Hugh Laurie
It’s long been known that Hugh Laurie is a great pianist
and guitarist, and we’ve seen him noodle away numerous times on TV in shows
like House and A Little Bit of Fry & Laurie. In 2011, though, Laurie decided
to release his own blues album: while his playing is superb, the vocals are
admittedly a little off. But hey, nobody’s perfect.
Bruce Willis
Willis first sang on screen in his breakout TV role in Moonlighting, and in recent years has
gone on to enjoy some success singing and playing the harmonica with The Bruce
Willis Blues Band. No, that’s not made up. He doesn’t have the best voice, but
his rough gravelly vocals lend themselves quite nicely to the blues.
Russell Crowe
When I discovered Russell Crowe’s band The Ordinary Fear
of God, I’ll admit I was expecting a train wreck. I was, however, pleasantly
surprised by the bluesy country-rock number I was presented with. Quite
brilliantly, the band used to be called Thirty Odd Foot of Guns, and when they
changed their name picked one with the same initials so that they didn’t have
to change their merch.
Eddie Murphy
Here’s one for the “so awful everyone involved should rot
in jail” pile. Any singer who releases a song called Boogie In Your Butt deserves to serve time. And in the case of
Eddie Murphy, I use the term "singer" very, very loosely.
Keanu Reeves
It’s hard to argue with Reeves’ work as a bassist with
Dogstar. It’s fairly standard mid-90s alt-rock which took them to Glastonbury
and back again, with Reeves’ bassline chugging away underneath the distortion
and strained vocals.
Johnny Depp
As far as I can see, Johnny Depp hasn’t been in a band since
the supergroup P (which also featured members of Butthole Surfers, Sex Pistols
and Red Hot Chilli Peppers), but he’s made numerous appearances with other
peoples’ of late. In the past he’s joined the likes of Eddie Vedder, Alice
Cooper and Marilyn Manson to name but three. He’s not bad on the old six-string
is Mr Depp, and even contributed slide guitar to one of Oasis’ albums.
William Shatner
We can sit here and debate if this is actually music ‘til
the cows come home. What we can all agree on, though, is that William Shatner’s
oddly hypnotic songs are made of pure damn awesomeness and hilarity.
Scarlett Johansson
Miss Johansson doesn’t have an unpleasant voice, and in
2008 released an album of Tom Waits covers. She has since stated that she’d
like to follow it up with an album of original songs, but as yet nothing has
surfaced other than the odd cover version and soundtrack contribution.
Robert Downey Jr.
Downey Jr. is a man whose life has had many ups and
downs: amongst the drugs and the acting and the jail and the superstardom, he
somehow found time to have a music career. Admittedly, it’s pretty uninspiring
pop music, but at least he can hold a tune.
Ryan Gosling
Gosling’s band Dead Man’s Bones was originally conceived
as a monster-themed musical, however became a smaller, different beast when a
full stage show was deemed too expensive. The duo’s music is pretty
interesting, and Gosling proves himself to be multi-talented, providing vocals,
piano, guitar and bass on their record.
Michael Cera
You might have seen Micahel Cera playing bass in Scott Pilgrim vis. The World. What you
might not have known is that before the film, he was the only member of
fictional band Sex Bob-omb that could already play their instrument... In fact,
Edgar Wright had to ask him to play worse as he was showing the others up! Cera
has dotted around various bands, including a tour with Mister Heavenly and an
appearance on one of Weezer’s albums.
Kevin Bacon
Kevin Bacon’s country-rock band The Bacon Brothers: it
sounds like a Saturday Night Live parody, but it is – surprisingly – very real indeed. And they’re actually
pretty good: Bacon’s voice is not too shabby, and suits his chosen genre.
Kevin Costner
The second Kevin to appear on this list, and the second
Kevin to peddle country-rock, no less. It’s nothing special, but it’s a lot
better than you might expect.
Billy Bob Thornton
Yeah, so this is exactly as bad as you might have
guessed. Someone needs to tell Billy Bob that surrounding yourself with a group
of talented musicians – the Boxmasters – doesn’t a good singer make. One
YouTube commenter described this band as “worse than rape”.
Jeff Bridges
The Dude himself proves to be a fairly listenable country
singer. Whodathunkit?
Milla Jovovich
In the 90s, somewhere around the start of Milla
Jovovich’s acting career, she also released an album entitled The Divine Comedy. It’s got some quite
interesting pop music on it, and in the past has been compared to the likes of
Kate Bush and Tori Amos.
Steve Martin
Not only a brilliant comedian, amazing magician, and top
class actor (at least in his early films), Steve Martin is also a terrific
banjo-ist. Is banjo-ist a word? He gigs
around the world and even won a Grammy in 2010. Pretty amazing stuff, when you
think about it.
Steven Seagal
I didn’t want to force myself to have to listen to all of
this insipid pop drivel, so I don’t have much to say here...
Clint Eastwood
What many people probably don’t know about Mr Eastwood is
that he’s been involved in writing music for a number of his films, including
the score to Gran Torino. His piano
playing is very impressive indeed, and he knows his stuff: there’s a series of
videos on YouTube of him sitting with some of the greatest pianists of all time
and just appreciating their musicianship.
Leonard Nimoy
This might just be one of the strangest things you ever
see/hear. The video for The Ballad of
Bilbo Baggins is simultaneously horrifyingly creepy and immensely
mesmerising. What was Spock thinking?!
ES
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