Kourosh Yaghmaei is an Iranian singer-songwriter, composer and record producer, who started his career in the early 1970s. Regarded as one of the greatest Persian psychedelic rock musicians in the history of Iranian rock music, he is known as 'the Godfather of Iranian psychedelic rock', as well as 'the king of rock'.
Sir James Paul McCartney is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and record and film producer who gained worldwide fame as co-lead vocalist and bassist for the Beatles. His songwriting partnership with John Lennon remains the most successful in history. After the group disbanded in 1970, he pursued a solo career and formed the band Wings with his first wife, Linda, and Denny Laine.
Jerome John Garcia was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, best known for being a principal songwriter, the lead guitarist and a vocalist with the rock band the Grateful Dead, of which he was a founding member and which came to prominence during the counterculture of the 1960s. Although he disavowed the role, Garcia was viewed by many as the leader of the band.
Kevin Richard Parker is an Australian singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer, best known for his musical project Tame Impala, for which he writes, performs, records, and produces the music. Parker has released four Tame Impala albums: Innerspeaker (2010), Lonerism (2012), Currents (2015), and The Slow Rush (2020). He has won 13 ARIA Music Awards, two APRA Awards, and a Brit Award, and has received four Grammy Award nominations.
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer-songwriter who sang rock, soul and blues music. One of the most successful and widely known rock stars of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals and 'electric' stage presence.
Lewis Allan Reed was an American musician, singer, songwriter and poet. He was the guitarist, singer and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. The Velvet Underground was not a commercial success during its existence, but became regarded as one of the most influential bands in the history of underground and alternative rock music. Reed's distinctive deadpan voice, poetic and transgressive lyrics, and experimental guitar playing were trademarks throughout his long career.
David Robert Jones OAL, known professionally as David Bowie, was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, Bowie is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. He was acclaimed by critics and musicians, particularly for his innovative work during the 1970s. His career was marked by reinvention and visual presentation, with his music and stagecraft having a significant impact on popular music.
Stephen Norman Priest was an English musician who was the bassist of the glam rock band The Sweet.
Wayne Michael Coyne is an American musician. He is the lead singer, occasional backing vocalist, guitarist, keyboardist, theremin player and songwriter for the band the Flaming Lips.
Martyn Jerel Buchwald, known as Marty Balin, was an American singer, songwriter, and musician best known as the founder/leader and one of the lead singers and songwriters of Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship.
Stephen Lawrence Winwood is an English singer, songwriter, and musician whose genres include blue-eyed soul, rhythm and blues, blues rock, and pop rock. Though primarily a vocalist and keyboard player, Winwood proficiently plays other instruments, including drums, mandolin, guitars, bass, and saxophone.
Ian Fraser Kilmister, better known as Lemmy, was a British singer, songwriter, and musician. He is best known as the founder, lead singer, bassist, primary songwriter and only continuous member of the British rock band Motörhead.
Alexander Lee 'Skip' Spence was a Canadian-born American singer, songwriter, and musician. He was co-founder of Moby Grape, and played guitar with them until 1969. He released one solo album, 1969's Oar, and then largely withdrew from the music industry. He had started his career as a guitarist in an early line-up of Quicksilver Messenger Service, and was the drummer on Jefferson Airplane's debut album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off. He has been described on the AllMusic website as 'one of psychedelia's brightest lights'; however, his career was plagued by drug addictions coupled with mental health problems, and he has been described by a biographer as a man who 'neither died young nor had a chance to find his way out.'
George Roger Waters is an English songwriter, singer, bassist, and composer. In 1965, he co-founded the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. Waters initially served solely as the bassist, but following the departure of singer-songwriter Syd Barrett in 1968, he also became their lyricist, co-lead vocalist, and conceptual leader.
Andrew Wells VanWyngarden is an American musician. He is the lead vocalist, guitar player and songwriter for the band MGMT, praised for 'an uncanny knack for producing pop music that sounds as if it were filtered through a kaleidoscope.' One of his songs, 'Kids', received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, while the duo was nominated in the Best New Artist category.
Roger Keith 'Syd' Barrett was an English singer, songwriter, musician and painter who co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd in 1965. Barrett was their original frontman and primary songwriter, becoming known for his whimsical take on psychedelia, English-accented singing, literary influences, and stream-of-consciousness writing style. As a guitarist, he was influential for his free-form playing and for employing dissonance, distortion, echo, feedback, and other studio effects.
Eric Patrick Clapton, is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist and separately as a member of the Yardbirds and of Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time. Clapton ranked second in Rolling Stone's list of the '100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time' and fourth in Gibson's 'Top 50 Guitarists of All Time'. He was also named number five in Time magazine's list of 'The 10 Best Electric Guitar Players' in 2009.
Michael John Angelakos is an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the frontman of the indietronica band Passion Pit.
Michael Thomas Pinder is an English rock musician, and is a founding member and original keyboard player of the British rock group the Moody Blues. He left the group following the recording of the band's ninth album Octave in 1978. He is especially noted for his technological contribution to music. In 2018, Pinder was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Moody Blues.
John Kay is a German-born Canadian rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist known as the frontman of Steppenwolf.
Robert C. Christie Hunter was an American lyricist, singer-songwriter, translator, and poet, best known for his work with the Grateful Dead. Born near San Luis Obispo, California, Hunter spent some time in his childhood in foster homes, as a result of his father's abandoning his family, and took refuge in reading and writing. He attended the University of Connecticut for a year before returning to Palo Alto, where he became friends with Jerry Garcia. Garcia and Hunter began a collaboration that lasted through the remainder of Garcia's life.
Sir Barry Alan Crompton Gibb is a British-American musician, singer-songwriter and record producer who rose to worldwide fame as a co-founder of the group the Bee Gees, one of the most commercially successful groups in the history of popular music. With his younger brothers, twins Robin and Maurice Gibb, he formed a songwriting partnership beginning in 1955. He has lived in Britain, Australia, and the United States, holding dual UK–US citizenship.
James Marshall 'Jimi' Hendrix was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music, and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as 'arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music'.
John Winston Ono Lennon was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist, and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. His songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney remains the most successful in history. In 1969, he started the Plastic Ono Band with his second wife, Yoko Ono. After the Beatles disbanded in 1970, Lennon continued his career as a solo artist and as Ono's collaborator.
Robert Alan Krieger is an American guitarist and singer-songwriter best known as the guitarist of the rock band the Doors; as such he has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Krieger wrote or co-wrote many of the Doors' songs, including the hits 'Light My Fire', 'Love Me Two Times', 'Touch Me', and 'Love Her Madly'. After the Doors disbanded, Krieger continued his performing and recording career with other musicians including former Doors bandmates John Densmore and Ray Manzarek. He was listed by Rolling Stone as one of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.
Courtney Melba Barnett is an Australian singer, songwriter, and musician. Known for her deadpan singing style and witty, rambling lyrics, she attracted attention with the release of her debut EP I've Got a Friend Called Emily Ferris in 2012. International interest came with the release of her EP The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas in 2013.
Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones was an English musician and composer, best known as the founder and original leader of the Rolling Stones. Initially a slide guitarist, Jones went on to play a wide variety of instruments on Rolling Stones recordings and in concerts, including rhythm guitar, lead guitar, sitar, dulcimer, various keyboard instruments such as piano and mellotron, marimba, wind instruments such as harmonica, recorder, saxophone, as well as drums, vocals and numerous others.
Dweezil Zappa is an American rock guitarist and occasional actor. He is the son of musical composer and performer Frank Zappa. Exposed to the music industry from an early age, Dweezil developed a strong affinity for playing the guitar and producing music. Able to learn directly from guitarists such as Steve Vai and Eddie Van Halen, Dweezil released his first single at the age of 12.
Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen, Jr. is an American blues, folk, and rock guitarist. Kaukonen performed with Jefferson Airplane and still performs regularly on tour with Hot Tuna, which started as a side project with bassist Jack Casady, and as of early 2019 has continued for 50 years. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him #54 on its list of 100 Greatest Guitarists.
Harry Edward Nilsson III, known professionally as Nilsson, was an American singer-songwriter who achieved the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. His work is characterized by pioneering vocal overdub experiments, returns to the Great American Songbook, and fusions of Caribbean sounds. A tenor with a 3+1⁄2 octave range, Nilsson was one of the few major pop-rock recording artists to achieve significant commercial success without ever performing major public concerts or undertaking regular tours. The craft of his songs and the defiant attitude he projected remain touchstones for later generations of indie rock musicians.
David Freiberg is an American musician best known for contributing vocals, keyboards, electric bass, rhythm guitar, viola and percussion as a member of Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane, and Jefferson Starship. Among other tracks, he co-wrote 'Jane,' a hit for Jefferson Starship.
Donovan Phillips Leitch is a Scottish singer, songwriter and guitarist. He developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelic rock, and world music. He has lived in Scotland, Hertfordshire (England), London, California, and since at least 2008 in County Cork, Ireland, with his family. Emerging from the British folk scene, Donovan reached fame in the United Kingdom in early 1965 with live performances on the pop TV series Ready Steady Go!.
Aamir Zaki was a Saudi born Pakistani guitarist-songwriter and composer. Zaki is considered by many as one of the most influential guitarists in Pakistan's history. He is considered to be among the pioneers of Rock music in Pakistan.