Manshel, who'd begun to take time off from the group to work on a solo album, left altogether in September 1999 to pursue his own career and the band reverted to a five-piece. Other than short-term fill-ins (Steve Jenks subbed for Hopkins in the spring and summer of 1998 and Gary Jones sat in for Weinmeister for a Firefall gig on November 12, 1999 opening for Journey at the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco and one for Hopkins in June 2002), Bartley, Weinmeister, Hopkins and Sandy Ficca continued on as Firefall from late 1999 until Hopkins left in 2014.