The growing music debate: Bands vs. brands. Here's what that means – Nationwide

Next year, Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman will kick off a national tour called The Guess Who in Moncton, New Brunswick on May 26th. The last time they played a show like this was on July 30, 2003 at SARSfest in Toronto.

Why is it so long? Because they each left The Guess Who before the end.

Randy left in 1970 and Burton in 1975, and the group continued with bassist Jim Cale and drummer Garry Peterson. It was Kale who realized that the name “The Guess Who” had no clear owner, and filed for a trademark for it in the United States in 1986 without telling Burton or Randy. The group continued without its two main players and songwriter.

And it got even weirder. Cale stopped appearing with The Guess Who in 2016, and Peterson has semi-retired, making only occasional appearances with the band. Fans who came to see the band saw and heard musicians who had no connection to the original group. The names were the same. The songs were the same. The band members were not.

In 2023, both Cummings and Bachmann filed a lawsuit seeking their names back, claiming that this version of The Guess Who was “nothing more than a copy band” and did nothing to alert the audience to the fact that Cummings and Bachmann were no longer with the group. Kale and Peterson fired back, arguing that the statute of limitations for trademark disputes has long passed and that it's a case of “sleeping and losing.”

The good news is that everything is resolved in September 2024. The trademark is now jointly owned by Cummings and Bachman, allowing them to officially tour as The Guess Who in 2026.

This is an example of the “band versus brand” debate, which is getting bigger and bigger, and I first started writing about it in 2022. How many original members does a band need to legitimately advertise itself as a group?Two? One? none?

Get the latest national news

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news and have it delivered directly to you as it happens.

Nostalgia in music remains a major source of revenue, with artists continuing to tour well into their 70s and even 80s. However, the members of these acts are sapped of their lives by the scourge of old age, if not the Grim Reaper.

As long as there are Mick and Keef, the Rolling Stones will always be the Rolling Stones. Fleetwood Mac without Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham? That cuts it close. ZZ Top with just Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard? they were able to do it.

And while there's no doubt that Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson would work fine as a Rush reunion, it will be tough for many fans to see the band take the stage without Neil Peart. Was it difficult to watch The Who with just Pete and Roger? For me it was.

There are dozens of bands with only one original member remaining: Bush (frontman and leader Gavin Rossdale), Danzig (Glenn Danzig), Everclear (Art Alexakis), Jethro Tull (Ian Ander). Megadeth (Dave Mustaine), Ministry (Al Jorgensen), Queens of the Stone Age (Josh Homme), Soul Asylum (Dave Pirner), The Cure (Robert) Smith), Beach The Boys (Mike Love), Boston (Tom Scholz), Emerson, Lake & Palmer (drummer Carl Palmer), and Deep Purple (drummer Ian Paice) are just a few.

And now we have what we might charitably call a “successor band.” Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley have said many times that the KISS experience is so great that it doesn't matter who gets on stage in costume. There is a version of the Allman Brothers Band that still performs live, but it does not include any members of the original group formed by Duane and Gregg in 1969. This current version is promoted as an organization that keeps the spirit of the Allman Brothers alive and has the full support of the Allman Family.

current trends

Next up, we're back with a double-headliner road trip featuring two Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees: Foreigner and Lynyrd Skynyrd. The Double Trouble Double Vision tour will feature a version of Foreigner without the last remaining original member, guitarist Mick Jones. He has not toured with the group since 2022 due to health reasons related to Parkinson's disease.

Meanwhile, with the death of Gary Rossington in 2023, there are no original members left in Skynyrd. Other members joined later, but at least Ronnie's brother, John Van Zandt, who died in a 1977 plane crash, maintains a familial connection.

But this doesn't work. Paste calls it a “rock'n'roll con job” that promises “all the hits, all the nostalgia, and no original members.” This is similar to older airliners that have undergone multiple D-checks, the most thorough maintenance procedure required every 6 to 10 years. Eventually, many of the airplane's original parts will be replaced and it will no longer be a factory airplane. (For more on this philosophy, read The Ship of Theseus Problem.)

There's a level of nastiness here that also applies to Blood, Sweat & Tears, Quiet Riot, Ratt, GWAR (but who notices the amount of costumes?), Iron Butterfly, Canned Heat, Little River Band, Molly Hatchet, Sepultura, and Spinners. A version by the Glenn Miller Orchestra (founded in 1938) is still played today. All that really remains is the logo and associated IP.

So I come back to this “band vs. brand” discussion. How long will the fans continue to support you? With the advent of AI, holograms, and avatars, we predict the situation will get even worse. T-shirts will still be on sale, along with regular meet and greets, special ticket packages, and all the other miscellaneous merchandise available. You will make money. Who cares if the bands you grew up with are the same?

Now a band doesn't have to break up, and no matter how many members leave or die, you'll probably always be able to buy tickets to a show.

Curator's Recommendations

© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.