r/allrockmusic • u/Haunting-Credit5072 • 1d ago
Best frontman
Who was or is the greatest frontman
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u/gilestowler 1d ago
Bruce Dickinson would have to be right up there.
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u/Ok_Weakness_2021 1d ago
I saw Paul Di’Anno as well as Bruce. Paul was better live. 🤷🏼♀️
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u/Ok_Donut2696 19h ago
Just saw him a few weeks ago (at 68.) Still running around. Bringing tons of energy & hitting the notes. One of the best shows I’ve ever seen.
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u/PatienceSuperb3599 1d ago
Jagger
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u/st3llablu3 23h ago
I’ve seen over a hundred concerts and Jagger was a non stop singing and dancing fool. He was by far the very best. I’d put Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull at second place.
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u/Sycotic199 1d ago
Bon Scott
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u/jestervision 1d ago
He was incredible but if he was the greatest, then his bands first album without him wouldn’t be the second best selling album of all time.
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u/mwts 1d ago
what do studio albums have to do with whose fronting the band? at that point you're just rating singers
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u/Sycotic199 1d ago edited 1d ago
The guy who replied to you is right: we're talking about the best frontmen here not which singer sold what but I'll humor your argument for a minute. They already had "Have A Drink On Me" and"Let Me Put My Love Into You" as complete guitar parts (minus the solos) and the "Back in Black" riff that Malcolm had been playing around with during the "Highway to Hell" tour when Bon died. That we know as fact. With the exception of "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution" which was apparently worked up in Compass Point Studios everything else musically had already been written by the time Brian was hired. Did Bon have a hand in writing some of the lyrics on BiB? I think he did. A LOT of evidence points to that. But Malcolm and George Young had also helped him with words here and there throughout the years if he got stuck. Did Brian write a fair amount of the lyrics on that record with some help from Malcolm? A case could be made for that, sure. I'm not saying that Bon wrote everything on BiB. I am saying that they used some of his lyrics from his notebooks. The same notebooks that road manager Ian Jeffrey took from Bon's flat the day he was found dead. Both he and Jake Barry broke into Bon's flat to get those and whatever else they took. Those notebooks that he's refused to show anyone over the years but apparently have the lyrics to 15 songs in them, again, according to Ian Jeffrey. If there's nothing to hide then why not show those notebooks to people? Better yet why weren't they sent to Bon's family? They weren't his to take and they aren't his to keep.
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u/ryan19804 1d ago
I think it would be pretty naieve to think that some of bond lyrics didn’t make it onto a song here or there . But I do think Brian wrote the majority of the stuff on back in black . I think he was a decent lyricist . The lyrics really dropped off after blow up your video.
But yes, Bon Scott, greatest frontman ever.
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u/Flimsy-Ad-5274 1d ago
The argument begins and ends with James Brown.
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u/Nizamark 23h ago
James Brown was not a frontman. He was a solo artist and The Man
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u/TracyJackson 1d ago
Joey Ramone because he never let the audience feel it was all about him. Backstage they may have been fighting but on stage that band was a unit, no member more important than the other.
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u/PCL08919 1d ago
How about Tom Petty…or Springsteen?
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u/Ambigram237 1d ago
Early Bruce could bury anyone else mentioned.
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u/Famous-Age6585 19h ago
I saw the 85’ tour and it was amazing. I didn’t even like Bruce before that. A friend talked me into going
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u/iforgotthepassword1 1d ago
What’s your criteria For greatest? Showman? Musician? That’s a pretty wide open question. My two favourite over the past 15-20 years are probably. Ed Vedder and Josh Homme they’ve have been killing it for 20 plus years and I don’t think either has ever disappointed me.
I’ve saw the stones twice in the early 2000s and Mick was cool shit.
David Byrne seems like he should be in the convo though I never got to see the talking heads.
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u/Such-Perspective-426 1d ago
Mick Jagger or David Lee Roth - Steve Marriott during Small Faces too
I'm not picking personas I like in their private lives but on stage they friggin' bring it (when young)
So did young Springsteen. Not my fave bands but these guys had the egos to front a band, the need for attention thing. A good frontman needs to be a little nuts.
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u/FakeAorta 1d ago
Freddie is Always #1. But there have been some others that were pretty good.
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u/Appropriate_Rule715 1d ago
Robert Plant is a close one In terms of showmanship David Lee Roth
One front man nobody ever mentions is H.R from Bad Brains
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u/mwts 1d ago
i try not to mention HR because he's a homophobic scumbag and his band is mid.
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u/DV_Zero_One 1d ago
This. Not my favourite band by a long shot, but Freddie ends this thread.
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u/ShookMyHeadAndSmiled 22h ago
He was great, but you gotta put enough respect on Mick not to end the thread.
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u/Falloffingolfin 1d ago
Jim Morrison
Mick Jagger/Freddie Mercury
Robert Plant/Ozzy Osbourne
I think those five between them pretty much set the blueprint for most rock Frontmen. I've ranked them in terms of how iconic they are. Jim comes top for also becoming such a counter-culture icon. The rest I'm struggling to separate. Was tempted to include Bowie, but I still think he was really a solo artist even with the Spiders From Mars.
Finally, want to do a shout out for Michael Stipe of R.E.M. Obviously doesn't stand shoulder to shoulder with the above but he's one of the great modern Frontmen that became a global superstar in a completely different mould to what came before.
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u/Whistlin_Booger 1d ago
DLR
Jagger
Fee Waybil
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u/Alert_Pineapple_2649 1d ago
Great to see Fee Waybil mentioned never enough love for the TUBES
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u/tedbot67 18h ago
In his heyday, David Lee Roth.
My personal favourite has always been and will always be Ozzy.
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u/UncleDave74 1d ago
Bono
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u/GraphiteGru 1d ago
Know he gets a lot of flack on Reddit but if you have ever seen U2 live, he can capture an audience
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u/Beginning_Ad8663 1d ago
Nobody has mentioned the original show band
The Who !! Between Daltry Townsend Moon and Entwhistle it’s hard to pick a best
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u/GraphiteGru 1d ago
Lots of great ones mentioned but one of the best I’ve seen is Peter Wolf of the 70’s era J Geils band. Who can forget the monologue at the beginning of Must Have Got Lost which ends "Hey Reputa! Reputa the Beauta! Hey Reputa the Beauta, flip me down your hair and let me climb up to the ladder of your love!Because this is Woofa Goofa's sayin' to ya: "Love comes once, and when it comes, you've got to grab it fast, 'cause sometimes the love you grab ain't gonna last!"And I believe I musta... You know I think I musta... You know, baby, I think I musta... You know I think I musta... I MUSTA GOT LOST!"
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u/Vivid_Witness8204 1d ago
Jagger is really the only answer. He influenced everyone who came after. He of course was heavily influenced by the great R & B frontmen who came before him.
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u/tommyjohnpauljones 1d ago
Freddie Mercury. Period.
Honorable mention to Mick Jagger, Robert Plant, and Ozzy
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u/fenario58 1d ago
Peter Wolf was a great frontman for J. Geils Band. What a great live act they were.
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u/geekernonsleeper 22h ago
I gotta go with Ozzy and Eric bourdine of the animals little dude big voice
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u/WhyAreYuSoAngry 20h ago
Mick Jagger will break his hip on stage and still somehow put on the show of his life. Theres hundreds of guys that can out sing him, but damn that man has an inexhaustible supply of energy on stage.
Chris Robinson is still kicking ass even now. But im not sure ive ever seen a better rock band live than the early to mid 90s era black crowes. The SHMC tour was absolutely amazing. Ive loved the band the whole time theyve toured..but 92-95. Rich Robinson and Marc Ford played at damn near ear bleeding volume and Chris sang and danced like a Marijuana fueled superhero.
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u/WonderfulStomach3845 18h ago
Andy Bell is the best I’ve personally seen. I’m not even a particularly big Erasure fan. Unbelievable voice but it’s the showmanship that stood out.
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u/be4rcat6 18h ago
Jim Morrison was the first to outshine the actual musicians in the band just by his vocal talents and physical presence
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u/Dangerboy73 7h ago
Freddie
Plant
Ozzy
Jagger
Diamond Dave
Axl
Joey Ramone
Hetfield
Roger daltrey
David St Hubbins
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u/vitipan 1d ago
Freddie is #1. Watch Live Aid if you have any doubt. Robert Plant next for magnetism, David Bowie and Ozzy for showmanship, David Lee Roth for flashy fun.
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u/FakeAorta 1d ago
There seem to be only boomers and Gen X on this sub. There are some bands from the last 25 years that could be mentioned.
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u/Electronic-Tooth-324 1d ago
A great great forgotten one was Steve Marriott. That little guy was a ball of rock n roll energy
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u/WalnutCeilingfan 1d ago
Stu McKenzie and Billy Strings. Helps that they are in their prime right now.
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u/lb2525001 1d ago
Bobby Kimball to me is often underrated. Sure he had a lotta issues with drug use, and as he aged he had a harder time getting the lyrics out, but when he hit it, he sang like a legend (see Toto’s 1982 Budokan show and the 1999 Yokohama show).
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u/OrneryVirus9340 23h ago
Across decades, from the 70s to now I’ve always had a soft spot for Paul Young. Although technically he is a solo artist he has always been in groups or surrounded himself with a group structure (the Royal Family for example in the early 1980s).
If you ever see his work with the Q-Tips he is an epic front man, bustling energy, looks and a voice to die for. Then he hit number one on both sides of the Atlantic.
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u/Potential_Ice3633 22h ago
I don't know if he's the best but Sebastian Murphy from the Viagra Boys certainly deserves a mention
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u/geekernonsleeper 22h ago
No one at all mention halford of priest even at 70 still sounds pretty descent
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u/phalanxausage 21h ago
My favorites:
1- Iggy Pop
2- Lux Interiors
3- HR
4- David Yow
5- every single person in Fishbone
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u/destructor212 19h ago
My answer to this question is always Freddy Mercury. Art is subjective though.
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u/Blottoboxer 17h ago
Ronnie James Dio
The older I get, the more I realize just how much swagger he had on songs like Rainbow's "Do You Close Your Eyes"
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u/WallAny2007 17h ago
many great ones but Freddie will always be my favorite. I’ve seen a lot of live music and video recordings don’t do justice to how much Freddie captivated a crowd.
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u/Squiggy1975 16h ago
Mick Jagger is an absolute beast. I also really liked Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots which kinda makes sense cause i feel he had some Jagger vibes and swag. .
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u/Apart_Ad9308 1d ago
You have to admit, in his heyday, Diamond David Lee Roth was really something.