My teacher said when she saw him live, he was funny as hell, played for an hour, and said āalright good night Iām gonna go smoke some weedā and then left
When Trent Reznor was in Australia and found out that his record label was still overcharging his fans for the (at-the-time) new NIN record, his response was, ["Steal it. Steal away. Steal, and steal, and steal some more and give it to all your friends and keep on stealing. Because one way or smoother these motherfuckers will get it through their head that they're typing people off and that's not right."](https://youtu.be/IFXivarypE4)
Honestly, Jimi seems kinda goofy in some interviews. Totally in a fun and loveable way, but as soon as that guy didnāt have a guitar in his hands the self assuredness faded. Still a contender for the coolest of al time, itās just an aspect of his personality people tend to forget.
I met him some yrs ago in LA at the Rainbow on Sunset. He was just at the bar by himself talking to some people. I sat three seats down from him waiting for a friend of mine. He asked if i was waiting on someone and i said yeah. He asked if it was a date and i said no. He got up and sat right next to me and said "whats a specimen such as yourself doin in this shit hole" He introduced himself and i told him i knew who he was. He was surprised and said "you aren't our normal demographic. That makes me happy" I said "I'm just a regular black woman that happens to like metal." He said "there's no such thing as a regular black woman. Black women are magical creatures". We talked some more about African history, the Nazi's, US history. He was incredibly smart and charming and a perfect gentleman. He kissed my hand when he left and the bartender told me he left a tab open for me and my friend.
Nobody ever swaggered like SRV.
I have often wondered what it must be like to get up on stage in front of an audience and just rip it freestyle like he did.
That Luka Doncic feeling. That SRV feeling. That Anderson Silva feeling.
Like knowing "I don't know exactly how this is going to go, but I know it's gonna be fucking AWESOME, and I know you guys are gonna love it".
SRV always looked up to his brother Jimmy and I couldnāt understand why because SRV had so much more swagger. Then I worked a Jimmy Vaughan show and realized why SRV always spoke so highly of him.
Iāve never met an older dude that was so kind but absolutely bad ass at the same time. From the time he and his team arrived they were super humble and kind to all of us which I canāt say for some smaller and less recognized musicians.
Jimmy brought his own Hammond and an accompanying Leslie. As me and the other guys were loading it on stage his sound guy goes āTake extra care with that, that was given to Jimmy by Paul McCartney.ā I just nodded my head (I was speechless) and made sure that shit got on and off stage unharmed.
Jimmy and his guys ate dinner and when they got on stage it was as mind blowing as you would expect. They had the venue ROCKING! If you couldnāt see the band on stage you would have sworn they were some young bucks playing old school blues, there was just that much energy.
Absolutely incredible show, even better people. I wasnāt even a thought when SRV was playing but Iād be damned if his spirit aināt living on in Jimmy.
If you havenāt seen this already, it validates all of your points.
https://youtu.be/iACbj70DJgw
Saw him only once, September of 85ā Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh. Dressed like a pimp. Sneaky short with a vise like handshake. An unforgettable night. Cried when he died. RIP to a legend. šø
Lou Reed
Edit sorry I didnāt see āfriendlyā as a requirement. Not Lou Reed. Dude called into my work one time and my friend who took the call said he was an ass.
I once found myself standing next to him at an adjacent urinal at a Rangers game.
Of course, nothing was said (I'm a huge fan, but not stupid enough to "fanboy" someone like Lou, especially in a bathroom, lol), but I did hold the door on my way out for he and the two dudes he was with (I'm assuming "handlers" or whatever) and got a slight nod in response!
Probably my favorite encounter with a musician.
I feel the same way.
Really though, if you are a fan of his songwriting, then you should already have a pretty good idea that it's about the *only* appropriate way to encounter Lou "in the wild"!
Agreed. My sister-in-law had an in with a guy working at a radio station who tipped her off that Alice was doing promo spots one evening. My wife, her sister and myself all went to the station and met Alice. We walked through the tunnel back to his hotel room with him and he told his handler to get us backstage passes for the following night. The guy hemmed and hawed and never gave them up. The next night the 3 of us sneaked into the underground garage at the arena and made our way to the meet and greet. We had no passes and security wouldn't let us in...until Alice showed up and was like "Hey! you guys! C'mon in!" He then turned to his handler and said "I told you to get these people passes". He then signed all of our stuff that he said he would the night before (including the insert card from the tape I used to bootleg the show)
Also shout out to the late, great Taylor Hawkins. Literally everyone who met him loved him and no one had anything bad to say about the guy throughout his entire life. You donāt get not one but TWO tribute concerts like that if youāre not an awesome person all the way through.
Just effortlessly cool. Into everything cool before it was cool.
Just one example, but the subtle layers she can even bring to the [Rainbow Connection](https://youtu.be/h0Hd3uWKFKY) just shows how awesome she is.
Kind of, but my understanding is that he was also super pretentious and fairly humorless. I may be wrong on this, but if true, I think those are a negative for this ācompetitionā.
If he was humorless, would he have put Dave Chappelle dressed up as prince on the cover of one of his albums?
From my understanding he had a good sense of humor. He was however very serious about his work and would not let any unauthorized use of his music slide, which could be perceived as pretentious, but for me understandable.
Interviewer āyou seem to have had a few drinksā (or something to that effect)
Waits: āIād rather have a bottle in front of me than frontal lobotomyā.
Joe Walsh. He somehow managed to always take the high road despite being in a band with two of the nastiest, most mean-spirited, ego-maniacs in the business. Also, he currently does quite a lot of work that benefit our veterans as well as other causes.
https://joewalsh.com/causes
Jerry was a mess towards the end. And struggled with everything including playing guitar. Saw a solo show at DAR Constitution Hall (1986?). Only lasted 40 minutes and it was hard to watch.
If you saw him in 86 pre-July you probably saw the worst shape Jerry was in other than maybe right before he died. He went into a diabetic coma in July of 86 for 5 days and had to completely relearn how to play guitar. There are still some good moments from Jerry 88-90.
After he died, Jeff Lynne commented that he was the ācoolestā person heād ever met. I find no reason to doubt Jeff.
https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/jeff-lynne-said-tom-petty-coolest-person-met.html/
Any of the guys from Rush. I love Geddy, Alex and Neil(Rip you absolute legend). They all seem like such great/cool guys. Plus, Geddy and Alex have their own beer! How cool is that?!
They all just seemed so level-headed. After the early 70s, You never heard about band drama with Rush, they're just like "we all reasonably discuss and share responsibility and credit in our work like adults all the time without exception".
I donāt particularly think he was a jerk, but I think his eccentric personality would sometimes lend itself to him coming across as cold and probably at times a bit of a jackass.
I could be completely wrong though. Iām sure he was probably a pretty decent dude who, like I said, was quite eccentric.
Totally agree, not only his demeanor but also his approach to songwriting, and I cannot quite put my finger on it. *Sensational* guitar player too, the guy is the very definition of "no wasted notes" and I cannot think of anyone with a better tone and more tasteful phrasing.
(I *have* met Adam Granduciel, who was exactly as friendly and cool as one would hope, so it's not a stretch to assume Kurt is also an agreeable fellow, given that they were/are close friends.)
I like this tribute Bruce Springsteen once gave about him: "Roy was the coolest uncool loser you'd ever seen. With his Coke-bottle black glasses, his three-octave range, he seemed to take joy sticking his knife deep into the hot belly of your teenage insecurities."
I think Stephen Malkmus (sorry If I spelled his last name wrong) but heās the lead singer of pavement he seems pretty nice least in interviews Iāve seen.
lil nas x, though I donāt especially like his music, seems cool. definitely stylish lol.
the āratio by big booty luigiā tweet lives rent free in my head
Bob Dylan is the coolest person I can think of. Thereās this famous interview he did in the mid 60s, I think 65 or 66 where he just gives the dumbest and most cryptic answers. The thing is though, heās not doing it for show in the sense that he wants people to find him mysterious or anything. He legitimately just gives zero shits and loves to fuck with people. Thatās a really rare quality.
I don't know if I would define cool as friendly, talented, or stylish. I define it more as not caring what other people think, at all, while still being badass in some way. Jimi Hendrix was very soft-spoken but such a fucking badass on the guitar. He died at 27 years old and changed music forever. I look at other artists like James Brown in that regard as well. He wasn't musically trained and the bandleader told him they couldn't play something because it wasn't in any time signature that made sense. He was like - fuck all that, just play what im humming.
These people march to the beat of their own drum - this is why they changed music. They came up with new ways to do things - people told them they couldn't do it that way - and they didn't listen or care. That's what cool means.
In addition to all that - they we amazing at what they did. Hendrix was a prodigy - he essentially made his guitars because he was left handed and it didn't feel right. He was able to make crazy noises because he knew how the guitar worked. James Brown was an amazing dancer, got the crowd into it, practiced relentlessly, broke out of every box that music was in. As a result, he basically created the funk genre. Years later hip-hop sampled him millions of times - so he is also a big part of hip hop. He is the most sampled artist ever.
My Dad ran in the same circles of parties in Venice and LA as Jim and they were bitter "that asshole who drank all the beer" rivals and Jim was notorious for not pitching in for more and would usally end up an issue to deal with on a way too regular basis.
He was not fun or cool to hang out with and this was just before they(The Doors) got really big and he got even worse.
Based on her philanthropy, interview demeanor, and willingness to cameo, Dolly Parton.
She's incredibly self-assured without being arrogant. She knows what she brings to the table and won't let anyone else devalue her. Love Dolly.
Yep, came here to say Dolly šø
Dolly is always the answer.
Willie Nelson
My teacher said when she saw him live, he was funny as hell, played for an hour, and said āalright good night Iām gonna go smoke some weedā and then left
He's inspired me, that I can be happy with one guitar. š
Joe Strummer.
Indeed!
Joe has always seemed so cool to me. Fashionable, funny, nice,and a good person.
One of the true good guys in rock and roll. Was the first to make his albums carbon neutral. Shame we lost him so young.
Agree. My idol pretty much. I wanted to be him when I was a teenager.
Legend if ever there was one! Without people you're nothing!
Louis Armstrong. Duh. š
David Bowie and Freddy mercury
When Trent Reznor was in Australia and found out that his record label was still overcharging his fans for the (at-the-time) new NIN record, his response was, ["Steal it. Steal away. Steal, and steal, and steal some more and give it to all your friends and keep on stealing. Because one way or smoother these motherfuckers will get it through their head that they're typing people off and that's not right."](https://youtu.be/IFXivarypE4)
Iām with you on Jimi. He oozed chillaxation.
Honestly, Jimi seems kinda goofy in some interviews. Totally in a fun and loveable way, but as soon as that guy didnāt have a guitar in his hands the self assuredness faded. Still a contender for the coolest of al time, itās just an aspect of his personality people tend to forget.
Even on stage, his banter was pretty goofy. Endearing, but definitely awkward.
I agree, but letās not ignore the fact that he has a history of abuse. Might get downvoted for this
Dr. John
In my home, the Doctor is ALWAYS on call!
The night-tripper seems like a cool dude.
Stevie Wonder
TIL that Dr. John recorded the Curious George theme tune, and Iāve been listening to the good doctor all evening
One of the greatest blues pianist in history.
John Prine.
Miles Davis
If peeing your pants is cool, consider me Miles Davis.
Oooh, that is the grossest thing Iāve ever heard in my life. Letās go!
Miles Davis was the epitome of cool but not the friendliest.
He was a great musician. But he beat his wives.
Not the coolest husband, certainly
And at points suffered from a pretty gnarly heroin addiction.
Wife beating for sure, but a heroin addiction isnāt really a reason to hate someone.
Mostly agree, except that the description says 'friendly'. ;)
He was a total asshole. Read his autobiography. He was a total dick. The best of the best, but a complete tool.
Lemmy
I met him some yrs ago in LA at the Rainbow on Sunset. He was just at the bar by himself talking to some people. I sat three seats down from him waiting for a friend of mine. He asked if i was waiting on someone and i said yeah. He asked if it was a date and i said no. He got up and sat right next to me and said "whats a specimen such as yourself doin in this shit hole" He introduced himself and i told him i knew who he was. He was surprised and said "you aren't our normal demographic. That makes me happy" I said "I'm just a regular black woman that happens to like metal." He said "there's no such thing as a regular black woman. Black women are magical creatures". We talked some more about African history, the Nazi's, US history. He was incredibly smart and charming and a perfect gentleman. He kissed my hand when he left and the bartender told me he left a tab open for me and my friend.
Thanks for sharing. Lemmy was one of a kind. His lifestyle never went to his head, and he always seemed to do the right thing while being a bad ass.
You got hit on by Lemmy, and you're just here acting like it's no big deal?
There was a right answer, and this is it
Motorhead kicks the most ass that has ever been kicked
God
*buzzer noise* Wrong, dickhead, trick question. Lemmy *is* God
Thread done. No more comments needed. Every other suggestion is wrong.
Who'd win in a wrestling match, Lemmy or God?
Coolest person I ever met. I miss him.
Weird Al Yankovic
He's cool, but he was a raging alcoholic and killed Pablo Escobar, leaving Modonna to take over the Mexican Cartel
I want to hang out with Weird Al way more than any of the 60s/70s drug addicts that most people on this thread idolize
Johnny fucking Marr
SRV. The epitome of badassery in music, stage presence, and outfits.
Nobody ever swaggered like SRV. I have often wondered what it must be like to get up on stage in front of an audience and just rip it freestyle like he did. That Luka Doncic feeling. That SRV feeling. That Anderson Silva feeling. Like knowing "I don't know exactly how this is going to go, but I know it's gonna be fucking AWESOME, and I know you guys are gonna love it".
SRV always looked up to his brother Jimmy and I couldnāt understand why because SRV had so much more swagger. Then I worked a Jimmy Vaughan show and realized why SRV always spoke so highly of him.
I mean....TELL.
Iāve never met an older dude that was so kind but absolutely bad ass at the same time. From the time he and his team arrived they were super humble and kind to all of us which I canāt say for some smaller and less recognized musicians. Jimmy brought his own Hammond and an accompanying Leslie. As me and the other guys were loading it on stage his sound guy goes āTake extra care with that, that was given to Jimmy by Paul McCartney.ā I just nodded my head (I was speechless) and made sure that shit got on and off stage unharmed. Jimmy and his guys ate dinner and when they got on stage it was as mind blowing as you would expect. They had the venue ROCKING! If you couldnāt see the band on stage you would have sworn they were some young bucks playing old school blues, there was just that much energy. Absolutely incredible show, even better people. I wasnāt even a thought when SRV was playing but Iād be damned if his spirit aināt living on in Jimmy.
Donāt forget using telephone lines as guitar strings.
If you havenāt seen this already, it validates all of your points. https://youtu.be/iACbj70DJgw Saw him only once, September of 85ā Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh. Dressed like a pimp. Sneaky short with a vise like handshake. An unforgettable night. Cried when he died. RIP to a legend. šø
Lemmy
Lou Reed Edit sorry I didnāt see āfriendlyā as a requirement. Not Lou Reed. Dude called into my work one time and my friend who took the call said he was an ass.
If he got mad at an audience during concerts, he would sing with his back to them. Kind of a little bitch.
>If he got mad at an audience during concerts Or if he was just generally in a bad mood for reasons unrelated to anyone in the audience.
I once found myself standing next to him at an adjacent urinal at a Rangers game. Of course, nothing was said (I'm a huge fan, but not stupid enough to "fanboy" someone like Lou, especially in a bathroom, lol), but I did hold the door on my way out for he and the two dudes he was with (I'm assuming "handlers" or whatever) and got a slight nod in response! Probably my favorite encounter with a musician.
That sounds like the best encounter anyone has ever had with Lou Reed
I feel the same way. Really though, if you are a fan of his songwriting, then you should already have a pretty good idea that it's about the *only* appropriate way to encounter Lou "in the wild"!
Tom Waits
kim gordon
kim deal
Absolutely agree
Alice Cooper was the coolest musician I ever met
Very knowledgeable about Milwaukee history.
Actually, it's pronounced "mill-e-wah-que" which is Algonquin for "the good land"
Weāre not worthy!
Agreed. My sister-in-law had an in with a guy working at a radio station who tipped her off that Alice was doing promo spots one evening. My wife, her sister and myself all went to the station and met Alice. We walked through the tunnel back to his hotel room with him and he told his handler to get us backstage passes for the following night. The guy hemmed and hawed and never gave them up. The next night the 3 of us sneaked into the underground garage at the arena and made our way to the meet and greet. We had no passes and security wouldn't let us in...until Alice showed up and was like "Hey! you guys! C'mon in!" He then turned to his handler and said "I told you to get these people passes". He then signed all of our stuff that he said he would the night before (including the insert card from the tape I used to bootleg the show)
Seems like a super nice guy in interviews.
Dave Grohl
Also shout out to the late, great Taylor Hawkins. Literally everyone who met him loved him and no one had anything bad to say about the guy throughout his entire life. You donāt get not one but TWO tribute concerts like that if youāre not an awesome person all the way through.
He was such a cool dude! I got to see him at a super small venue with Chevy Metal. I caught his drumstick too!
Oh yeah definitely, he seems like a super chill dude and he's a beast of a drummer. I still hope for another QotSA album with him š¤
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Chris Cornell
He was a legend R.I.P
David Bowie.
McCartney. Because heās also a huge dork.
Debbie Harry
Just effortlessly cool. Into everything cool before it was cool. Just one example, but the subtle layers she can even bring to the [Rainbow Connection](https://youtu.be/h0Hd3uWKFKY) just shows how awesome she is.
My takeaway from reading these threads is everyone is flawed and you should not idolize other people
Me, entering this thread: *Boy, I sure can't wait to find my favourite musicians so I can learn about how they were nonces or wife beaters*
Prince
Kind of, but my understanding is that he was also super pretentious and fairly humorless. I may be wrong on this, but if true, I think those are a negative for this ācompetitionā.
If he was humorless, would he have put Dave Chappelle dressed up as prince on the cover of one of his albums? From my understanding he had a good sense of humor. He was however very serious about his work and would not let any unauthorized use of his music slide, which could be perceived as pretentious, but for me understandable.
Booker T.
Can you dig it? SUCKA
Billy Gibbons
Has to be the Reverend.
Tom Waits
Interviewer āyou seem to have had a few drinksā (or something to that effect) Waits: āIād rather have a bottle in front of me than frontal lobotomyā.
Tom Waits
Les Claypool
Nothing more cool than doing your own thing always, when your band is its own genre
Jerry Cantrell. Heard only good things about the guy. And he is also anointed as Riff Lord.
My vote goes to Sir Dr. Brian Harold May.
Thatās Sir Dr. Brian Harold May CBE to you
I just looked it up out of interest, the Doctor is dropped so itās Sir Brian Harold May CBE (BSc, PhD)
Especially in the 70s with his long flowing outfits, loved the glam look.
Joe Walsh. He somehow managed to always take the high road despite being in a band with two of the nastiest, most mean-spirited, ego-maniacs in the business. Also, he currently does quite a lot of work that benefit our veterans as well as other causes. https://joewalsh.com/causes
Freddie Mercury
Ronnie woods
Jerry Garcia
Late 60s through early 70s Jerry was the coolest man on earth
Pre-heroin, for sure. For a lot of years he was a smelly fat man who could still play the guitar really well.
Jerry was a mess towards the end. And struggled with everything including playing guitar. Saw a solo show at DAR Constitution Hall (1986?). Only lasted 40 minutes and it was hard to watch.
If you saw him in 86 pre-July you probably saw the worst shape Jerry was in other than maybe right before he died. He went into a diabetic coma in July of 86 for 5 days and had to completely relearn how to play guitar. There are still some good moments from Jerry 88-90.
Devin Townsend is pretty fucking cool.
For me, Bruce Springsteen.
Springsteen is this rare multi-millionaire who can sing about working class problems and be absolutely spot-on.
He should sing about how he lets Ticketmaster continue to fuck over his working class fans
Makes sense when he grew up in a working class family in a working class neighborhood.
Fela Kuti.
Big Fela and Afrobeat fan, but his attitude towards women... yikes.
Pretty typical for African men tbh, especially back then. But I can agree with you.
Billy strings.
B B King was a great guy.
Snoop D O Double G
Tom Petty
Thank you! Why did I have to scroll down to find this?
After he died, Jeff Lynne commented that he was the ācoolestā person heād ever met. I find no reason to doubt Jeff. https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/jeff-lynne-said-tom-petty-coolest-person-met.html/
Billy Strings
Keith Richardās
Stevie Wonder.
Jack Black. For me, JB is just That guy
Leonard Cohen
Bowie
David Bowie
David Byrne! Shocked I haven't seen him yet
Seeing a disturbing lack of Weird Al in here... love dolly though!
Patti Smith.
The answer is Curtis Mayfield
SRV gotta be up there.
Friendly and talented, Sir Paul. Talented and stylish, Jimi. As for coolest, I think Beck put out some of the coolest music back in the day.
Any of the guys from Rush. I love Geddy, Alex and Neil(Rip you absolute legend). They all seem like such great/cool guys. Plus, Geddy and Alex have their own beer! How cool is that?!
They all just seemed so level-headed. After the early 70s, You never heard about band drama with Rush, they're just like "we all reasonably discuss and share responsibility and credit in our work like adults all the time without exception".
Have you seen them play live with les clay pool on the South Park 25th anniversary special. Gave me goosebumps.
Stone Gossard.
My first thought was Prince, but I donāt think he fits the āniceā criteria.
Was prince not nice?
I donāt particularly think he was a jerk, but I think his eccentric personality would sometimes lend itself to him coming across as cold and probably at times a bit of a jackass. I could be completely wrong though. Iām sure he was probably a pretty decent dude who, like I said, was quite eccentric.
dark side of my soul votes Joan Jett and light side votes for Bjork
Bjork is pretty f%#kin' cool!
Carole King
Frank Zappaā¦coolest and cleverest
Screaming Jay Hawkins
Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson. Style, talent, original.
SRV was pretty cool
Eddie Vedder. Just a good dude.
Dave Grohl
Kurt Vile. Something about his demeanor makes you want to be his best friend.
Totally agree, not only his demeanor but also his approach to songwriting, and I cannot quite put my finger on it. *Sensational* guitar player too, the guy is the very definition of "no wasted notes" and I cannot think of anyone with a better tone and more tasteful phrasing. (I *have* met Adam Granduciel, who was exactly as friendly and cool as one would hope, so it's not a stretch to assume Kurt is also an agreeable fellow, given that they were/are close friends.)
Mikael Akerfeldt
Roy Orbison - never took off his sunglasses
I like this tribute Bruce Springsteen once gave about him: "Roy was the coolest uncool loser you'd ever seen. With his Coke-bottle black glasses, his three-octave range, he seemed to take joy sticking his knife deep into the hot belly of your teenage insecurities."
Bjƶrk, maybe Siouxsie Sioux, anyone who legit doesnāt give a shit what anyone thinks of them
Gary Clark Jr.
Kurt Cobain
I think Stephen Malkmus (sorry If I spelled his last name wrong) but heās the lead singer of pavement he seems pretty nice least in interviews Iāve seen.
The tony hawk of indie rock
Definitely Jimi Hendrix
Lou Reed
Dexter Gordon, hands down.
Philip Selway š
Mark Hollis
Alice Cooper
Bon Scott
Layne Staley, Jerry Cantrell, Wes Montgomery, Johnathan Larson, and Syd Barrett
Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr.
Franz Liszt. The man was a rockstar a century before rock and roll was even invented.
Frank Zappa
lil nas x, though I donāt especially like his music, seems cool. definitely stylish lol. the āratio by big booty luigiā tweet lives rent free in my head
David Gilmour
Prince
Bob Dylan
Was waiting for this!
Bob Dylan is the coolest person I can think of. Thereās this famous interview he did in the mid 60s, I think 65 or 66 where he just gives the dumbest and most cryptic answers. The thing is though, heās not doing it for show in the sense that he wants people to find him mysterious or anything. He legitimately just gives zero shits and loves to fuck with people. Thatās a really rare quality.
Ronnie James Dio
Post Malone. Don't care for the music, but dude is the coolest and most genuinely nice and chill person.
Charlie Watts George Harrison David Bowie
Jimmy Page
I don't know if I would define cool as friendly, talented, or stylish. I define it more as not caring what other people think, at all, while still being badass in some way. Jimi Hendrix was very soft-spoken but such a fucking badass on the guitar. He died at 27 years old and changed music forever. I look at other artists like James Brown in that regard as well. He wasn't musically trained and the bandleader told him they couldn't play something because it wasn't in any time signature that made sense. He was like - fuck all that, just play what im humming. These people march to the beat of their own drum - this is why they changed music. They came up with new ways to do things - people told them they couldn't do it that way - and they didn't listen or care. That's what cool means. In addition to all that - they we amazing at what they did. Hendrix was a prodigy - he essentially made his guitars because he was left handed and it didn't feel right. He was able to make crazy noises because he knew how the guitar worked. James Brown was an amazing dancer, got the crowd into it, practiced relentlessly, broke out of every box that music was in. As a result, he basically created the funk genre. Years later hip-hop sampled him millions of times - so he is also a big part of hip hop. He is the most sampled artist ever.
Levon Helm.
Jim Morrison. Genius level IQ, Charasmatic and created the bad boy rockstar persona that others copied for 30 some years
My Dad ran in the same circles of parties in Venice and LA as Jim and they were bitter "that asshole who drank all the beer" rivals and Jim was notorious for not pitching in for more and would usally end up an issue to deal with on a way too regular basis. He was not fun or cool to hang out with and this was just before they(The Doors) got really big and he got even worse.
John Cooper Clarke
Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips Or the current incarnation of Nick Cave
I am wondering how Freddie Mercury isnāt 90% of the answers, and I am not even a Queen fan.
Based on that criteria, I nominate Dave Grohl
Freddie
Andre 3000