In the summer of 2023, a US Congressional hearing on national security was convened to discuss evidence relating to Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs). A parade of highly-credible men from the intelligence and military communities delivered jaw-dropping testimony regarding evidence of aliens.
Unquestionably, the most stunning takeaway was the nearly wholesale disinterest of the public at large. What should have commanded gigantic, bold-faced, block letter headlines and bug-eyed doomsday proclamations from frantic news readers barely registered a blip in the global consciousness.
Within the music industry however, one man found soaring vindication. For others, it confirmed long-held beliefs that aliens are indeed real – and pop by Earth for visits regularly.
- "About halfway through the gig, I got down on my knees and prayed that God would forgive me and release me from this situation": The psychedelic early days of acid overlords and space travellers Hawkwind
- “Donald Trump is a huge fan of mine. Mostly he’s jealous of my hair, which is much cooler than his”: Gene Simmons’ wild tales of Eddie Van Halen, Bob Dylan, Cher and Donald Trump
Here are ten musicians who have reported close encounters with extraterrestrials.
Tom DeLonge
Over the years, the Blink-182 guitarist has emerged as a voice crying out in the cosmic wilderness that aliens exist. He said as much in his band’s 1999 hit, Aliens Exist. In 2015, Delonge claimed,“I have sources from the government. I’ve had my phone tapped,” alluding to covert communications with officials about UFOs.
His passion culminated in the formation of To The Stars Academy of Arts & Sciences, a company dedicated to researching fringe science and alien life forms. In the wake of the Congressional hearings, shirts stating “Tom Was Right: Aliens F**king Exist” are now available for purchase at the company’s web store.
Jimi Hendrix
The virtuosic composer of otherworldly tracks like Purple Haze and Third Stone From The Sun was deeply intrigued by extraterrestrials. Obsessed with sci fi hero Flash Gordon as a kid (he briefly adopted the nickname “Buster,” as a reference to Buster Crabbe, the actor who played Flash), young Hendrix claimed to have seen a UFO with his brother Leon in their home state of Washington, proclaiming years later, "I believe in UFOs... I’ve seen them... I’ve been receiving transmissions.”
Hendrix's music, intertwined with space and celestial themes, later underscored his deep psychic connection to life beyond this earthly plane.
John Lennon
In 1974, amidst his infamous 'Lost Weekend,' John Lennon was so transfixed by a mysterious craft that he declared in the liner notes of 1974’s Walls and Bridges, "On the 23rd Aug. 1974 at 9 o'clock I saw a U.F.O." Speaking with Interview magazine, he described “a thing with ordinary electric light bulbs flashing on and off round the bottom, one non-blinking red light on top, around 100 ft away, hovering over an adjacent building.”
Despite the psychedelic enhancements on offer at the time, Lennon insisted he was lucid and his then-girlfriend, May Pang, backed up his story, detail-for-detail.
Elvis Presley
The King was fascinated with the possibility of intelligent life beyond our solar system. Larry Geller, his spiritual guru and hairstylist, reveals that an eight-year-old Elvis experienced alien telepathic visions, including a premonition of his iconic white jumpsuit. Together, they reportedly witnessed mysterious luminous objects in the desert and above Graceland.
Intriguingly, during Elvis's birth, his father Vernon spotted an uncanny blue light in the sky, convinced of its significance. It’s fitting that nearly 50 years after his death, stories of Elvis sightings sit side-by-side with stories of UFO sightings in certain media publications
Sammy Hagar
The mop-topped tequila baron, Red Rocker and former frontman of Van Halen claims to have been the subject of a full-on alien abduction. Discussing the incident with singer/songwriter Kesha, Hagar claimed that aliens tunnelled into his consciousness from a mountain thirteen miles away.
“It was real,” he insisted, stating, “They had a wire – it was not a hard wire but they had a circuit that was in me and they hollered out a numerical code and they said, ‘Oh, he’s waking up. We’ve got to end this.’” Like Delonge, Hagar believes that the government has known about extraterrestrial life for decades, asking, "Why have they kept it a secret? It's Earth-shattering!"
Lemmy
Well before his stints with Hawkwind and as a roadie for Jimi Hendrix, Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister had a close encounter of the cosmic kind. In 1966, while playing with The Rockin' Vickers. Lemmy claimed to have witnessed a UFO, recounting to Inked, "It abruptly emerged, halted mid-sky, then darted from zero to breakneck speed. A phenomenon far beyond even today's aviation capabilities. A truly eye-opening revelation for young Lemmy."
Perhaps he had this in mind when, on the 2000 song We Are Motörhead, he sings, “We are Motörhead and we don’t have no class… We bring you UFOs, saucers in the sky.”
Robbie Williams
Following the lukewarm reception of his 2006 album Rudebox, the former Take That frontman embarked on a three-year hiatus, much of which he dedicated to UFO hunting. In a 2008 interview with singer Joss Stone, Williams recounted an uncanny encounter with a golden orb while playing his song, Arizona.
"I stood on the balcony and there was this big ball of gold light that turned up,” he said. “We thought it was Venus or Mars or something. Then the song stops playing and it disappears. But then we put Arizona on again and the ball turned back up. It happened four times.”
Keith Richards
In 1968, after a high-profile raid on his Redlands estate, the Rolling Stones guitarist claimed to have seen UFOs above those very grounds.
Suggesting that his home was something of an interplanetary pitstop for wayward space voyagers, Richards told Melody Maker, "I've seen a few [UFOs], but nothing that any of the ministries would believe. I believe they exist - plenty of people have seen them. They are tied up with a lot of things, like the dawn of man, for example... I'm not an expert. I'm still trying to understand what's going on."
David Bowie
Bowie’s music, fashion and personae, such as Ziggy Stardust, often drew inspiration from faraway civilisations in outer space. In 1975, Bowie confided with Creem that he once worked for a British UFO magazine, stating, "I used to work for two guys who put out a UFO magazine in England ... About six years ago. And I made sightings six, seven times a night for about a year when I was in the observatory.
"We had regular cruises that came over. We knew the 6.15 was coming in and would meet up with another one. And they would be stationary for about half an hour, and then after verifying what they'd been doing that day, they'd shoot off.”
Ace Frehley
It’s hardly surprising that the former Kiss guitarist, whose stage persona was known as “Space Ace,” would be a resolute believer in aliens. Not only has Ace Frehley claimed numerous UFO sightings over the years, but he’s pretty sure that one landed in his backyard.
Recounting awakening from what must have been an action-packed evening, Frehley told journalist Aaron Sagers, “All I know is I woke up the next morning, and I’m laying in my doorway, halfway in the house and halfway out of the house, and then there was like this circular burn on the grass.” Whether or not it was a UFO, Frehley cagily offered, “I don’t know, you tell me.” He puts the odds of his own abduction at about 50/50, owing to aliens’ ability to wipe people’s memories.
