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.
Stephen Peter Marriott was an English musician, songwriter and frontman guitarist of rock bands Small Faces and Humble Pie, spanning over two decades. Marriott was inducted posthumously into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012 as a member of Small Faces.
Glenn Branca was an American avant-garde composer and guitarist known for his use of volume, alternative guitar tunings, repetition, droning, and the harmonic series. Branca received a 2009 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.
Annabelle Chvostek is a Canadian singer-songwriter based in Toronto, Ontario.
Charles Hardin Holley, known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter who was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock and roll. He was born in Lubbock, Texas, to a musical family during the Great Depression, and learned to play guitar and sing alongside his siblings. His style was influenced by gospel music, country music, and rhythm and blues acts, which he performed in Lubbock with his friends from high school.
Peter Tosh, OM was a Jamaican reggae musician. Along with Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer, he was one of the core members of the band the Wailers (1963–1976), after which he established himself as a successful solo artist and a promoter of Rastafari. He was murdered in 1987 during a home invasion.
Jason Curtis Newsted is an American musician who was the bassist of American heavy metal band Metallica from 1986 to 2001. Beginning his career with thrash metal band Flotsam and Jetsam from 1981 to 1986, he successfully auditioned with Metallica to succeed the deceased Cliff Burton. Newsted performed on the albums ...And Justice for All (1988), Metallica (1991), Load (1996), and Reload (1997), the most album appearances among Metallica's bassists.
Denny Laine is an English musician, singer, and songwriter, known as a founder of two major British rock bands: the Moody Blues, with whom he played from 1964 to 1966, and Wings, with whom he played from 1971 to 1981. Laine has worked with a variety of artists and groups over a six decade career, and continues to record and perform as a solo artist. In 2018, Laine was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Moody Blues.
Nathan Jonas 'Joey' Jordison, is an American musician and songwriter, best known as the former drummer, co-songwriter and one of the founding members of the heavy metal band Slipknot as well as guitarist for horror punk band Murderdolls. Jordison played in Slipknot since their formation in 1995 until his departure from the band in December 2013. He was the drummer and founder of Scar the Martyr, which formed in 2013 and disbanded in 2016. He currently plays with the band Sinsaenum.
Charles Edward Daniels was an American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist known for his contributions to Southern rock, country, and bluegrass music. He was best known for his number-one country hit 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia'. Much of his output, including all but one of his eight Billboard Hot 100 charting singles, was credited to the Charlie Daniels Band.
Joan Wasser is an American musician, singer-songwriter and producer who releases music as Joan As Police Woman. She began her career playing violin with the Dambuilders and played with Black Beetle, Antony and the Johnsons, and Those Bastard Souls. Since 2004 she has released her solo material as Joan As Police Woman. She has released five regular studio albums, one EP, a number of singles and a collection of covers. Throughout her career, she has regularly collaborated with other artists as a writer, performer and arranger.
Chester Burton 'Chet' Atkins, known as 'Mr. Guitar' and 'The Country Gentleman', was an American musician, occasional vocalist, songwriter, and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley and Bob Ferguson, helped create the Nashville sound, the country music style which expanded its appeal to adult pop music fans. He was primarily known as a guitarist. He also played the mandolin, fiddle, banjo, and ukulele.
Sergey Vladimirovich Shnurov is a Russian musician and songwriter, best known as Shnur, of the ska-punk band Leningrad which he formed in 1997 and was the frontman of till the end of 2008. In December 2008 the group disbanded, Shnur with some of its members forming Rubl.
Damon Albarn is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer, best known as the frontman and primary lyricist of the rock band Blur and as the co-founder, lead vocalist, instrumentalist, and primary songwriter of the virtual band Gorillaz.
Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans, known professionally as Toots Thielemans, was a Belgian jazz musician. He was mostly known for his harmonica playing, as well as his guitar, whistling skills, and composing. According to jazz historian Ted Gioia, his most important contribution was in 'championing the humble harmonica', which Thielemans made into a 'legitimate voice in jazz'. He eventually became the 'preeminent' jazz harmonica player.
Neil Percival Young is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter, musician, and activist. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and others. Since the beginning of his solo career with his backing band Crazy Horse, Young has released many critically acclaimed and important albums, such as After the Gold Rush, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, and Harvest.
Christopher John Cornell was an American singer, songwriter, and musician best known as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for the rock bands Soundgarden and Audioslave. He also had a solo career and contributed to soundtracks. Cornell was also the founder and frontman of Temple of the Dog, a one-off tribute band dedicated to his late friend Andrew Wood.
David Cyril Eric Swarbrick was an English folk musician and singer-songwriter. He has been described by Ashley Hutchings as 'the most influential [British] fiddle player bar none' and his style has been copied or developed by almost every British and many world folk violin players who have followed him. He was one of the most highly regarded musicians produced by the second British folk revival, contributing to some of the most important groups and projects of the 1960s, and he became a much sought-after session musician, which led him throughout his career to work with many of the major figures in folk and folk rock music.
Alexi Laiho was a Finnish guitarist, composer, and vocalist. He was best known as the lead guitarist, lead vocalist and founding member of the melodic death metal band Children of Bodom, and was also the guitarist for Sinergy, The Local Band, Kylähullut, and Bodom After Midnight, which formed just prior to his death. Laiho had previously played with Thy Serpent and Impaled Nazarene on occasion, as well as Warmen and Hypocrisy.
Brian Elwin Haner Jr., better known by his stage name Synyster Gates or simply Syn, is an American musician, best known for being the lead guitarist and backing vocalist of heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold. He ranks No. 9 on Guitar World's best metal guitarists of all time. Gates was voted as Best Metal Guitarist in the World by Total Guitar in 2016 and once again in 2017.
John Joseph Lydon, also known by his stage name Johnny Rotten, is an English singer and songwriter. He is best known as the lead singer of the late-1970s British punk band the Sex Pistols, which lasted from 1975 until 1978, and again for various revivals during the 1990s and 2000s. He is also the lead singer of post-punk band Public Image Ltd (PiL), which he founded and fronted from 1978 until 1993, and again since 2009.
Robert Peter Williams is an English singer-songwriter and entertainer. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, but achieved greater commercial success with his solo career, beginning in 1996. Williams has released seven UK number one singles and eleven out of his twelve studio albums have reached number one in the UK. Six of his albums are among the top 100 biggest-selling albums in the United Kingdom–four albums in the top 60–and in 2006 he entered the Guinness Book of World Records for selling 1.6 million tickets of his Close Encounters Tour in a single day.
David Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash.
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie was an American singer-songwriter, and one of the most significant figures in early American folk music. His work focused on themes of American socialism and anti-fascism. His music includes songs such as 'This Land Is Your Land', written to oppose the American exceptionalist song 'God Bless America', and has inspired several generations both politically and musically.
Michael Ronson was an English guitarist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, and producer. He achieved critical and commercial success working with David Bowie as one of the Spiders from Mars. He was a session musician who recorded five studio albums with Bowie followed by four with Ian Hunter, and also worked as a sideman in touring bands with Van Morrison and Bob Dylan.
Joseph 'Joe' Ira Dassin was an American-born French singer-songwriter.
Martha Elenor Maguire is an American musician who is a founding member of both the all-female alternative country band The Chicks and country bluegrass duo Court Yard Hounds. She won awards in national fiddle championships while still a teenager. Erwin is accomplished on several other instruments, including the mandolin, viola, double bass and guitar. She has written and co-written a number of the band's songs, some of which have become chart-topping hits. She also contributes her skills in vocal harmony and backing vocals, as well as orchestrating string arrangements for the band.