The actor and celebrity band list.

There’s enough of them so I felt like making a list. Why? Because I can. Some rock, some don’t. Some one-hit wonders, some it’s a wonder no one’s hit them yet. Nearly all however need more cowbell. (If you have any suggestions for other names I could include, post them in comments.) First, the criteria I used:

• These aren’t sorted by a ‘Best/Worst’ ranking, just alphabetically–you be judge and jury.
• No musician turned ‘actor.’ (That’s another list for another time.)
• Actors in movies playing a musician only for that movie don’t count. Needs to be a true side project outside their regular movie career. (Spinal Tap or a Barbusters, sorry.)
• Merely joining in for a one of a kind “We Are The World” type charity singalong? Nope.

The List:
1. Dan Ackroyd/John Belushi: The Blues Brothers.°
2. Woody Allen: Jazz clarinet freaky with the Eddy Davis New Orleans Jazz Band.
3. Kevin Bacon: Bacon Brothers.
4. Sandra Bernhard: An acquired taste.^
5. Jack Black: Tenacious D.
6. Jeff Bridges: Be Here Soon.
7. Keith Carradine: He’s been around.
8. Dominic Chianese: Uncle Junior sings.
9. Kevin Costner:The Kevin Costner Band.
10. Russell Crowe: 30 Odd Foot of Grunts/The Ordinary Fear of God.
11. Johnny Depp: The Kids.*
12. Minnie Driver: Seastories. Oh, and there’s videos.
13. Corey Feldman: Truth Movement.^† (Somewhere Crispin Glover is laughing really hard.)
14. Vincent Gallo: American Original.°°°°
15. Crispin Hellion Glover: The original American Original.
16. Jeff Goldblum: Jazz piano freak, plays with the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra.
17. Brian Austin Green: One Stop Carnival.^††
18. David Hasselhoff: Hey, it’s The Hoff, c’mon.
19. Conrad Janis: Jazz trombone freak from Mork and Mindy.
20. Don Johnson: Heartbeat.°°°
21. Milla Jovovich: Experimental work.
22. Jared Leto: 30 Seconds to Mars.*^††
23. Juliette Lewis: Juliette and the Licks.
24. John Lithgow: Music for children.^††††
25. Taryn Manning: Boomkat.^†††
26. James Marsters: Ghost of the Robot*^††
27. Steve Martin: Wild and Crazy banjo.
28. Bruce McCullough: Music-comedy stylings.^††††
29. Eddie Murphy: Party All The Time.
30. Leonard Nimoy: More an experiment than a real diversion.°°
31. Joe Pesci: Vincent Laguardia Gambini.^††††
32. Dennis Quaid: DQ and The Sharks.
33. Tim Robbins: Gob Roberts.
34. Robert Rodriguez: A director who jams.
35. Jack McDowell: (Former pitcher) Stickfigure.^
36. Adam Sandler: Not really sure what he’s doing.
37. Steven Seagal: Steven Seagal with Thunderbox.
38. William Shatner: Oh, pretty much anything he does.
39. Gary Sinise: Lt. Dan Band.
40. Jada Pinkett-Smith: Wicked Wisdom.
41. David Soul: Don’t give up on Starsky, or Hutch.
42. Hal Sparks: Zero 1.^†† or even rates a ^†††
43. Peter Stomare: Blond From Fargo.
44. Kiefer Sutherland: Ironworks.*
45. Philip Michael Thomas: The EGOT half of Don Johnson.
46. Billy Bob Thornton: Several albums.
47. Malcolm-Jamal Warner: The Miles Long Mixtape.^
48. Bruce Willis: The Accelerators or The Return of Bruno.*
49. Mare Winningham: Refuge Rock Sublime.
50. Tom Wopat: Yep. The Dukes of Hazzard guy.

*Via Mookychick.
†Via msnbc.
^Via Am I Annoying.
^††Damn, did this barely qualify or what. One hit show and you have a band? Just not right, unless the music is halfway decent and you can leave your one-show career behind.
^†††Who?
^††††Although not a rock thang per se, still, a labor of love.
°Not even counting the subsequent travesity of a sequel under the John Goodman tenure.
°°Unless the show is so wildly popular after it’s cancelled that you can get away with trying anything.
°°°Tempted to say WTF? here, but he at least had some cred working with the Allman Brothers before the acting thing. Uncoolest thing you will ever hear me admit on this blog: I actually have this vinyl album in the garage.
°°°°Gotta love an artist who offers ‘personal services’ starting at 50K.

Tags: celebrity bands, more cowbell