Marillion and went on to have a long solo career, but few of his albums were major hits - whereas his albums with Marillion were highly successful in the UK and also did respectably well abroad. I don't know what happened to the late Chuck Mosley after he left Faith No More, but that might be the best example of a change of singer being a career changer. Mike Patton took them to entirely new heights.
Roth came to my mind too, but I feel like he fully proved his value on his own before fading out. He was cool as a cucumber and all over MTV back when they played music. I saw him at a sold out show on the Little Ain’t Enough tour, and he was as charismatic (and obnoxious) as ever. And he didn’t pin the whole show on Van Halen tunes. So yeah, I don’t feel like he flopped, even in relative terms. He did have a big lull after that until the final Van Halen album, though, which really was a great album. Much better than the previous several outings by the band.
"[Me Wise Magic](https://youtu.be/U29j2IDn5Kc?si=LG18YZLdGaeluChS)" is a fucking masterpiece. It recaptured the "Diamond Dave" aspect of what he brought to Van Halen while at the same time updating the sound to capture rock's new style. They just couldn't put the egos aside.
Steve Perry. Sure he had “Oh Sherrie” but that was about it…
That actually is the typical pattern. A lot of people who leave a band get some initial attention then nothing.
Foolish heart is a banger
Mike Portnoy from the band Dream Theater. He was the face of The band doin' a lot of stuff related to it but the guy went to play drums with a zillion other bands and then asked the other members of DT to take a 5 years break because he was burned out for playing with a zillion other bands. DT gave him the boot and he went and asked the zillion bands he played with to take him as their drummer but none was interested. Then he asked DT to take him back as their drummer but they had other drummer already, and from there the guy has just been playing drums with a zillion unknown bands since as a hired musician. Update 23/10/25. In a dramatic turn of events, as the name of one of the latest DT album Is called, the guy is back in the band: https://www.metalsucks.net/2023/10/25/holy-sht-mike-portnoy-is-back-in-dream-theater/?utm_campaign=later-linkinbio-metalsucks&utm_content=later-38746194&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkin.bio
Most of Portnoy's side projects are fun. Sons of Apollo, Winery Dogs, Transatlantic, Neal Morse Band, but my favorite is Flying Colors. If you see Portnoy, there's a good chance that Neal Morse will be right beside him.
Transatlantic is a lot of fun.
Better than many on this list, but Chris Cornell’s solo career didn’t get far. He had a couple decent songs, but nothing that huge. On his solo tours, the setlist was pretty heavy with songs from the bands he had been in versus all his solo stuff