Musicians are just as corruptible as the rest of us. It is commonplace now to see your favorite musicians in trouble with authorities for drug charges or drunken stupors. Drug- and alcohol-related arrests have become something of a staple of the music industry.

However, in rare circumstances, musicians get into trouble for the unlikeliest of transgressions. These strange criminal blunders are undoubtedly rare among musicians, but they are so puzzling and hilarious that they deserve a light shining on them.

10 Paul McCartney

In 1960, former Beatle Paul McCartney was arrested in Hamburg, Germany, for attempted arson. McCartney and then–Beatles’ drummer Pete Best pinned a condom to the wall of the Bambi Kino, their accommodations while playing in Hamburg, and set the condom on fire.

After living in filthy conditions during the early string of shows, Paul’s arson was a boyish act of protest against the Bambi Kino owner Bruno Koschmider. Renowned for beating customers with a chair leg, Koschmider had put up the Beatles in the back of his porno cinema while they tirelessly played for him in his run-down strip club known as the Indra.

As George Harrison, then 17, was already being deported from Germany for flouting Hamburg’s curfew laws for minors, the Beatles were ready to go home—but not before McCartney and Best set the condom alight.

Koschmider subsequently rang the police, who arrested and detained Best and McCartney before deporting them.^[1]

9 Barry White

Before he had a music career and was nicknamed the “Walrus of Love,” Barry White was something of a criminal in his teens (by his own admission). However, White was hardly a master criminal as evinced by his arrest in 1960 for the theft of car tires which led to subsequent jail time.

As a teenager, White often got into trouble with his brother, Darryl. Barry stated that they were a “two-man gang, respected and feared [who] ran and ruled the streets of our neighborhood.” However, the theft of $30,000 worth of Cadillac tires landed him in prison.

Barry White served four months in prison in 1960. While he was incarcerated, the seeds of the Walrus of Love were sown because White vowed to do away with his minor criminal past and focus on music.^[2]

8 D’arcy Wretzky

D’arcy Wretzky, former bassist for the Smashing Pumpkins, was arrested and eventually imprisoned in 2011 due to her horses escaping her home. Wretzky’s neighbors contacted the police after her horses were left to wander from her farm onto their land. Although she was notified of the offense in 2009, it took until 2011 before her antics led to prison time.

Michigan has an “animals running at large” law that Wretzky breached. However, the law is only a minor offense. It was Wretzky’s repeated absence from four consecutive court dates related to the incident that eventually landed her in jail.

Otherwise, Wretzky would have only had to pay a fine. Nevertheless, she was sentenced to six days imprisonment.^[3]

7 Gary Numan

New wave singer and songwriter Gary Numan found himself on the wrong side of Indian police in 1981 when he was arrested on suspicion of smuggling and spying. As an air display pilot as well as a musician, Numan was flying with a friend over India. After the plane’s engine gave out, they were forced to land.

The pair sought help in a local Indian village but instead were arrested on suspicion of smuggling and spying. As the two men were wearing two watches each, the police thought they were smuggling. Worse still, the pair had cameras on them which gave the police grounds to believe that they were spying.

Little did Numan know, there was actually a Russian submarine base 32 kilometers (20 mi) from where they had landed. Therefore, the Indian police thought that they were taking photographs of that base.

Both Numan and his friend were arrested and detained for four days. Eventually, the pair contacted the Home Office, and they were duly released.^[4]

6 Vanilla Ice

Rapper (sort of) Vanilla Ice got in trouble with authorities in 2004, albeit for something far less sinister than his arrest for burglary in 2015. In fact, it was animal control officials that landed Vanilla Ice in difficulty.

Vanilla Ice’s pet wallaroo, Bucky Buckaroo, and his pet goat, Pancho, decided one day to escape Vanilla Ice’s domicile in Florida. Pancho managed to headbutt open the latch of the gate of their enclosure, and the two went for a ramble in Florida.

The rebellious animals actually scratched one woman and kicked her car after she tried to feed them. Animal control officials eventually captured the two, and their days on the lam were cut short.

Animal control officials caught Vanilla Ice with an expired permit and duly fined him $220. Pancho and Bucky were eventually reunited with their owner.^[5]

5 Peter Buck

REM’s guitarist Peter Buck was arrested for an air rage incident in 2001, but the story was far sillier than it sounds. After allegedly making the mistake of mixing a sleeping pill with alcohol, Buck went on a drunken rampage, much to the chagrin of his fellow passengers.

After being refused any more alcohol, Buck in his already-drunk, loutish state overturned a flight attendant’s trolley and demanded to leave the airplane mid-flight. He had to be pulled away from an exit door. As a pilot attempted to calm the situation, Buck responded that “he was just a f—king pilot and [Buck] was REM.” Even stranger, Buck sprayed flight attendants with yogurt and tried to steal cutlery from the plane.

The guitarist was later cleared of all charges, and he did help to clean up the yogurt mess while on the plane.^[6]

4 Bob Dylan

New Jersey police detained poor old Bob Dylan in 2009 over a simple case of mistaken identity. The icon of folk music was set to headline a concert alongside Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp. But it nearly didn’t happen thanks to New Jersey police officer Kristie Buble, who believed that Dylan was a mad pensioner who had escaped from a hospital.

Dylan went for a stroll around the Long Branch area on his own in the pouring rain when a concerned citizen rang the police about the suspicious-looking character. When Buble arrived to determine what was going on, Dylan told her that he was indeed Bob Dylan. But for the police officer, that just confirmed her suspicions of a madman on the loose.

Apparently forgetting that people age, Buble expected Dylan to look like her memories of him from his younger years. As a result, Buble believed that the man in front of her was a rambling lunatic and not Bob Dylan.^[7]

Detained by the police, the musician was taken to his nearby tour bus to confirm his identity. When they reached Dylan’s manager, he showed Dylan’s identification to the now-embarrassed police officer. In her defense, it was a little strange that Dylan was wandering around in the rain, but he’s never been one for conventional behavior.

3 Mick Jagger, Bill Wyman, And Brian Jones
The Rolling Stones

Although two of the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, were infamously arrested and charged with drug offenses in 1967, it was public urination that saw three of the Rolling Stones—Bill Wyman, Mick Jagger, and Brian Jones—arrested in 1965.

After being refused access to a petrol station lavatory in London, three of the Rolling Stones took it upon themselves to relieve their full bladders by urinating on the petrol station itself. The unsympathetic station owner had denied Bill Wyman the key initially. However, Jagger and Jones also took offense at this.

All three began chanting “we’ll p—s anywhere, man” to the station owner and a nearby mechanic who had witnessed the scene and was merely attempting to move them on. When the owner wouldn’t concede, Jagger, Wyman, and Jones urinated on the wall of the petrol station while still chanting.

After the trio was arrested, they were charged with public indecency and subsequently fined £5 each.^[8]

2 Frank Zappa

In the early years of Frank Zappa’s career, he was not too discerning about where his much-needed money came from. This became painfully apparent in 1962 when Zappa was duped into making porn for an undercover San Bernardino police detective in California.

After creating several scores for low-budget films, Zappa was offered work by a supposed used car salesman to produce a porn film. As the “used car salesman” knew of Zappa’s amateur film credentials, he turned to Zappa for help.

Though Zappa refused to outright make a porn film for the man, Zappa did offer to record audio-only porn with his friend Lorraine Belcher in a studio owned by Zappa. The recording was essentially a mock-up of a couple having sex.

After Zappa made the recording, the “salesman” refused to pay him. Instead, the police raided the studio and seized the tapes. Of course, the “used car salesman” was simply an undercover detective hoping to entrap an unwitting “criminal.”

Zappa was charged with conspiracy to make pornography and given a 10-day prison sentence. This made Zappa a lifelong cynic toward authority.^[9]

1 Ozzy Osbourne

Yet more public urination from a beloved rock star. Throughout his lengthy career, Ozzy Osbourne has been a staple of the typical rock and roll antics that define the genre’s more reckless practitioners.

Ozzy is the epitome of the drunken, drug-induced wild behavior of rock stars. Some of his most outrageous behavior included biting the head off a bat and snorting a line of ants. But in 1982, a drunken Ozzy was arrested for urinating on a historic landmark.

In a drunken stupor, Ozzy stumbled around San Antonio, Texas, looking for a place to relieve himself. Unfortunately, he chose the city’s Cenotaph dedicated to the fallen soldiers in the Battle of the Alamo.

To make this story even stranger, Ozzy was wearing the clothes of his wife, Sharon, the whole time because she had denied him access to his own so that he could not go out and drink. Obviously, it didn’t work. The police arrested Ozzy for public intoxication. He was freed on $40 bond the same day.^[10]

Edward is a writer and musician.

Last April 5th marked the 26th anniversary of the death of Kurt Cobain. Dead by an apparent suicide, the Nirvana front man became Generation X’s contribution to rock’s mythic 27 Club. While dying at 27 is hardly something to aspire to, the members of music’s 27 Club have been exalted to legendary status because of this very accomplishment (although the fact that some even made it to 27 was probably a feat in and of itself). So many well-known and influential musicians died at 27, but the roster of artists who just missed membership into the club is equally impressive. Below is a look at 10 Musicians Who Just Missed The 27 Club, all by less than one year.

10 Crazy Conspiracy Theories Clouding The Music Industry

10Shannon Hoon

September 26, 1967 – October 21, 1995 (28 Years, 0 Months, 26 Days – 27 Days Past 27)

Best known as the front man of the band whose legacy has been reduced to the iconic 1990s music video image of the bee girl, Blind Melon’s Shannon Hoon missed out on the 27 Club by less than one month. After a lengthy struggle with drug addiction that landed him in rehab twice and earned him the company of a sober counselor on the road, Hoon died in 1995 of a cocaine overdose while on tour for the band’s sophomore album, Soup. His life and musical legacy is remembered annually at the 3-day Shannon Hoon Vigil at his gravesite in Dayton, Indiana.^[1]

9Steve Gaines

September 14, 1949 – October 20, 1977 (28 Years, 1 Month, 6 Days – 37 Days Past 27)

Barely 28 at the time of his death, Steve Gaines had recently joined Lynyrd Skynyrd following the departure of guitarist Ed King and upon the urging of Cassie Gaines, Steve’s sister and Skynyrd’s backup singer. While on tour in support of Street Survivors, the band’s first studio album with their new guitarist, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Convair 240 aircraft crash-landed in the swamps of Mississippi, killing six people, including lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and the Gaines siblings. Copies of Street Survivors with Steve Gaines engulfed in flames were subsequently pulled from shelves and replaced with a more solemn image of the band standing in front of a black backdrop. Only recently has the original album cover been restored.^[2]

8Gram Parsons

November 5, 1946 – September 19, 1973 (26 Years, 10 Months, 14 days – 47 Days Until 27th Birthday)

The strange end of the hugely influential country-rock pioneer Gram Parsons is one of music’s more mythic stories. Upon his death at the age of 26 from a morphine and alcohol overdose, Parsons’s friend and road manager Phil Kaufman, acting on a pact the two made for Parsons’s ashes to be scattered over Joshua Tree National Park upon his death, stole his corpse from Los Angeles International Airport and drove to the Cap Rock section of the park where he doused the casket with gasoline and immolated his late friend. If you were wondering what the repercussions were in 1973 for cadaver theft, there were none. There was, however, a $750 fine for the cost of the charred coffin, which Kaufman earned by staging Kaufman’s Koffin Kaper Koncert.^[3]

7Bradley Nowell

February 22, 1968 – May 25, 1996 (28 Years, 3 Months, 3 Days – 94 Days Past 27)

The death of lead singer Bradley Nowell is an interesting one in that it came at a time when Sublime was on the precipice of achieving mass popularity. Following the success of the band’s single “Date Rape,” Sublime was set to perform at San Francisco’s Maritime Hall to a sold-out audience when Nowell was found dead of a heroin overdose in his hotel room earlier that day. Leaving behind a wife of seven days and a son of eleven months, Nowell’s death was largely unnoticed, as their eponymous album was not yet slated to be released for another two months. It was only after the album dropped to massive sales and critical acclaim did fans realize that seeing the band live was not an option.^[4]

6The Big Bopper

October 24, 1930 – February 3, 1959 (28 Years, 3 Months, 9 days – 103 Days Past 27)

Universally overshadowed by the death of Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens, Jiles P. Richardson, dubbed the Big Bopper, was the third of the three musicians who died suddenly on what was later immortalized in song by Don McLean as “the day the music died.” En-route to Moorhead, Minnesota for the next stop on their 3-week, 24-city Winter Dance Party Tour, the trio’s Beechcraft Bonanza plane crashed after spiraling out of control, killing the tour mates and pilot. Motivated by persistent rumors that a gunshot fired aboard the plane caused the crash, the Big Bopper, Jr commissioned his father’s remains to be exhumed in the hopes of settling the controversy and determining if he survived the crash and died looking for help (there wasn’t and he didn’t). The Big Bopper was subsequently re-buried in a new coffin and his original casket can be seen at the Texas Musician’s Museum.^[5]

10 Eerie Quotes From Musicians Who Died Before 30

5Tim Buckley

February 14, 1947 – June 29, 1975 (28 Years, 4 Months, 15 Days – 136 Days Past 27)

Perhaps the artist whose legacy could have best been heightened by membership into the 27 Club is Tim Buckley. Buckley spent his near decade-long career exploring different genres and styles of music, transitioning from folk to rock to psychedelic to jazz to a more soulful sound, with each subsequent album alienating some fans and engendering fanaticism in others. Upon his death from a heroin/morphine/alcohol overdose, Buckley’s friend, Richard Keeling, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for supplying the singer with the fatal drugs. Buckley has since been eclipsed in fame by his late son Jeff Buckley, whose drowning death at the age of 30 also narrowly missed his acceptance into the 27 Club.^[6]

4Bix Beiderbecke

March 10, 1903 – August 6, 1931 (28 Years, 4 Months, 24 Days – 150 Days Past 27)

Probably the least known artist on the list, Bix Beiderbecke was a legendary jazz musician whose autodidactic cornet sound made him one of the most innovative musicians of his era (and would have made him the O.G. of the 27 Club had his life been cut short a few months earlier). Beloved by jazz musicians and celebrated as one of the first white musicians to not only gain acceptance, but admiration, in the largely black world of early jazz, Beiderbecke’s problems with alcohol eventually resulted in death during America’s Prohibition period. His musical legacy is remembered at the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival, which has been held annually in his hometown of Davenport, Iowa since 1972.^[7]

3Nick Drake

June 19, 1948 – November 25, 1974 (26 Year, 5 Months, 6 Days – 206 Days Until 27th Birthday)

Although he released only three albums, Nick Drake has, in death, earned the cult status and widespread acclaim that eluded him in life. By the time he recorded his final album, Pink Moon, Drake’s longstanding depression had incapacitated him so severely that he was unable to function and ultimately hospitalized. Drake died in his parents’ home of an overdose of antidepressants nearly six months shy of his 27th birthday. Posthumous tributes include Dream Academy’s 1985 song “Life In A Northern Town,” which was dedicated to the singer, as well as a music video for “Black Eyed Dog” directed in 2007 by actor Heath Ledger, making Drake’s final recording also one of Ledger’s final artistic outputs before his own untimely death at 28.^[8]

2Otis Redding

September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967 (26 Years, 3 Months, 1 Day – 274 Days Until 27th Birthday)

Hard to believe that Otis Redding was barely 26 when he died in 1967 from a fatal plane crash. By the time his plane plunged into water three miles outside of the intended Madison, Wisconsin airport runway, Redding had already achieved legendary status amongst his peers for his solo and duet recordings with Carla Thomas, as well as through his high-energy performance style. Three days prior to his death, “the Big O” recorded “(Sittin On) The Dock of the Bay,” which proved to be his biggest hit and was a marked departure from his “Shake! Otis” sound that defined his earlier career and made him the enigmatic star of Stax Records.^[9]

1Hillel Slovak

April 13, 1962 – June 25, 1988 (26 Years, 2 Months, 12 Days – 292 Days Until 27th Birthday)

Although Hillel Slovak died from a heroin overdose before the Red Hot Chili Peppers gained enduring fame, he was the seedling from which the band’s idiomatic sound grew. Prior to forming RHCP, Slovak was guitarist for his high school band Anthym. Dissatisfied with the group’s bassist, Slovak taught his friend Michael “Flea” Balzary to play bass and, from that, Red Hot Chili Peppers was eventually formed. Upon his death, Slovak was replaced with guitarist John Frusciante, at the time a teenager with zero band experience but whose playing style was hugely influenced by his predecessor. Arguably Hillel Slovak’s greatest role in music history was that of a mentor, in that protégés Flea and Frusciante have become two of the most celebrated bassists and guitarists, respectively, in music.^[10]

20 Notable People Who Died At 27

About The Author: Heidi Gillstrom resides in Chicago and occasionally works in television. She is no longer eligible for entry into the 27 Club.

Celebrity endorsements can make a product. For a famous person in need of a little cash endorsements can be a life, or at least bank balance, saver. Sometimes the endorsements make absolutely no sense – Ozzy Osbourne’s advert for I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter was hardly rock and roll. But if the item being sold matches up with a celebrity’s brand then there can be big bucks made all round. If celebrity sells and sex sells then would could be bigger than mashing the two together? Here are ten times musicians got down and dirty with the sex industry.

SEE ALSO: 10 Sex Toys With Ridiculously Ancient Origins

10 Rammstein Penises

The German hard rock band Rammstein is not one to shy away from sensitive areas. Their 2009 video for the song Pussy featured rather more flesh and sexual intercourse than American music videos would be allowed to put on display. Coming from the album ‘Liebe ist fur alle da’ – Love is for everyone – the song was a sign of where the band would be going next. They decided to release a special box set for the album, not an unusual merchandising strategy, but they included non-stand items in the hand-crafted case. Like handcuffs, lubricant, and six pink plastic dildos in various shapes and sizes. “Size does matter, after all,” as they sang in Pussy.

The boxset could be bought with either the censored or uncensored version of the album, for those perhaps not expecting rude words from a box of sex toys. In Germany the album could not be displayed in shops after a court ruled it was damaging to youths.^[1]

Despite rumors that the six dildos in the special edition were modeled on the band members’ members it appears this is just an urban legend – unless someone with more intimate knowledge knows better.

9 JLS Condoms

The boy band JLS emerged from the UK version of the X-factor in 2008 after coming second to Alexandra Burke. Of the two however it was JLS who proved to have the staying power racking up several number ones. Being socially responsible the band decided to partner with the condom maker Durex to release their own range of branded condoms.^[2]

As the boys said at the time “it’s important to put your love in a glove.” They decided to repurpose the JLS of their name to make it stand for Just Love Safe.

Each box featured the face of one of the four stars which led to an impromptu popularity contest. Ashton is apparently the one people pick when it comes to safe sex. Those looking to colour code their loving were please to know that each of the pop stars’ condoms came in a different color.

8 Safaree Samuels’ Anaconda

Safaree Samuels is a rapper and songwriter perhaps best known for dating Nicki Minaj for over a decade. Or at least he was most famous for that until his name started trending on Twitter in 2018. Safaree’s nudes had leaked and the internet was going wild. Some suggested that the rapper had been behind the leak of the explicit photos. If he was looking for publicity then it worked.^[3]

This year however he sought to use his internet fame, as well as other of his attributes, to make some hard cash. A replica of the much seen penis can now be bought. Called Safaree’s Anaconda the object comes in at 12 inches long so buyers will be getting plenty of bang for their buck. While some people might be cautious about their purchase Safaree’s current girlfriend said “I’m so excited for you ladies!”

7 Daft Punk condoms

When musician Diplo posted a picture of an empty box of condoms on his Instagram he did what everyone does after sex – he thanked Daft Punk. This was around the time of the release of Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’ but Diplo was not just talking about the aphrodisiac powers of the bands tune. The condoms he was so ostentatiously showing off were branded with an image of the band and the name of their hit. Someone had got lucky indeed.^[4]

But it soon turned out that rumours of Daft Punk getting into the condom business were premature. Durex denied going into partnership with the band. The condoms were just a promotional item being given away by their record company’s PR. Daft Punk have never spoken about how they feel about being linked in the public imagination to Diplo’s penis but Durex were thrilled. “We do hope that by using Durex condoms, music-lovers will continue to make sweet music together and have great sex!”

6 Dave Stewart’s vibrator

The Eurythmics has some huge hits in the 80s and have reunited several times since their first split to put out new albums. But it does seem as if there have been things other than music on Dave Stewart’s mind. In 2008 it was announced that his song Let’s Do It Again would be available free of charge to those who bought a vibrator inscribed with lyrics from the song – probably for those who get excited by reading.^[5]

This was to be no ordinary sex toy however. For a start it would cost £1000, making the free song seem like less of a bargain. To account for the high price it should be noted that it comes tipped with 28 round-cut black diamonds. Since there is not much light in its intended using spot the diamonds don’t really need to sparkly anyway. For those worried that they don’t get enough use from their toys the vibrator came with a leather cord that meant you could wear it around your neck. It also came with a pick in case you wanted to strum your guitar. Or anything else.

5 Mötley Crüe’s motley crew

Mötley Crüe have always had girls, girls, girls on their mind so it is no wonder that they are always looking for ways to please them. Alongside Lovehoney – “The sexual happiness people ” – the band created a set of eight “powerful” vibrators. Coming in a range of sizes, colors, and with either 7 or 10 functions, the vibrators have names paying tribute to the band’s classic songs. Some, like like Dr Feelgood, hint at the pleasures that await while others, “Too fast for love,” perhaps hint at thwarted passion.

While the makers say that the “eye-catching vibes capture the style and sex appeal of the band perfectly,” some might quibble at the verisimilitude of the wares on offer. If these capture the appearance of the members then there may be many anatomical questions to answer.^[6]

4 The Vibrators’ Vibrator

Sometimes an endorsement is just too perfect to pass up. When persona and product overlap completely you would be a fool not to take the money. When Lovehoney started working with the punk-rock group The Vibrators there was only one product they could possibly make – a Buzzin Bullet Vibrator. And being a punk group it of course had to come in a box shaped like a Union Jack draped coffin.^[7]

The Buzzin Bullet was touted as the first official mash up of musician and sex toy. For years the band had been told they should make money off their name by releasing their own vibrators and when the Buzzin Bullet finally did make its way onto their merchandise stands at concerts they flew off the shelves and into buyers’ hands. And other places. The band thanked Lovehoney, calling them “a company who know so much about the band and who have the right, fun attitude to the product—a good coming together you could say.”

3 Motorhead’s motorised head

Motorhead have been toying with sex toys for a long time. On their 1977 debut album they released their song Vibrator that had such catchy lyrics as:

“I’m really starting to buzz,
Your feeling comes, I’m starting to hum,
I can do it like nothing else does.”

Vibrators were an obvious collaboration choice then for the rockers. They began by releasing four fairly dull looking tubes emblazoned with names from their hit-list like “Ace of Spades” and “Born to lose” as well as just their name. But the band must have been doing something right with their merchandise as they soon came out with three new toys for their range.^[8]

The additions to the range included a vibrating glass wand, two solid glass dildos shaped like bombs and a War-Pig topped with a model of their Snaggletooth mascot. One member of the band cautioned users “Just like the band, our products are EXTREME! Enjoy with care.”

2 Ghost B.C.

The Swedish band Ghost, also known as Ghost B.C. in the USA for legal reasons, is a hard rock group that does not mess around when it comes to sex play. Why merely be deviant when you can also be blasphemous at the same time? The band’s Phallos Mortuus Ritual box set comes with everything you might need to get a party started.^[9]

Inside a book-shaped box lined with red velvet you get one bronze-effect butt-plug with the band’s Grucifix symbol on the base, one dildo finished with the head of one of the band member’s dressed as a bishop, and divorce certificate – just in case things go wrong probably.

The box set comes in a range of sizes to suit all needs from Men’s Small to Men’s Extra, Extra Large.

1 Marilyn Manson

Marilyn Manson lives to shock people out of their tired assumptions and passivity. Certainly one way to shock someone would be to yank out Manson’s own product – a dildo with his face on it.^[10]

Called the Double Cross dildo it features the singer’s name embossed on the shaft but you probably won’t notice that as long as his face is peering into your soul. Described on Manson’s website as “soft, lifelike,” it does make you wonder which part of the singer it most resembles. It does come with a black velvet bag so when you are done with it you do not have to face Manson looking back at you for long.

Helpfully the product is described as “wipe clean” and the paint used to create Manson’s face is environmentally safe. Unfortunately the face itself “May fade with multiple uses.”

Searching for origin stories in music is often a ceaseless chase through history. Art is rarely created in a vacuum, meaning musicians – however original their work might be – are inherently influenced by others who came before them. Even the freshest of tunes are, via their composers’ experiences, part homage.

There are, though, certain musicians that stand out as pioneers – ones whose special talents or against-the-grain styles became premonition points for where music was going. Whether this meant furthering a fledgling genre or incorporating new techniques and instruments into existing ones, here are ten examples of musicians ahead of their time, in chronological order.

10 Rock And Metal Musicians Who Killed Someone

10 Charlie Christian Electrifies Jazz

Benny Goodman, the jazz clarinetist whose bandleading skills earned him the nickname “The King of Swing,” was unconvinced. In 1939, his group was among the most popular in the U.S., and he wasn’t keen on fixing something that wasn’t broke. So when an associate asked him to consider adding a talented young musician – an afficionado of the them-fledgling electric guitar – Goodman was disinterested.

Luckily for jazz fans, talent scout John Hammond insisted. During a break at a concert in Beverly Hills, Hammond, as clandestinely as possible, slid Christian onto the stage and into the band. When Goodman noticed, he started playing a ditty called “Rose Room” that he assumed Christian didn’t know. He was wrong, and the epic wail that followed made Christian a band member and, shortly thereafter, the electric guitar a popular mainstay in jazz starting in the early 1940s.

Both “Rose Room” and “Solo Flight”, Christian’s other major showpiece with the Benny Goodman Band, displayed the sort of intuitive swing and fluid single-note runs that came to define the electric guitar’s contribution to the genre. Notably, his playing also was decidedly horn-like, so much so that people who heard (but not saw) him play often thought he was playing the saxophone.^[1]

Unfortunately, Christian didn’t get to witness the outsized influence he’d have on jazz. He died in 1942, of tuberculosis, at just 25 years old.

9 John Fahey: Complex Simplicity

The music of acoustic guitarist John Fahey went beyond original and unique; it was flat-out weird. The aural equivalent of leftovers’ night, his style basically threw everything in a pot, simmered their disparate flavors into each other and served it. Starting with a base of folk and blues – in fact, Fahey’s style has been described as American Primitive,^[2] a term coined to define a self-taught, minimalist style prominent in those genres – his music incorporated everything from Eastern ragas and cosmic psychedelia to soaring modern classical and eerie funereal notes.

Despite the myriad influences, the sound itself was oxymoronically simple: sometimes invented on the spot, Fahey’s brilliance typically played out on an unaccompanied steel-string acoustic guitar. The complex yet graceful improvisations, which Fahey claims incorporated both psychological and spiritual elements, have made many see him as one of the founders of a sub-genre known as New Age music.^[3]

Fahey the man was as strange as Fahey the musician. His dark sense of humor included his adoption of an alter ego, Blind Joe Death (which was also the title of his 1959 debut album), and a habit of schizophrenic song titles like “The Waltz That Carried Us Away And Then A Mosquito Came and Ate Up My Sweetheart.”

8 James Jamerson: The Electric Bassist That Powered Motown

“James who?” you ask? James Jamerson: the long-unheralded electric bass pioneer who, along with his studio band, The Funk Brothers, played on more #1 hit records than The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, and Elvis Presley… combined.^[4]

You may not recognize James Jamerson’s name… but you recognize James Jamerson. Think of the bass riff that opens up The Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love,” or The Temptations’ “My Girl.” That beautiful booming rhythm that owns the soundstage before the singer starts belting… that’s James Jamerson.

Before coming to Motown, Jamerson was a jazz player – a genre where he perfected a plucky, punchy style of play that helped so many hits pop through the radio waves. As prolific as he was gifted, Jamerson was featured on a broad array of hits from Motown’s heyday but, per the label’s habit of keeping its musicians in the shadows, wasn’t even listed on an album until megastar Marvin Gaye made sure he got credit for “What’s Going On”.

Jamerson was among the first to deviate from his bass-playing contemporaries, who generally stuck to more conventional roots and fifths.^[5] By roaming into more adventurous harmonic territory, Jamerson created counterpoint lines with vocalists – an innovation that led to his well-earned nickname: The Hook.

7 Black Sabbath: Metal Pioneers Turned Megastars

It’s tempting to play popularity contrarian and reach back past Ozzy and his bandmates for some arcane examples of now-obscure headbangers. But sometimes the ones that did it first did it well enough that they became megastars; such was the case with Black Sabbath. While deep guitar riffs and scream singing were around before 1970 – Jimi Hendrix, The Who – it was Black Sabbath who, according to music journalist Noah Lefevre, “showed the world what metal was”.^[6]

The group’s self-titled debut album – released on February 13, 1970 (purposefully or not, a Friday) – cracked the top 10 on the UK Albums Chart and peaked at #23 on the US Billboard Chart. In fact, the album did so well that its follow-up, Paranoid, was delayed because its predecessor was still selling.

It was worth the wait: per AllMusic’s Steve Huey, Paranoid – which featured legendary hits “Iron Man” and the anti-Vietnam “War Pigs” – was “one of the greatest and most influential heavy metal albums of all time,” which “defined the sound and style of heavy metal more than any other record in rock history.”

Black Sabbath’s immediate commercial success was made more impressive because, in true ahead-of-its-time fashion, the band’s early work received negative reviews from many music critics. This included Rolling Stone, which entirely missed the point of the nascent genre by calling the debut album “discordant,” “velocitized” and “never quite finding synch.” Well, duh.

6 Kraftwerk: 80s Music in the 70s

Plenty of eras have acts that seemed to preview where music is headed. A good example is R.E.M., a band that broke through at the height of 1980s hair band glam rock with a trend-pointing alternative vibe. However, the German band Kraftwerk might be the starkest example of decade-previewing clairvoyance, not because of their outsized talent but rather the era in which they did it.

In 1978, disco was king, and an understandably disgusted music counterculture gravitated to punk rock as its polar opposite; you can’t get much further apart than The Bee Gees and The Ramones. In between was a mix of new wave and traditional rock & roll. Nobody was truly capturing that one remarkable calling card of the 1980s: cheesy, perky pop.

The 70s didn’t really have a Safety Dance moment: a dorky but oddly appealing hit providing a sneak peak of corny-yet-catchy 80s pop. But it did have Kraftwerk – who, despite middling-at-best commercial success,^[7] are considered pioneers of electronic music. Above is a particularly weird gem from 1978, called Die Roboter.

Top 10 Criminals That Changed Music History

5 Blondie: Hip-Hop Hero?

Like most genres, hip-hop has many pioneers along its road from underground to mainstream. Arguably the most prominent of these influences was a song that, way back in 1979, helped give the genre its name; this was Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight,” whose opening riff sent fans to record stores asking for “that ‘hip hop’ song.” The anthem peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Chart, and was lauded by US National Public Radio as among the 20th Century’s most influential songs.^[8]

A less likely fanner of the fledgling hip-hop flame was a white girl named Debbie Harry, lead singer of punk-turned-new wave band Blondie. Interestingly, Harry actually had a connection to Rapper’s Delight: in 1978, Blondie was performing with the funk group Chic in New York when several members of Sugarhill Gang began freestyling over Chic’s “Good Times,” whose bass became the hit rap song’s beat.

The next year, Blondie released “Rapture,” credited as the first major hip-hop hit to use original music^[9] rather than sampled beats. Powered by Harry’s lilting singing, Rapture also became the first #1 song to incorporate a rap element.

Unfortunately, Harry’s emcee skills make Vanilla Ice look like Biggie Smalls. Per songfacts.com,^[10] “Harry’s rap is so goofy that it sounds like she could be mocking the genre.” However, during hip-hop’s early days, the sort of simple, random lyrics like Harry’s “man from Mars eating cars” were typical of the still-evolving art.

4 Schoolly D

Five years after Blondie busted such memorable rhymes as “and you get in your car and you drive real far,” Philadelphia-born Jesse Bonds Weaver, Jr., a.k.a. Schoolly D, gave hip-hop an edgier tone that better reflected the lives of urban minorities in America. Blending impoverished realism with violence, drug use and a dash of sexual bravado, Schoolly D is considered by many the Founding Father of gangster rap.

Among the trio of singles from Schoolly D’s self-titled 1985 debut album was “P.S.K. What Does It Mean?” It meant Park Side Killas, a street gang with which Schoolly D was affiliated. In a storytelling fashion now ingrained in the genre, Schoolly D invites listeners along as he smokes weed, gets laid, and threatens to shoot a “sucka-ass n-gga” trying to kick rhymes as fresh as his.

Several gangster rappers name Schoolly D as an important inspiration, including Ice T, Public Enemy and N.W.A. However, while his subject matter was ahead of its time, Schoolly D’s rap skills were not; typical of the mid-1980s – still very much hip-hop’s infancy – his songs largely comprise simple, often clunkily-cadenced rhymes that don’t hold up to legends like Ice Cube, Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur who would soon take gangster rap fully into the mainstream. Schoolly D recorded a total of eight albums, none of which achieved commercial success.

3 Edie Brickell: Seattle by Way of Texas

Perhaps the most unorthodox preview of the 1990s Seattle sound was provided by a woman from Texas. In 1988, alternative rock band Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians released their sophomore album, Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars. The album peaked at #4 in the U.S., and its lead single, “What I Am”, cracked the Top 10 on the US Billboard Chart.

Shooting Rubberbands isn’t exactly grunge, but it certainly isn’t metal or glam rock. It stands proudly genre-less amid its contemporaries, an album’s worth of songs saying “maybe we can be a little more low key and dressed down here.” The video for “What I Am” reinforces this refreshing chillness, featuring Brickell breezing around a simple stage, sans the teased hair, leopard-patterned clothing and pyrotechnics common to videos of that era.

While certainly pioneering, Brickell and her band had good company. That same year, Perry Farrell’s trendsetting band Jane’s Addiction released its first major studio album, Nothing Shocking, featuring the classic hit “Jane Says.” Meanwhile the Red Hot Chili Peppers, though not yet commercially successful, had released three albums by 1987.

2 Rage Against the Machine: Hip-Hop Meets Hard Rock

Like Black Sabbath in the heavy metal genre, Rage Against the Machine is both the first and best band their genre, rock-rap, has ever seen. Of course, considering their contenders in this mashup genre include the earplug-inspiring Limp Bizkit and Lincoln Park, that’s not exactly a controversial statement.

With funk-derived beats, the all-time-great-caliber guitar prowess of Tom Morello^[11] and the angry reality rap of frontman Zack de la Rocha, RATM sounded different than anything before it, as relevant as any band during its decade-long run, and flat-out better than any band attempting to combine rock and rap since. Released in late 1992 during the height of the grunge era – and when white youths were starting to buy rap music en masse – the band’s self-titled debut album shot to Number 1 on the U.S. Billboard Chart on the strength of hits like “Killing in the Name,” “Bullet in the Head” and “Take the Power Back”.

It wasn’t just the band’s style that was a stark departure from the Nirvanas and Pearl Jams of the world. Amid a sea of inward-looking alternative music and violent gangster rap, RATM’s calling card was righteous vitriol, with de la Rocha’s inventive wordplay spewing venom against the U.S. government’s treatment of minorities (especially Native Americans), corporate greed and white supremacy. RATM influenced many bands associated with the “Nu Metal” subgenre popular in the mid-to-late 1990s, most prominently Korn.

1 Mann vs (Music) Machine

Save for her stint as singer for the one-hit-wonder 80s band Till Tuesday, Aimee Mann might be the best female musician most people have never heard of. After departing Till Tuesday as a spikey-haired new waver in the spirit of Cyndi Lauper, Mann pivoted to folk-rock and into the musical hinterlands; her first two solo albums, 1993’s “Whatever” and 1995’s “I’m With Stupid,” received critical acclaim but not commercial success.

Mann then did something truly groundbreaking: she told three major labels – Imago, Geffen and Interscope – to go to hell, and not only lived to sing the tale but significantly bolstered her popularity. She became, per the Washington Post, Her Own Mann,^[12] a light-rock rebel who started drawing audiences as much for her tea-in-the-harbor defiance than her prowess as a singer/songwriter.

In 1999 – the same year she founded her own label, Superego – Mann was nominated for an Oscar for “Save Me” (above), from the soundtrack for the film Magnolia. Since then, she has released seven solo albums and, defying Father Time as well as convention, gotten better with age: her latest release, 2017’s Mental Illness, won a Grammy for Best Folk Album.

Despite recording exactly zero top ten hits^[13] in her career, Mann, who turns 60 this year, still sells out concert halls in her native US and abroad – a rare example of a female artist thriving despite flouting the modern music machine.

10 Crazy Conspiracy Theories Clouding The Music Industry

The music industry can be incredibly lucrative, and some artists have amassed staggering fortunes. When the songs from these artists make you laugh and cry, their bank balance reach the sky. Sometimes their singles touch millions of people in the heart, and they get rewarded with millions of dollars. Here are top 10 richest musicians in the world as of 2024.

Let’s take a look at the the wealthiest musicians globally, ranked by net worth. As of 2024, here’s a glimpse into the lives and fortunes of these ten richest musicians in the world.

1. Jay-Z

Jay-Z’s Net Worth: $2.5 Billion

Shawn Corey Carter, famously known as Jay-Z, reigns as the pinnacle of musical wealth. Not only has he garnered 24 Grammy Awards, but he’s also made history as the first billionaire musician. Beyond music, his ventures into clothing retail, luxury bars, and streaming platforms have cemented his status as a savvy businessman.

Achievements: Jay-Z, born Shawn Corey Carter, is widely considered the wealthiest musician in the world. His success extends beyond music, with investments in various businesses and ventures.

2. Rihanna

Rihanna’s Net Worth: $1.4 Billion

Robyn Rihanna Fenty, or simply Rihanna, embodies both musical prowess and humanitarian spirit. While her wealth is rooted in her chart-topping hits and fashion empire, her philanthropic endeavors, including the Clara Lionel Foundation, reflect her commitment to social causes.

Versatility: Rihanna, known for her chart-topping hits, has also ventured into the fashion and beauty industry with her successful brand, Fenty Beauty.

3. Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney’s Net Worth: $1.2 Billion

As a founding member of The Beatles and a prolific solo artist, Sir Paul McCartney’s influence spans generations. His continual success in music, bolstered by investments in various ventures like MPL Ventures and plant-based food companies, underscores his enduring legacy.

Legacy: As a former member of The Beatles, Paul McCartney’s influence on music is immeasurable. His solo career has also contributed to his wealth.

4. Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift’s Net Worth: $1.1 Billion

Taylor Swift’s meteoric rise to fame has been matched only by her shrewd business acumen. With a record-breaking tour and strategic ventures in concert films, Swift has diversified her revenue streams while maintaining her dominance in the music industry.

Recent Milestone: Taylor Swift crossed the billion-dollar mark in net worth in October, officially becoming a billionaire musician.

See also: The world’s most beautiful women.

5. Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Net Worth: $1 Billion

Sean Combs, alias Diddy, epitomizes versatility, excelling not only in rap music but also as a record producer and entrepreneur. With Bad Boy Records as his cornerstone, Diddy has amassed a fortune, complemented by ventures in wine and spirits.

6. Jimmy Buffett

Jimmy Buffett Net Worth: $1 Billion (At Time Of Death)

Jimmy Buffett’s musical legacy lives on, even after his passing, through his iconic songs and successful ventures. Leveraging his fan base, Buffett ventured into hospitality and entertainment, epitomizing the synergy between music and business.

7. Herb Alpert

Herb Alpert Net Worth: $850 Million

Herb Alpert’s enduring career as a trumpeter and singer has not only earned him accolades but also substantial wealth. With A&M Records as a cornerstone and ventures in art, Alpert’s multifaceted talents have solidified his status as a musical and entrepreneurial force.

8. Beyoncé

Beyoncé Net Worth: $800 Million

Beyoncé’s unparalleled talent as a performer is matched only by her astute business instincts. From her entertainment company, Parkwood Entertainment, to her successful apparel brand, Ivy Park, Beyoncé has diversified her portfolio while maintaining her reign as a music icon.

See also the details about Beyoncé net worth.

9. Bono

Bono’s Net Worth: $730 Million

Background: Bono, the lead vocalist of U2, has not only made a significant impact in the music industry but also through his philanthropic efforts.

Paul David Hewson, known as Bono, epitomizes longevity and success in the music industry. With U2’s global acclaim and strategic investments, including a stake in Facebook through Elevation Partners, Bono’s influence transcends music into the realm of business.

10. Madonna

Madonna’s Net Worth: $850 Million

Madonna, the undisputed queen of pop, continues to captivate audiences with her timeless hits and unparalleled stage presence. Leveraging her extensive touring and business ventures like Maverick Records, Madonna remains a powerhouse in both music and entrepreneurship.

Iconic Career: Madonna, often referred to as “The Undisputed Queen of Pop,” has been creating catchy lyrics and beats for over four decades. She holds the Guinness World Record for “Best Selling Female Recording Artist Of All Time”.

Remember that these net worth figures are estimates and subject to change. The music industry continues to evolve, and artists diversify their income streams beyond traditional avenues. These individuals have not only achieved immense success in their craft but have also made strategic financial moves to secure their places among the richest musicians in the world.

Related

Learning to play a musical instrument takes hard work. Practice, and patience, and more practice. And that can be such a drag. The devil is believed to be very fond of music, which is not surprising. After all, he does have all the best tunes.

Lucifer is said to have a special affinity to stringed instruments, particularly violins and guitars. In exchange for just one soul, any condition, the Prince of Darkness can teach you how to really play that guitar. He can make you a star.

You might think that no one would take him up on this offer, but we have found at least 10 musicians who, allegedly, thought that this was a great deal.

So, why not take it easy on yourself and trade that soul in today. Who has time for scales anyway?

Trombonists need not apply.

Top 10 Most Evil Men

10 Jimmy Page

Legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist, Jimmy Page, was a student of occultism for a while. He bought Aleister Crowley’s old home in Loch Ness, which he believed was haunted. He often talked about the strange experiences he had had there.

He followed Crowley’s occultist teachings about focusing your intentions on what you want to get out of life. Apparently Jimmy just wanted to play a mean guitar, and he certainly got that wish.

Lots of people claimed that he had sold his sold to the devil to get such fast fingers, to which Page replied that if had, then so had the rest of the band.

Which is not exactly a denial. This may be the origin of the myth that if you play Stairway to Heaven backwards, you can hear demonic voices speaking.

Or something.

9 Paganini

Niccolo Paganini was both a violinist and a guitarist, so he didn’t stand a chance. Born in 1782 in Genoa, he began learning the violin at the age of 7, and is considered by many to be the greatest violin virtuoso of all time.

He was so much better than his peers that a rumor circulated, and persisted, that he must have sold his soul in exchange for his virtuosity (though not his virtue). It could have been that, of course, or it could have been the hours of practice and his extremely long fingers which allowed to him to play three octaves across four strings, which was unheard of.

His hand span, was probably due to Marfan Syndrome, which typically leads to sufferers being exceedingly tall with long limbs. Paganini, like all music geniuses, used his skills mostly to get girls. He was a great womanizer and was said to trap the souls of young women inside his violin, although quite how he did it, no one ever explained.

One concert goer in Vienna even claimed to have seen the devil guiding Paganini’s arm. Which probably made for interesting conversation during the interval.

8 Robert Johnson

Robert Johnson’s is probably the most famous soul in the Devils collection.

Sometime during the 1930s he said to have met the Devil, allegedly at the Clarksdale Crossroads.

He was said to have been a decent harmonica player but a ‘terrible guitarist’. Then he disappeared for a few weeks. He is supposed to have taken his guitar to the crossroads in Mississippi, where the devil retuned his guitar and gave him a few lessons.

When he returned, his terrible guitar technique was now described as ‘formidable’ and ‘masterful’.

When Robert Johnson died in 1938, at the age of 27, the rumor became a fact, and Johnson is now known officially as the Devil’s Bluesman.

7 Giuseppe Tartini

Giuseppe Tartini is said not only to have sold his soul to the devil, but also to have composed a song with him. Trillo del Diavolo, or The Devil’s Trill, came to Tartini in a dream. The music came to him, he said, after his dream-self had also sold his soul.

He failed to check the small print on the deal, however, because the music he wrote down when he awoke was not as complex as the Devil’s tune.

Perhaps that’s just as well, however, as the Devil’s Trill is said to be one of the most technically demanding pieces for violin ever written. Although he was a very accomplished musician, he soon discovered that he was not really good enough to play his own tune, and so he had traded his soul for a tune he could not play.

They’re tricksy, these devils.

Tartini spent the rest of his life trying to properly master his own tune, which must have been annoying. He was, however, a first class musician, as well as a notorious womanizer, a brawler and an expert swordsman.

6 John Lennon

John Lennon is famous for saying that The Beatles were bigger than Jesus. So we already knew he was a blasphemer. One Beatles ‘scholar’ however, has spent years interpreting hidden messages and symbols in John Lennon’s music, art-work and album covers, and he believes that he has ‘evidence’ that Lennon actually sold his soul to the devil.

He follows an apparently ‘fascinating’ trail of sorcery, mysticism, numerology and theology to explain his theory, as well the slightly less reliable mystical science of anagrams and listening to songs backwards.

OK, so there is a good chance that this Beatles scholar is a little bit nuts, but then again, who are we to judge? Lennon allegedly signed his pact with Lucifer some time around December 1960, shortly before the first known outbreak of that well-known viral disease, Beatlemania. If true, it seems particularly hard on Lennon, as the other 3 band members, presumably managed to keep their souls intact while still sharing the glory.

Lennon was promised 20 years of success before the devil reclaimed his own.

Lennon died on 7th December 1980.

Well, we’re convinced.

Top 10 Evil Children

5 Snoop Dogg

Usually these devil-soul transactions are shrouded in secrecy. Occasionally, however, a performer comes along who is happy to talk about it. Or even sing about it.

Snoop Dogg admits that at the time he was in a dark place, when he heard a voice say, “Bring your lifestyle to me I’ll make it better”

Mr Dogg asked how long he would live, and the voice cried back, “Eternal and forever.”

Sounds like a good deal. There is some evidence that the artist at first believed that he was making a pact with God, but was tricked by the devil.

Or perhaps, it’s just a song.

You decide.

4 The Rolling Stones

In 1968, The Rolling Stones released a new album that confirmed every parent’s darkest suspicions. Rock and roll was indeed the devil’s music. The opening song of Beggar’s Banquet was, of course, Sympathy For The Devil.

Keith Richards told Rolling Stone magazine that some people saw them as “acting as unknown agents of Lucifer while others think we are Lucifer.”

Either way, they were trouble.

Some of their fans, however, really bought into the Satanic Majesties thing (the title of their previous album). In particular, the Hells Angels lapped it up. If it was possible for an illegal biker gang to have an official anthem, Sympathy For The Devil was it. They provided ‘security’ for the Stones at Altamont free music festival.

Trouble erupted during that song, and a short time later a teenage boy was stabbed to death.

Although the song was not directly linked with the stabbing, the Stones didn’t play the song live again for a long time. The Stones have been dogged by rumors of devil worshiping ever since, possibly because of secret messages embedded in their music, or possibly because of the large horned devil’s head tattooed on Mick’s chest.

3 Philippe Musard

Philippe Musard was a French musician, composer, and conductor who was known as much for his colorful life as he was for his concerts, which is saying something, because the concerts were said to be chaotic, riotous affairs.

Philippe Musard was the rock star of the nineteenth century.

He certainly had theatrical flair, and loved to shock his audience. Musard was the first conductor to stand up during his performances, and the first to fling his arms around wildly. Sometimes he even threw his baton into the audience. He is credited with inventing the Galop Infernal, frenetic dance tunes that were often used as the accompaniment to the can can dances of the time.

He was phenomenally successful, and Parisian confectioners even sold his effigy in chocolate. While he conducted, he was said to pull strange faces, and to look almost possessed with his wild gesticulations. It may have been this that led to the persistent rumor that Musard had made a pact with the devil.

2 Tommy Johnson

Tommy Johnson was a blues musician and is the man credited with starting the rumor that Robert Johnson had sold his soul at the crossroads. Which is odd, because, before that rumor got around, it was thought that Tommy had done the exact same thing.

Tommy Johnson was one of the most influential bluesmen in Mississippi during the 1920s and 1930s. His older brother LeDell was teaching him how to play the guitar, when, as a young teenager, Johnson ran away from home to the Mississippi Delta. When he returned 2 years later, he was an expert guitar player.

LeDell Johnson claimed that his brother had met a ‘mysterious figure’ at a crossroads. The stranger tuned his guitar for him, after which he could play like, well, the devil. Which exactly story what Tommy said about Robert Johnson.

Could it be that Tommy Johnson was diverting attention from his own diabolic encounter? Or perhaps the devil spends a lot of time hanging around crossroads with a guitar tuner.

1 Bob Dylan

In 2016, Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel prize for literature. It was pretty much a surprise to everyone. Except, perhaps, Bob. He explained in an interview, “It’s a destiny thing. I made a devils bargain and I’m holding up my end.”

Well that seems pretty conclusive. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise though. Bob Dylan, apparently, died on July 25, 1965. Coincidentally, that was the same day that he walked on stage at the Newport Folk Festival stage with an electric guitar.

An electric guitar. At a folk festival. To make it worse, he was accompanied by a rock band and they launched into a decidedly un-folky rendition of his new song, “Like a Rolling Stone.”

Didn’t go down well.

So it will come as no surprise to any of the tambourine shaking, harmonica blowing folk fans that Dylan had signed an unholy pact.

Top 10 Most Evil Women

About The Author: Ward Hazell is a freelance writer and travel writer, currently also studying for a PhD in English Literature

[WARNING: contains foul language and offensive concepts.] In their early days, The Who’s live performances would sometimes culminate in the band destroying their instruments. Guitarist Pete Townsend would hold his six-string aloft and proceed to smash it against the stage. Earlier this year, Californian indie star Phoebe Bridgers attempted a similar feat on Saturday Night Live. At the climax of her song “I Know The End”, Bridgers started bashing her guitar against a monitor. A few sparks came out, but nothing actually broke. She later tweeted that she had asked the guitar company’s permission before trying to trash their kit and assured fans that the monitor was a prop. Outrageous behavior.

Off the back of performances like that, it is easy to see why some people think punk (and other forms of protest music) is dead. The majority of musicians today seem to be terrified of controversy (or are simply now part of the status quo or paid off to not inhibit “progress” which most of them agree with anyway). Most of those who have anything of any substance to say keep quiet or dilute their message to ensure the flow of money. But towards the fringes, there are plenty of musicians who are unafraid to speak their political (typically left-wing) minds. These feisty players call out conservatives; engage in protest; and rebel against those whom they consider to be crooked politicians. Here are ten bands and artists that prove the spirit of punk is still very much alive.

Top 20 Best Rock Bands Of All Time

10 Fat White Family

Fat White Family is one of the most outspoken bands around today. The south London rockers seem to thrive on controversy, especially in their early days. First emerging in 2011, they made a name for themselves touting a confrontational blend of transgressive art, nihilism, and brazen drug references.

Their debut album, Champagne Holocaust, featured frontman Lias Saudi singing about “fifteen-year-old tongue” and throwing out such lines as “Hell hath no fury like a failed artist. Or a successful communist.” Fat White Family has gone on to release songs such as ‘Bomb Disneyland’, ‘Vagina Dentata’, and ‘Goodbye Goebbels’, a tongue-in-cheek love letter to the infamous National Socialist politician.

The band first made headlines in 2013, following the death of former British PM Margaret Thatcher. The day the Iron Lady died, Fat White Family members scrawled the words ‘The Witch is Dead’ onto a banner and joined the hundreds of people out partying in Brixton to celebrate Thatcher’s demise.

The notorious shock merchants have since found themselves at the center of various controversies. There are rumors of band members stripping naked on stage and covering themselves in poop. US music site Pitchfork criticized Saudi, who has Algerian heritage, for using the term “sand nigger” in a satirical Twitter post. In 2020, the band was attacked online after Saudi wrote a damning treatise against Bristol punk band Idles.

Despite that madness, the band finds their antics to be fairly innocuous. “It’s not like we’re breaking any boundaries or anything, y’know?” they told reporters back in 2015. “People got naked and covered themselves in sh——t on stage like thirty years ago. It’s nothing new… I don’t think we’re doing anything unique or special.”

9 Sleaford Mods

Sleaford Mods are another British group raging against the establishment with their pro-vegan and socialist viewpoint (missing the irony of wearing a Cartier watch . . . oops). Originating in Nottingham, the duo soon earned a formidable reputation for their in-your-face live shows. During performances, frontman Jason Williamson howls obscene lyrics of Brexit-era Britain at the audience. His partner in crime Andrew Fearn stumbles about behind him, loading up angry, jagged instrumentals for Williamson to rant over.

“I’m sick of trying to hold it down,” he rages. “I just want to get f——cked up all the time. I wanna leave work, go pub, buy drugs, and f——cking spit at people.”

Sleaford Mods released their latest record, Spare Ribs, at the start of 2021. The album features tracks like ‘Shortcummings’, a piece about conservative political advisor Dominic Cummings, and ‘Out There’ which the NME described as “a perfectly tragicomic painting of our Plague Island.”

8 Goat Girl

When band members give themselves names like L.E.D, Clottie Cream, Holly Hole, and Rosy Bones, you know they mean business. London-based Goat Girl is a band with extremist political intent (as is pretty much every band or form of “entertainment” these days).

Their self-titled debut album was described by singer and guitarist Clottie Cream as being “about gentrification and the wealth gap that exists in London, which is insane.” On ‘Burn The Stake’, ¬she implores the listener to “Build a bonfire. Build a bonfire. Put the Tories on top. Put the D.U.P. in the middle and we’ll burn the f——cking lot.” It is a fierce track lambasting Britain’s ruling alliance between Boris Johnson’s Conservative party and the Northern Irish right-wing.

7 Amanda Palmer

Journalists have called Amanda Palmer a pioneer of crowdfunding, a DIY musician adored by fans the world over. In 2013, the former Dresden Dolls member found herself in the tabloids after a minor onstage wardrobe malfunction. Palmer claims that The Daily Mail wrote an entire article about her nip slip but failed to mention anything about the performance itself. Instead, the journalist focused solely on the fact that one of Palmer’s breasts had apparently “escaped her bra”. She says the Daily Mail published photos of the incident under the title “Making a boob of herself!”

Amanda Palmer is no stranger to nudity. As she pointed out, if the newspaper had put in the slightest bit of effort to look her up they would have found far more salacious images online. Palmer found the experience to be so odd that she performed a song about it at the Roundhouse in London. “It’s so sad what you tabloids are doing,” she sang as a waltz to an audience of devoted fans. “Your focus on debasing women’s appearances devolves our species of humans”.

Halfway through the tune, the acclaimed songwriter stripped off completely in protest at her treatment by the British press. In video footage, she can be seen tossing her kimono to the side and completed the song wearing nothing but a pair of black gloves. “It’s just a naked woman,” she told her whooping audience with a wry smile, before finishing the song with a rousing cry of “Dear Daily Mail, up yours.”

6 Stormzy

Michael Ebenezer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr, better known as Stomzy, is one of the most popular rappers in Britain today. But in 2018 he used his position as a well-known musician to attack the government. At that year’s Brit Awards, the grime MC criticized then-prime minister Theresa May in an impassioned performance.

“Yo, Theresa May where’s that money for Grenfell? What you thought we just forgot about Grenfell?” In June 2017, the residential Grenfell Tower block went up in flames. The blaze killed 71 people and left hundreds more without a home. “You criminals,” he continued, “and you got the cheek to call us savages. You should do some jail time. You should pay some damage. We should burn your house down and see if you can manage this.” Stormzy went on to win Best British Male and Best Album at the ceremony.

5 Noname

Noname is another hip-hop artist continuing the tradition of political rebellion. The Chicago rapper is known for her songs on race, sex, and identity, all of which inform her politically focussed lyrics. Although she started as a self-declared poet, she soon turned to rap music, collaborating with her Chicago peers like Chance The Rapper and Saba.

Like Chance, Noname refuses to sign to a record label. Instead, she is an independent artist who finances her own projects and is proud of what she calls her “fight the man mentality.” Noname used the money from her 2016 mixtape Telefone to pay for her debut album Room 25.

4 Slowthai

Over the last few years, Tyron Frampton has become something of a national sensation. Born in the English town of Northampton, the rapper is known for his no-nonsense attacks on the British government.

In September 2019, Slowthai performed at an awards show holding an effigy of Boris Johnson’s severed head. He walked on stage at the Hyundai Mercury Prize with a decapitated dummy of the British prime minister, shouting, “Fu——k Boris Johnson, f——ck everything, and there’s nothing great about Britain.”

Some social media users were quick to criticize Slowthai’s stunt, but the rapper was having none of it. “Last night I held a mirror up to this country,” he wrote on Twitter “and some people don’t like its reflection. Yet this is exactly where we’re being taken, cut off and at all costs. The people in power who are trying to isolate and divide us aren’t the ones who will feel its effects the hardest.”

3 Pussy Riot

For the last ten years, Pussy Riot has been fighting back against the alleged human rights abuses of the Russian government. The musical outfit is known for its outrageous, attention-grabbing stunts. Several members have been jailed for criticizing the Kremlin.

Formed in Moscow, the group staged its first performance in November 2011. The band clambered up scaffolding, ripped open pillows, and threw the feathers onto the subway below. Other early outings included a show next door to Moscow Detention Center. In another, called ‘Putin Z——ssa’ aka ‘Putin Has P——ssed Himself’, they let off a smoke bomb in the Red Square.

Global notoriety came in 2012 when they demonstrated against the re-election of Vladimir Putin. Putin won the vote amidst accusations of rigging the ballot (much like the US and Joe Biden recently). Five Pussy Riot members in colored balaclavas staged a protest in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. They leapt around the altar singing their anti-Putin anthem ‘A Punk Prayer’ under the slogan “Sr——n Gospodnya” (“sh——t to the Lord”).

Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were jailed for their role in the stunt. Both women were sent to gulags hundreds of miles from their families. After their release in 2014, the band started playing more conventional gigs. They described them as a “subversive mix of activist art and live set.”

But in 2018 Pussy Riot made headlines once again when they invaded the final of the Russian World Cup. Four members ran onto the pitch of Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium dressed in police uniform. The band demanded that the Russian government:

• Free all political prisoners
• Stop arrests at public rallies
• Allow political competition in the country
• Stop fabricating criminal cases and jailing people on remand for no reason

The stunt took place during the second half of the France v Croatia match, in which France won 4-2.

After the pitch invasion, Tolokonnikova’s ex-husband Pyotr Verzilov fell ill and was taken to hospital in serious condition. Doctors strongly believe that he was poisoned.

2 Grup Yorum

Grup Yorum is, without a doubt, one of the most rebellious bands that have ever existed. The Turkish folk group (who are really punk in spirit only) has battled against state repression since they formed in 1985. The founding members created the group as students at Marmara University. They were inspired by the left-wing Nueva Cancion cultural movement of Latin America.

Despite changes in the band’s line-up, Grup Yorum has kept its firm “progressive” stance. The band performs folk music shaped by centuries of traditional Turkish culture. But Grup Yorum is not stuck in the past. Their songs also explore themes like the killing of teenager Berkin Elvan by state police, the Kurdish liberation struggle, and women’s rights.

The Turkish government has responded by banning their live shows, arresting many of their members, and raided their cultural center in Istanbul on several occasions. They accuse the band of being part of the Marxist-Leninist group DHKP-C. But state repression could not kill the band’s popularity. In 2015, Grup Yorum held a free concert in the western city of Izmir. Over a million people are said to have turned up.

After the attempted coup in 2016, the Erdoğan regime stepped up its attacks on the group. Six members were announced as wanted terrorists as placed on the government’s “grey list”. Two fled to Europe, while another five were arrested and sent to prison. In May 2019, they made the decision to go on a hunger strike.

On April 3rd, 2020, after 288 days without food, singer Helin Bölek died. She was 28. Mustafa Koçak, a supporter of the band who joined them in their hunger strike, died three weeks later. Bassist İbrahim Gökçek also passed away, aged 39, on May 7th. All three died fighting for the right to perform and demanding their freedom of expression.

1 Kunt and the Gang

Kunt and the Gang is rebellious irreverence at its very best. Despite the name, the act is made up of one man, a foul-mouthed synth player from the British town of Basildon. Kunt started out in 2003, playing provocative comedy hits like ‘A Lonely Wank in a Travelodge’, ‘Jimmy Saville & The Sexy Kids’, and ‘Sh——tting On A Picture of the Queen’.

Then, in December 2020, Kunt and the Gang released his first big single. ‘Boris Johnson Is A F——cking C——nt’ is less than a minute long, but it is clear in its message. The novelty protest piece made it to number five in the Christmas charts and went on to become the twentieth best-selling song of that year. Clearly, it must have captured something in the psyche of the British progressive public.

Top 10 Disturbing Facts About Sid & Nancy’s Doomed Relationship

The expression “crime does not pay” is wrong. Crime can pay very well. The royalties off crimes can leave quite the bounty. The actions of the following ten criminals resulted in hugely popular songs that still turn a profit. Some of the most famous musicians of all time got their start from people more occupied with committing crimes.

Related: 10 Bizarre Times Musicians Got Into Trouble With The Authorities

10 Anders Klarström

Anyone that gushed over boybands in the 1990s probably did not check out the Nazi punk band Commit Suicide. Ulf Ekberg is likely the only fan in that Venn Diagram. Along with Anders Klarström—the future head of the Swedish Democrats—Ekberg used Commit Suicide to promote far-right ideology. The radical outfit was hardly poised to top the hit parade with lyrics like “Men in white hoods march down the road, we enjoy ourselves when we’re sawing off n—rs’ heads/ Immigrant, we hate you! Out, out, out, out! Nordic people, wake up now! Shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot!” Klarström’s violent lyrics were not artistic hyperbole. He threatened to burn Jewish theater director Hagge Geigert alive. In 1986, Klarström’s militia-like arsenal of weapons was discovered. The band disbanded after Klarström was convicted for illegal firearm possession.

Down a group, Ekberg needed a new outlet. In August of 1990, Jonas Berggren asked his friend Ekberg to temporarily replace an absent bass player. A few weeks later, the lineup became permanent. With Berggren’s two sisters singing lead, the new group was called Ace of Base. ^[1]

It is unfair to dismiss Ace of Base as a fad. The brief mania in the early ’90s was incredibly influential. The giddy maximalist sound of hits like “The Sign” or “All That She Wants” was crafted by a team of Swedish songwriters for hire. By the decade’s end, the bombastic Nordic sound dominated the airwaves. The ultimate success of that evolution is discussed further in the article.

9 Raffaele Minichiello

Technically, Raffaele Minichiello is a musician in his own right. He runs a YouTube channel showing off his accordion prowess. However, his musical skill is often ignored for a bigger claim to fame. He committed the longest airplane hijacking in world history.

On October 30, 1969, Minichiello boarded TWA Flight 85 from San Francisco to Los Angeles with an M1 rifle packed in his luggage. Gun pressed against a stewardess’s back, he ordered the plane reroute to Rome. Over the next 18 hours and 22 minutes, the flight traveled nearly 7000 miles. When he landed in Italy, he was arrested after an extensive manhunt. He only served one and half years in prison.

Among the forty passengers taken captive that night were the members of the 1960s pop group Harpers Bizarre. As a sign of good faith, Minichiello released the passengers in Denver. Upon release, reporters tailed Harpers Bizarre to get their story. Unfortunately, the band could not capitalize on their new notoriety. The previous experience made them reluctant to travel. The lack of touring caused the group to infight. Further conflicts over management forced a breakup.

One former bandmember, Ted Templeman, was now desperate for a job. Less than a year after the hijacking, Templeman started work in an entry-level A & R position for Warner Brothers Records. He listened to demo tapes sent in by unknown wannabes. Among the scores of amateurs, two acts that Templeman discovered found future success. He launched Yacht Rock forefathers The Doobie Brothers and hair metal pioneers Van Halen into the mainstream. ^[2]

8 Sabrina Jackson’s Killer

When someone dies, custom says to rest coins on their eyes. No one placed any quarters on Sabrina Jackson’s lifeless body when it was discovered in 1983. Nor did anyone find the culprit responsible. All authorities could go off was a rumor. It was hypothesized that she was murdered in a retaliatory killing over her cocaine trafficking. The assault was more calculated than the standard drive-by. A guest came into her house intending to kill. At some point, they drugged her drink. In her unconscious state, they turned on the gas and slithered out.

Her eight-year-old son Curtis was wayward. His father had abandoned him. His mother was killed in a malicious attack. His grandmother was left to watch him. Curtis felt like a strain on his elderly caretaker. To relieve some of her troubles, he brought in extra income by selling drugs. By nineteen, he ascended the ranks to become his neighborhood’s kingpin. This success came with a few stints in jail for minor offenses. When his son, Marquise, was born, he swore off the trade. He would not let his child grow up without a parent as he did. Instead, he committed to making a living on a skill he picked up in jail, rapping. [Source 6] For a career marred by death, it is appropriate that he choose a name as valuable as two quarters resting on a pair of eyes, 50 Cent. ^[3]

7 Richard Mason’s Killers

Kit Lambert never wanted to get into music. The son of a composer and actress, he thought he would have a simple life among educated high society. In May 1961, he joined two Oxford friends, Richard Mason and John Hemming, on an expedition to discover the source of the Iriri River in the Amazon. They did not succeed. On September 3, Mason went searching for some food. Unknowingly, he stumbled upon the elusive Panará tribe. Fearful of all outside contact, the cannibalistic Amazonians stabbed and killed him.^[4] Police initially arrested Lambert and Hemming on the assumption that they made the story up to get away with murder. Expedition backers from the Daily Express secured their release.

Back in England, Lambert changed careers. He became an assistant director on films, like From Russia with Love and The L-Shaped Room. On the latter’s set, he met fellow assistant director Chris Stamp. Stamp convinced Lambert to check out a band he liked called The High Numbers. Lambert and Stamp decided the group could be the subject of a potential documentary. Charmed by the backstage antics, the two eventually abandoned their filmmaking aspiration. Lambert became the band’s manager on the condition that they change their name. He suggested The Who. Kit Lambert shaped one of the greatest rock bands ever, all so that he wouldn’t be food again. Yeahhhh! ^[5]

6 Jim Gordon

As a ubiquitous session drummer in the 1970s California scene, it is impossible to count how many records bear Jim Gordon’s name. That number skyrockets if one adds samples, if for just one track. Dubbed “the national anthem of hip-hop,” his near-universal drum break on the Incredible Bongo Band’s cover of “Apache” has been sampled more than seven hundred times. His handiwork propelled two of the most consequential artists in early hip-hop. Popularized by DJ Kool Herc, “Apache” was the go-to party starter of Herc’s legendary merry-go-rounds. It was an omnipresent sound at hip-hop’s unofficial big bang. When “Grand Wizzard” Theodore pioneered turntablism, the first album he scratched was “Apache.” Jim Gordon’s beat carried the next 40 years of music. But his presence brings a dark legacy.

Decades of drug use destroyed Gordon’s mental health. He retired from music after imaginary voices started haunting him. After a series of violent outbursts, he was sent to a psychiatric hospital. Upon his release in 1983, he became convinced that his mother was sending these messages to torture him. She had to be silenced, permanently. After bludgeoning her with a hammer, he stabbed her to death. As of 2021, he remains committed to a mental hospital.^[6]

5 King Ludwig II

King Ludwig II’s obsession with fairy tales prevented him from living happily ever after. As the ruler of Bavaria, Ludwig II wasted government funds constructing whimsical castles. Even as Prussians sieged his kingdom, he sank resources on ostentatious designs. One castle included an indoor cave on top of a man-made lake, so he would have a proper setting to dress up as his favorite opera character. Another building, Neuschwanstein, served as an architectural template for Disney World’s enchanting Cinderella Castle. There was a reason Ludwig was so drawn toward opulence. He believed he was the reincarnation of King Louis XIV of France.

Proclaiming himself a vessel for the Sun King’s spirit caused advisors to worry over his mental health. Other actions gave them pause too. He grew utterly obsessed with swans, carving the bird on every wall of his house. He talked to invisible courtiers for hours at a time. His eccentricities eventually grew more violent. He stole a citizen’s purse, strangled his brother with a rope, and orchestrated a bank robbery. Finally, in 1886, the government declared him insane. The day after he was deposed, his corpse was found floating in a pond. The doctor who diagnosed his insanity was also dead. The mysterious circumstances of the deaths have caused historians to speculate. Physicians, at the time, concluded that Ludwig killed the doctor and then drowned himself. However, conspiracies still abound.

Whatever happened to Ludwig that night cannot undo his positive impact on music history. A closeted homosexual, Ludwig showered composer Richard Wagner with gifts and money to earn his affection. Wagner denied the king’s advances but relied on his patronage. Before Ludwig discovered Wagner, Wagner considered retiring. Without any investors, he told his friend that “only a miracle can help me now or I am done for.” Ludwig’s lifelong sponsorship gave Wagner the freedom and finances to become one of opera’s great talents.^[7]

4 Morris Levy

When Tommy James left for New York with a demo of “Hanky Panky,” every label he approached was eager to sign him. The next day, they all turned him down. Roulette Records strongman Morris Levy warned them that James was his next act. If they poached him, the Genovese crime family would pay them an unpleasant visit.

Convicted extortionist and connected mobster Levy ran Roulette Records as an arm of his criminal empire. He skimmed money from competitors by bootlegging their records. No one dared rip off his signees. A burned corpse of a bootlegger that crossed Levy was found in a pyre of stolen albums. A less monstrous but still legally dubious practice was payola. The mafia-controlled racket gave aligned disc jockeys sanctioned hits to promote on their show. Under Levy’s management, James’s impressive string of indelible gems got the airplay they deserved.

The relationship was hardly worth the brief fame. Nearly 40 million dollars of James’s royalties were funneled toward Levy’s prostitutes, tax shelters, and monthly dues to the Genovese family. James retaliated by pulling a gun on Levy in a drugged-out brawl. Levy yanked his most valuable artist off the ground and threw him against the wall. Trying to put pressure on Levy, the rival Gambino family placed a hit on James. James was only able to live thanks to strings pulled by another powerful friend, Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Working in that line of business takes a lot of blood and luck, crimson and clover, over and over.^[8]

3 Lou Pearlman

Lou Pearlman started his career with a con. Lou Pearlman ended his career with a different con. In between, there were some songs.

His first enterprise swindled investors with a fraudulent blimp company. Recruiters financed a company that did not own a single airship. Passing off a reconstructing weather balloon to look like a blimp, he purposely sabotaged his maiden flight. The insurance payout funded borderline legitimate projects. His next idea was to operate a fleet of personal airplanes. After boyband New Kids on the Block booked a flight, Pearlman figured he could rake in millions if he formed his own group.

Pearlman created the two dominant artists of the ‘90s boyband boom, The Backstreet Boys and N’Sync. The ploy of a faux rivalry lined Pearlman’s pockets with stolen profits. When the bands finally wiggled out of their terribly constrictive contracts, they dropped Pearlman as their manager. Denied his major revenue source, he started a new con. In 2008, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for embezzling millions in a phony retirement pyramid scheme.

Pearlman exploded the craze that Ace of Base started. Pearlman hired a then-unknown composer Max Martin to craft his records. The two’s luck split over the ensuing decades. Until Pearlman’s death in 2016, Martin hit number one every year his former boss rotted in prison. By 2021, Martin had written the third-most number-one songs of all time.^[9]

2 Owsley Stanley

Hippies saw themselves as rebels against the powers in charge. Yet, their longest-lasting musical export was a product of the Central Intelligence Agency at its most villainous.

Starting in the 1950s, the CIA investigated LSD’s potential weaponized use as a truth serum. National security was too big of a priority to worry about rights like voluntary participation or informed consent. Unwitting victims were lured off the street and unknowingly slipped the drug. Behind fake walls, observers monitored their reactions. In one of the most unethical chapters in United States history, participants were raped, fell into comas, starved to death, jumped out of windows, and turned to murder. As awful as the experiment was, the CIA unwittingly catalyzed a cultural revolution.

Not all members regretted their involvement. The clandestine trials were Bohemian writer Ken Kesey’s first exposure to LSD. Having manufactured well over one million doses of the drug, MK-Ultra contact Owsley Stanley supplied Kesey and his entourage of the Merry Pranksters the potent chemicals needed for their infamous acid parties. The Warlocks, the in-house band, scored the debauched affairs with a rambling jam session resembling the drug’s hallucinatory effects. The profits of Stanley’s illegitimate business financed the Warlock’s first tours. Formlessness became the hallmark of the band, even after they changed their name to The Grateful Dead.^[10]

1 Michael Maybrick

Let’s start with the inarguable and then move to the speculative. First, the obvious truth, Duke Ellington made the world a better place. Over his six-decade career, Ellington consistently reshaped jazz history. Behind his piano at the Cotton Club, Ellington popularized the Big Band sound. Manager Irving Mills signed the legend after overhearing “Black and Tan Fantasy” creep through the airwaves of a local dive bar. Ellington’s 1927 song was not strictly an original composition. Mills was attracted to Ellington’s creative juxtaposition of jazz and motifs borrowed from Michael Maybrick’s 1892 hymnal “The Holy City.”

Despite “Holy City’s” reputation as the bestselling song of the 19th century, it is hard to confirm much of its songwriter’s biography. The nagging question, especially for researcher Bruce Robinson, is—did Maybrick get away with murder?. Circumstantial evidence strongly suggests he framed his sister-in-law for poisoning his brother. Unfortunately, Maybrick’s depravity might be even worse.

In his book They All Love Jack, Robinson makes a compelling case that Maybrick was the real identity of the eternally mysterious serial killer “Jack the Ripper.” Stops on Maybrick’s concert tours corresponded to the time and place where “Jack” sent his letters. Masonic elements splattered the crime scenes. Maybrick was a high-ranking member of the fraternity. The bodies were discarded within walking distance from Maybrick’s travel lodge. Singing a song by a serial murderer turned Duke Ellington into a household name, a fate Maybrick was surely thankful he avoided.^[11]

We’ve all heard music from rock music’s most iconic bands—the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Guns N’ Roses, and others. You’ve listened to their songs over and over, and you love them all the same. There are many incredible albums in the history of rock ‘n’ roll, but just as fascinating are the train wrecks, the experiments, and the odd detours. Weird, strange albums inspire shock and awe in fans.

Artists that are seen as icons in rock music often have certain styles that fans know them for. Paul McCartney makes Beatles-esque pop, Metallica makes heavy metal, and so on. The albums on this list are ones that mixed up the formula, with varying degrees of success. They made an impact on fans when they were released, and they still turn heads and grab attention to this day because of how incredibly strange they are.

Let’s take a look at some weird, wonderful, and wild records made by some iconic artists.

Related: Top 10 Musicians Who Were Ahead Of Their Time

10 Paul McCartney: McCartney II

The Beatles are all-encompassing when it comes to popular music. So much so that it seems nigh impossible for someone to not have heard something Paul McCartney has made at some point in their lives. Recorded while he was alone on a farm in Scotland, the songs on McCartney II were originally never meant to see the light of day, as they were intended to just be a fun, weird experiment. After the cancellation of McCartney’s tour in Japan due to marijuana possession, however, he decided to release the album anyways.

The album is well known for being polarizing, and it’s not hard to see why. If you listen to tracks like “Temporary Secretary,” for example, you might walk away feeling grated and annoyed. That song was actually an inside joke, as McCartney found the idea of a temporary secretary hilarious, which tracks with the actual song—which also feels like an elaborate joke at times.

Here’s an idea: Make a playlist with 9 songs, including “Yesterday” and “Bogey Music,” and click shuffle. It should make for an interesting game of Russian Roulette.^[1]

9 Bob Dylan: Self Portrait

By the time 1970 hit, Bob Dylan was already an American icon. Because of this, the pressure on him was immense, and this Self Portrait was born. Filled with strange covers, abrasive live recordings, and the “smooth flow” of a rocky mountain rapid, it was a shock to music listeners at the time and continues to do the same to this day.

When Self Portrait was first played on the radio in full to listeners, many were utterly confused. Critics began to wonder if Dylan had lost his mind. Well, not really. Dylan later went on to acknowledge that he had made the album intentionally bad, calling the album a “joke” and saying that he “wanted to make something [the hippies] couldn’t possibly like.” This reaction was because of the overwhelming pressure of his fame and situation… and because overzealous fans were following him and his family around in public.

While Self Portrait might be less Van Gogh and more Oh no, it’s a fascinating album for what it meant to the rock icon’s life and career.^[2]

8 Johnny Rotten: Metal Box by Public Image Limited

Your first impression after looking at the title of this entry is probably something along the lines of “What an odd name for an album,” and you’d be forgiven for that reaction. The name Metal Box was given because of the packaging that the album was originally included in. The band originally packaged the album in a brutal-looking tin can instead of a traditional sleeve. This packaging is known as one of the strangest choices in music history.

Rotten, originally the singer for the revolutionary punk band the Sex Pistols, had become disillusioned with his life as a leading punk frontman. After the Pistols disbanded, he went on to form Public Image Limited, where he vented his frustrations using abstract and terrifying sounds. No other album they created does this as well as Metal Box. In the song “Poptones,” for example, Rotten wails about a story of a girl who was kidnapped and locked in the trunk of a car, only for the cops to find the culprits by the song the girl heard playing on the radio.

The album is chock full of haunting imagery, such as that which is present in “Poptones,” and fans of the Sex Pistols’ rebellious punk rock may be shocked by what they find inside the Metal Box.^[3]

7 John Frusciante: PBX Funicular Intaglio Zone

John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers is one weird guy. When he’s not working with one of modern music’s most popular bands in “The Peps,” he is going solo, creating some truly insane rock music. As hinted by the wacky title, the music contained in the album is weird. At many points, whimsical childlike vocal melodies fly over eclectic electronic sounds like a strange musical bouncy castle.

Frusciante’s eclecticism is clear all over his music. From his rocky history with both substance abuse and the Red Hot Chili Peppers to his descent into the occult, you can see the evidence of a man who has lived an odd life. But there’s also a childlike innocence to it, as some of the songs on PBX feel childlike.

Whether or not you are brave enough to enter the Intaglio zone is up to you, but once you dive in, you may never be able to get out.^[4]

6 Nirvana: In Utero

To no one’s surprise, Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain experienced many struggles during his time on Earth. These struggles are what make In Utero such a fascinating album to talk about. Recorded in the year leading up to Cobain’s death, In Utero reflects heavily upon his pain. The album is noisy, unabashed, and jagged, being produced by experimental punk legend Steve Albini. It’s a big shift for the band, and In Utero sees the change in Cobain’s persona from “voice of a generation” to a troubled man.

Despite the misery that is being trafficked on this album, it is still beautiful and moving to listen to at many points. Songs like “Serve the Servants” deal with Cobain’s displeasure and anger at the musical establishment and fans that brought him his success, and In Utero can be hard to listen to, knowing that you are witnessing someone’s descent into a dark place.

Nevertheless, it is a fascinating and impactful record, and anyone who makes its acquaintance will surely not be disappointed.^[5]

5 Van Halen: Van Halen III

In many ways, there’s nothing more fascinating than a disaster, and this entry might be the textbook definition of one. A famous rock music train wreck, Van Halen III includes the one and only appearance of oft-maligned lead singer Gary Cherone. Not only was there a new singer, but inter-band conflict and the Van Halen brothers’ notorious drinking problems were negatively affecting the band.

There are many reasons this album is considered the disaster that it is. One key example is the final track, “How Many Say I.” The vocal performance is famed guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s lead vocal debut, which does not go well. It is often mocked as one of rock music’s worst vocal performances of all time. Vocal hilarity aside, Van Halen III lacks the party rock grandiosity of Van Halen’s early work and signaled the band’s decline.

Van Halen III represents the fascinating and often hilarious flip side of sex, drugs, and rock and roll and where it can all go wrong. If you choose to witness it, you might want to wear a hard hat.^[6]

4 Lou Reed and Metallica: Lulu

Lou Reed and Metallica are two beloved and essential figures in rock history. From Lou Reed’s grimy rock ‘n’ roll poetry with the Velvet Underground to Metallica bringing blistering heavy metal to the pop charts, people had the right to be excited by the collaboration between the two. What they ended up getting was, well, kind of a disaster. Many fans were incredibly confused by the contents of Lulu, and it’s not hard to see why. It’s quite strange and hard to listen to.

An example of Lulu’s infamy is a famous lyric in the song “The View.” Lou Reed yells, “I am the table!” in a voice that is half scream and half demand. The moment has inspired a cascade of memes on the internet in the years since Lulu’s release. It highlights the strange but captivating nature of the album, which was based on a German play about a character named Lulu.

Despite many odd choices, strange sounds, and perplexing lyrics, Lou Reed and Metallica’s unabashedly strange album Lulu will be one that lingers in fans’ minds for decades to come, whether they like it or not.^[7]

3 Guns N’ Roses: Chinese Democracy

Beginning the podium on our eclectic rock music list is Chinese Democracy, one of hard rock’s most interesting detours. The recording and release of Chinese Democracy was interwoven with many hurdles. From perfectionism to personal conflict to recording industry blues, this album truly had it all. This smorgasbord of awful circumstances resulted in a 15-year gap between the release of this album and their previous released in 1993.

This album is truly a melting pot of eclectic musical influences and confusing choices from the band. Taking cues from the likes of Industrial rock legends Nine Inch Nails, Chinese Democracy represents an interesting stylistic shift for the band, who sound weirder than they ever had before. While it doesn’t all stick, it’s still a fun and odd listen.

Even though it was bogged down by constant trials and tribulations, Chinese Democracy is just as wild as its namesake.^[8]

2 The Beach Boys: Smile

The Beach Boys occupy a fascinating place in rock music history. From surf rock teen heartthrobs to baroque pop innovators, the Beach Boys’ cultural legacy is vast and varied. Many stories exist about the band’s difficulties, especially those of “tortured genius” Brian Wilson, who has often experienced debilitating mental troubles during his life. Maybe the most enduring of these stories for a long time, though, was those that told of the lost album Smile.

Being one of rock music’s most fabled “lost treasures,” Smile was said to be in recording limbo for decades. Fans clamored for it to be released, but year after year, nothing came out. However, in 2011, The Smile Sessions was released, and hungry fans were finally able to dig into one of rock music’s best-kept secrets.

One of rock’s most legendary mysteries, Smile is a beautiful album that will always make you wonder what could have been for The Beach Boys.^[9]

1 Yoko Ono: Fly

While Yoko Ono isn’t necessarily known as one of rock’s biggest musicians, she is an icon in her own right. She’s been busy making some of rock ‘n’ roll’s most groundbreaking, challenging, and experimental music for the better part of 50 years now, and everyone knows at least one guy who is still bitter about her “breaking up the Beatles” (which wasn’t her fault, for the record). Fly is certainly one of rock music’s freakiest and most bizarre statements.

Fly is a cornerstone in weird avant-garde rock music. This is apparent in songs such as the 22-minute-long title track, which spends the length of an entire side of a vinyl disc horrifically screeching and doing strange vocal manipulations. Seriously, much of the sounds she makes are akin to a small animal being brutally murdered right in front of you.

A monument to how weird rock music can get, Fly is part album, part medieval torture device, and it wouldn’t be better any other way.^[10]

It takes a lot more to be a successful music artist than it would seem, and part of the job is promoting yourself and your music. Some artists have gone to the most ridiculous lengths to get attention, and these are some of the most wild. 

8. Pearl Jam Had People Point Their Phones At The Moon

Musicians have been fascinated with the moon for years. One band, however, didn’t just want to write a song about the moon, they wanted to use the great celestial body as a promotional tool to sell that song. The band in question was Pearl Jam. To show off their song “Superblood Wolfmoon,” the band partnered with Powster, a studio that’s created websites for major movies and has an app that created cartoon effects on photos.

To hear the sneak preview, you had to download Powster’s app on your phone, wait for night to fall, and then walk outside to a clear spot, open the app, and aim your phone’s camera at the moon. If it works, then animations will start up and the song will play for you as you stand alone in a moonlit field in the middle of the night, and confused wild animals attracted by the noise wonder how we ever became the apex predator.

Oh, and if it was a cloudy night, well, that’s just tough.

7. Multiple Musicians Have Created Mocking Versions of Real Websites

If you’re an artist in need of some promotion, why not show your cred the easy way and take a hilarious swipe at a giant corporation? As a lot of musicians have proven, it’s a tried and true method, but it does still need a degree of originality.

Take electro-rockers Tanlines, who constructed an entire faux-Netflix website to show off their album Highlights. Not only did the duo create convincing movie posters for each of the tracks on their album (starring themselves, naturally), they also made playlists of real movies, some to symbolize their tour schedule and some to just make jokes. Charitably, Netflix have somehow let the site stand, and you can still visit it today. Or if you want a more petty version, indie rock gods Arcade Fire released a review of their then-new album Everything Now on a site called “Stereoyum,” a playful jab at music site Stereogum. Obviously written by the band, the review was dismissive of the record, in a preemptive shot at the critics who were all too ready to compare it to their earlier works.

The most audacious stunt of this kind though, has to have been the one singer-songwriter Josh Tillman, aka Father John Misty pulled. Just before the release of his breakout album I Love You, Honeybear, he dropped a preorder using his own unique audio service, Streamline Audio Protocol, or SAP. It made the songs sound completely wrenched of personality and made a very striking point about Spotify and music streaming services in general.  

What really made it spicy, however, was the show Tillman was playing the day it went live: a couple of songs with a karaoke machine at Spotify headquarters.

6. Josh Freese Holds A Kickstarter Before Kickstarter Became A Thing

Josh Freese is one of the many people quietly making music great, even if he’s not well known. Starting his career as a 12-year-old drummer in the Disneyland band, he’s made hundreds of records and been a member of bands like Nine Inch Nails, Guns N’ Roses, and Devo. Still, a sideman like Josh needs a stage of his own sometimes, so he has embarked on solo projects, even if they have as much impact “as a tree falling in the woods,” according to him. However, one would make a much louder crash than he expected. 

To promote his second solo album, Since 1972, Freese decided to throw in some unique offerings. Depending on what someone paid for the record ($7 to a whopping $75,000!), they could receive anything from a gradually insane list of packages that Freese vowed to fulfill personally. For example, one fan shelled out $20,000 and got to go with Freese on various adventures, like miniature golfing with Maynard James Keenan of Tool, having a pizza party with Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo, floating in a sensory deprivation tank, touring and staying aboard the Queen Mary for a night, and finally joining Freese in the studio to record two songs specifically about him, among other things. 

As crazed as it all sounds, it turns out Freese was actually a visionary. Since 1972 dropped in March of 2009 and barely a month later, Kickstarter debuted on the Internet, allowing people to finance creative projects in exchange for special rewards, just like Freese did. It’s unclear if Freese regrets this missed business opportunity, but he was probably called away by another rock star in need before he had time to reflect.  

5. Poppy Creates A Church

The enigmatic musician Poppy has had a very storied career, going from an apparently unstable YouTuber to a pop-metal mashup queen in a short few years. Poppy, however, harbored other aspirations besides music, and expanded into a variety of related mediums like graphic novels and films. Unlike most musicians who similarly diversify though, Poppy also went for a more befitting, if terrifyingly unique, venture: becoming a religious leader.

In 2018, as Poppy was making her metallic transformation, she put up a new website called Poppy.church, which appeared to be a social media platform run by a cult, or as Poppy put it, “a collection of passionate individuals.” Fans who had previously submitted their phone number would enter after making an avatar, signing their name in “blood,” and witnessing a strange “prayer” led by Poppy. Inside, users could chat with one another, buy tickets to Poppy’s upcoming tour, and other activities. Your profile would also have measurements for “faith,” “devotion,” and “loyalty,” and the site would inform you that your actions were being monitored.

The YouTuber Repzilla did a walkthrough of the site to see whether or not it was a cult simulation, as some who saw the site claimed, and whether this was meant to be educational, or if Poppy genuinely wanted that sort of following.  

The site was eventually closed down, and Poppy has continued on with her career after a vitriolic breakup with her former collaborator Titanic Sinclair, which makes the whole Poppy.church experiment seem more like a warning.  

4. Nine Inch Nails Hid USB Drives In Bathrooms And Created An Entire Dystopian Web Game

From February to April 2007, Nine Inch Nails fans started discovering several strange clues during the band’s European tour, and others that were hidden in Nine Inch Nails’ various releases. What they couldn’t have guessed on finding them was just how deep a rabbit hole they would be pulled into: a spiraling alternate reality game they had to piece together.

The first major discoveries occurred when fans in need of a piss stumbled onto mysterious USB flash drives, which contained songs from the then upcoming Year Zero album. Once those were found, they were immediately passed around the Internet, which drove the Recording Industry Association of America nuts. Meanwhile, other fans who had bought NIN tour merchandise and releases started finding hidden phone numbers and URLs that led to chilling websites, depictions of what Nine Inch Nails leader Trent Reznor believed to be the United States’ future under George W. Bush. Indeed, some of them were almost prophetic, with references to chemicals leaking into water supplies, a movement called “Art Is Resistance,” and one website that showed a beautiful farmland with the slogan “America Is Born Again,” only to disappear when clicked on and dragged to show complete destruction.     

Despite the ties to Year Zero, Reznor did not consider the game a mere marketing stunt, but rather an extension of the album that augmented a fan’s experiences. “Essentially, I wrote the soundtrack to a movie that doesn’t exist,” he said.     

3. Bjork’s Biophilia Album Was a Series of Trippy Apps

Through a 40 year career, Bjork has been walking so people like Lady Gaga could run wild. But then came 2011’s Biophilia, and it seemed the Icelandic musician had leapt into a world unseen since the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey.   

Kicked off with a narration by the master of animal commentary David Attenborough, the songs were presented alongside accompanying graphic animations that you could play with. As listeners toyed with the app, some songs like “Moon” could be changed in different ways while the music was still playing, as a befuddled Stephen Colbert demonstrated on The Colbert Report. Other songs like “Virus” and “Dark Matter” would stop and force the user to win minigames to keep hearing the album. Despite the twisted, acid-drenched appearance, the animations were somehow still scientifically accurate and educational.   

While the album was a reasonable commercial success, it did also earn a place in art history when Biophilia became the first app to join the Museum of Modern Art’s collection in 2014. It could also play a role in education in the future, as Iceland and Bjork started the Biophilia Educational Project to teach students of all ages and levels the lessons contained in the album.   

2. AKB48 Holds Rock-Paper-Scissors Tournaments

The Japanese idol girl group AKB48 debuted with a novel concept: create female stars that the public could watch perform any time they wanted. To this end, they kicked off with a mind-boggling 48 members that were cycled around various events in Japan, so no fan would miss out.

But fourteen years later with an active roster of over 100 members (and that’s not counting the spin off groups in other countries), not everyone can get in the spotlight, and often the top spots in the group are determined by a member’s popularity. Therefore, they decided to settle this with the fairest method ever developed by man: rock-paper-scissors. In 2010, the producers behind the group instituted an annual single elimination rock paper scissors tournament that every girl in AKB48 can participate in. The last girl standing gets a solo debut or a solo concert.

As silly as the idea sounds, the janken tournaments are serious business, because it can get one of AKB48’s girls a massive boost of exposure, which will make them more popular and help their careers. Accordingly, the event is as must-see for AKB48 fans as the concerts themselves, with sold out arenas, members wearing cosplay outfits, and a massive emotional rush when the ultimate winner is victorious. The 2017 tournament, which saw the victory of the relatively unknown member Miku Tanabe, was so moving it made international news.

1. U2 “Gift” An Entire Album On To Everyone’s iTunes Library

U2 have always been pretty audacious, whether you’re someone who loves them for it or thinks they’re pretentious goofballs who fancy themselves humanitarians. However, their biggest shark jump wouldn’t come until Apple bought their soon to be released Songs of Innocence album in 2014 for about $100 million. 

It made sense at the time because U2 and Apple have always had a pretty cozy relationship, from Steve Jobs and Bono being friends to U2 helping promote the iPod’s release with a collaborative commercial and their own signature iPod. But there would be no friendly backslapping or even profit after this deal went down.     

When 500 million people with an iTunes account discovered Songs of Innocence in their libraries, U2 and Apple quickly found out that they might as well have given away gonorrhea-infected crap piles. The album wasn’t well received by critics, and U2 was not exactly a huge name to a generation that almost exclusively consumed music digitally, to say nothing of the invasion of privacy issues. Users denounced both the band and Apple for foisting the album on them, and “How to remove U2 from iPhone” became a top Google search within minutes, to the point Apple had to set up a site for customers to do just that.