My list, my opinion. Add whoever you want, please don't tell me it's to big a scope to compare. Enjoy yourselves, rank the rock gods accordingly. List the guys that made you think rock was cool, made music matter and just captured your heart and respect. Girls want to fuck them, guys want to be them. Enough said. 10. Mike Ness lead singer of Social Distortion. He's my avatar for fuck sake you don't think I'd leave him off the list did you? His combo of a trademark sneer and so-cal grit just made him so damn cool. After seeing my first Social D show I knew it wouldn't be long before I was tattooed. 9. Johnny Cash Ozzie was the prince of darkness but not the original man in black. I'm listening to "The Man comes to town" as we speak. Johnny was one of the original bad asses, always a legend, always cool. 8.Christopher Wallace aka Biggie Smalls aka The Notorious B.I.G The hip hop God. Most front man were known for grit, Biggie was known for straight smooth. He was so fucking good and nobody (now that Pac is gone) can hold his jock. 7. Eddie Vedder singer of Pearl Jam. Call me gay, grunge whatever, if you saw the 1991 Evenflow video and were in college Eddie was fucking cool. Wine guzzlin, gin drinkin, Ralph Nader loving Eddie, god I love him. 6.Ozzy and Ronnie James Dio I combine them only because they were both once singers of Black Sabbath. Ozzy made metal scary good and Dio gave us the devil hand, both just wailed and went crazy. 5. Freddie Mercury QUEEN- I know he was gay. However if you doubt his range or his talent go back to listening to your Blink 182 record. The man was a superstar and put Glam in Glam rock before it even existed. 4.Axl Rose Guns and Roses. Welcome to sunset strip in the 80's, welcome to the man who helped destroy Warrant and Winger, sex, energy, anger and screaming all combined into a lean mean machine. His swerve was so fucking cool that he was banging Stephanie Seymour,(modern day Giselle) enough said. 3. The Boss-Bruce Springsteen The father of what is now known as "arena rock." Some of the younger board members will scoff but if you go to a concert don't shout Brruuuuuuuuccccceeee and fist pump you don't have any rock in your blood. The guy still leaves every ounce of sweat, blood and rock and roll on the stage, every show, every time. 2. Jim Morrison The Doors. So fucking cool. I mean The Lizard King? That's not a cool nickname? Hard drinking, hard drugging unpredictable and awesome. Look up "rock star" in the dictionary and you will probably find a picture of him. 1. Roger Daltrey The Who- His range, his scream, and the fact that he smashed his microphone into the drum stand at the end of most show's make him the be all end all front men in my book. He still performs, still screams and still makes girls wet. His only error was letting stupid CIS steal his tunes but everybody sell's out eventually. Guys who didn't make the list but should have: John and Paul: we owe them everything. They didn't perform live enough in their prime for me to do a write up on them. Robert Plant: Led Zeppelin- He screams he's awesome and his band help founded heavy metal/ hard rock. However Jimmy Page stole some of the thunder so I left him as an honorable mention. Billy Joe Armstrong- Green Day- crazy energy, crazy talent help keep punk alive without making it sound like bubble gum shit.
1) Elvis Presley 2) Freddie Mercury 3) Bruce Dickinson 4) Mick Jagger 5) Robert Plant 6) Trent Reznor 7) Axl Rose 8) Lou Reed 9) Rob Zombie 10) Zach de la Rocha
FUCK, I can't believe I forgot the fucking king. The Stones are my favorite band so I was afraid of being to biased and getting a bunch of Mick = Old man jokes. But to forget Elvis, Chater just ban me. I'm humiliated. I also feel like Trent Reznor falls in with Alice Cooper, in the whole stage production, both are awesome live shows though.
You shouldn't be. Elvis was a barely above average singer and cheesy, second-rate showman who stole all his music from far superior black musicians. His songs fucking sucked, too. Replace him with Chuck Berry, a true rock-and-roll pioneer superior in every way, and you're good to go. Anyways, I'm going with 1. Freddy Mercury 2. Bruce Dickinson 3. Ronnie James Dio 4. Rob Halford 5. Mick Jagger 6. Axl Rose 7. Ian Gillian 8. Robert Plant 9. Ian Astbury 10. Pete Townshend
Don't sweat Elvis, but you forgot Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig (misfits Danzig, not that sideshow after) Some of the rawest energy ever brought to the stage. And I have to agree with Rob Zombie. the early White Zombie shows were nuts.
Layne Staley and Kurt Cobain both deserve to be in the top 10 for their acoustic performances. Cobain defined a generation. Honorable mentions - Anthony Kiedis, Jerry Garcia Dishonorable mentions - Bono
He copied a ton, but he looked fucking cool doing it. The all black leather outfit was awesome, I thought the hips were his though. Honorable mention was also Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull, he would throw a flute thirty feet in the air and then jam on it. Yeah that's right a flute. I've seen Dickinson on a couple list's, his range and screaming was awesome but live all he does is stand there. Still it's Maiden right?
Tyler-check, SRV agreed. But Gary Glitter? The song is cool at a Flyers game and all, but I don't know considering he's competing with the god's from the 70's I'm not so sure. I did forget Bon Scott, and for more modern times Scott Weiland. Netdata aren't you Canadian? I thought someone would mention Getty Lee.
Last time I saw The Who do Tommy, he opened for them. Call him a paedophile, one hit wonder, whatever, but the fucker put on a show. In that same category, I'd have to include Meatloaf.
Well, Dickinson is 52 years old now, so yeah, he is not quite as energetic and thrilling on stage as he once was, although his voice is still excellent. However, he used to run around the stage like an absolute madman as recently as the 2001 Rock in Rio concert, of which there numerous videos on Youtube. Mustaine is an ultra-talented musical genius, and a very good singer, but as a frontman? In front of a live crowd? He's pretty average.
Actually, you're right. He was very rigid and focused. A little too focused. Almost below average live, I'd say.
Yeah, like Radiohead doesn't sound like a fucking Sonic Youth tribute band nowadays and the entire industry of hiphop doesn't lift something in every single song they record. Elvis blew the lid off the sexually repressed 50's. He actually COULD sing well, and if you watch actual concerts of him before he got all pilly-pilly he was a really funny and down-to-earth guy, and the first true showman of the modern music industry. I have many reasons to like him more than any other.
Probably true, but since I've never claimed that either Radiohead or hiphop are any good, what does this have to do with anything? To be called one of the 10 greatest frontmen ever, a lofty title, you can't simply use the excuse "but other bands/genres stole too!" Yes, he could. However, among the popular musical acts of the 1950s, there were a lot of quality singers, and Elvis was by no means extraordinary or the best among that group. He was probably above average, but no more. I guess my point is that if you like Elvis so much, what does that make Chuck Berry? The guy was WAY more influential on rock, his songs are much better, he played the guitar better drunk than Elvis could ever hope to sober, he was at least as good of a singer, and two times the showman.
I agree with a lot of the ones that have already been mentioned, save Roger Daltrey because I hate The Who. This will come to a surprise to most of you, but in my opinion, Axl Rose is by far the best. I never got the chance to see him live, but I was 8 years old when I bought Appetite for Destruction on cassette, and I was hooked ever since. As mentioned before, I've yet to see anyone mix raw talent with era-defining music in my life. My honorable mentions, in no particular order, are Billy Corgan, Marilyn Manson, Rob Halford, Bret Michaels (pre-reality show days), Maynard Keenen, and Michael Stipe. Someone else mentioned Scott Weiland, and I have to agree with that. I had the chance to see Velvet Revolver on the 5th row once, and man was it an intense show. He's got mad bullhorn skillz, yo. And how has anyone neglected to mention.... HOW DO Y'AALLLLL FEEEEEEELLLLLLL TONNNIIIIIGGGGHHHTTT????!!!!!!!!
I'll have to agree with the people who put Freddie motherfuckin' Mercury at the top of the list. Consider this, the man sang songs that, before they came out, most of y'all would have been ashamed to read the lyrics of. Not because they were stupid or gay or corny, but because they were unbearably fucking sincere. And the only reason they didn't come off as corny or cliche, is because Freddie Mercury put his heart and soul into every one of those performances. And let's not kid ourselves, the dude could fucking sing. (Part 1 of 5) That's a fucking artist. To me, that kind of drive is always going to be "more rock" than kicking the bass drum and biting the head off a chicken or whatever. Not that that stuff ain't cool too.