[arewhyehen]

do you think the band would have continued if it had been one of the other guys who was sick?

Not a chance. GD is no more important to the band than any other member. It's part of what's made them great...an equal partnership. The Hip is those five guys. Since they came together they've never played a gig apart. Without one there is none.

Loved the interview. Such an intimate feel. Wish it was five hours long.

i disagree to a degree. i think that replacing a lead singer for any band is incredibly difficult simply because they seem their voice can add so much of the "sound". i know i'm not articulating myself very well here. a good guitar player can recreate the notes of a bands songs, but to recreate the voice of the band is hard.

pearl jam had an ever-rotating selection of drummers for years, and while people will argue that some were/are better than others, they continued on. I mentioned Dave Matthews Band already. ACDC successfully replaced their lead singer with tremendous success. Springsteen replaced Clarence Clemons. the foo fighters replaced Pat Smear when he left and i believe they changed drummers early on, too.

Yeah I'm with you here. Replacing a singer is tough. Alice in Chains have done it and gone out to do it well I think. But you can't replace Layne. A good example right now is prophets of rage. There is no replacing Zach from Rage...the guys singing for prophets right now are just terrible in my opinion. It doesn't work. But if it were Tom to leave the band, a really good guitarist could replace him and sound the same without anyone noticing. Hell, the RHCP have kept a fairly consistent sound with all their guitarist changes. Yes, they have changed a bit, but all bands do, changes in members or not.

The question here though, is would the hip WANT to continue if this were the case with another member. I got the feeling from talking with Rob that he was ok with closing that chapter and he was excited about new things. Everyone has other things on the go. I as a band member don't think I would want to replace someone and continue. But like I said above, it's all just our opinions..