According to John Lydon, singing live is more important than being perfectly in tune.
“Yeah, I’d much rather any old-time singer be slightly off-key but live,” the singer told Classic Album Review. “Because they’re expressing an atmosphere, and there is no such thing as ‘in tune’ at that point. You have to be in tune with the environment, you know?”
Lydon then stated, “It’s difficult up there for any singer to pitch perfectly. And the ones that do, I always suspect that there’s autotune or some kind of forgery going on.”
“I’m disgusted with those folk,” the rocker said of musicians who use audio forgery. “That’s very, very serious fraudulence, and should not be tolerated lightly. There’s not enough grief to be unloaded on those lazy good-for-nothings. They make it harder for real singers.”
Exodus’ Gary Holt also agrees with Lydon. “Lip-syncing [is] bad. Sing the sh*t,” he shared with Syncin’ Stanley YouTube channel last year. “Now, if you did a record that has a giant choral orchestra on it, yeah, go ahead and sync that sh*t up and use it.”
“But play and sing your main vocals. Backing tracks? It’s cool if you’re like Rob Zombie and you’ve got a bunch of sequence keyboard stuff; go for it,” the musician added.
However, Stryper’s Michael Sweet thinks it is okay to use backing tracks. “Some saying ‘if it’s not 100% live then you’re talentless and a joke,'” he wrote on social media last year. “Really? Some bands have much bigger productions than other bands and I think it’s perfectly acceptable and respectable to use a few tracks here and there to make the same statement live as you did in the studio.”
The frontman continued, “As long as you’re performing live and using tracks sparingly, it’s totally fine. To the guys out there who disrespect any band for using tracks – some of your favorite bands do! And have done so for years. That doesn’t make them any less of a band.”
“If they’re miming and faking it completely (often the term ‘Milli Vanilli’ is used) and or didn’t even play on the recordings and or can’t play the parts recorded, then I get the frustration. I just think it’s a dead horse that some people so often beat,” Sweet concluded.
Blackie Lawless previously admitted W.A.S.P. uses backing tracks but said it’s to enhance the experience, not replace live singing.
