Whether helping out old pals, making strategic business alliances to tap into new demographics, or simply being needy attention whores, rock stars love guesting on each others’ records, don't they? And sometimes, they'll even pop up to make unexpected appearance in other band's music videos too, the rascals.
To be clear, we’re not talking here about collaborations where the guest also contributes to the track musically – like, say, Dani Filth’s unforgettable shopping trolley cameo in Bring Me The Horizon’s Wonderful Life video, Avenged Sevenfold’s wonky guitar lines on NOFX’s Linewleum or Def Leppard vocalist Joe Elliott’s surprise star turn in the recent reworking of Ghost’s Spillways.
No, here we’re talking about random cameos and guest appearances where the only thought process involved appears to be, ‘Yeah, fuck it, why the hell not?’
Enough waffle: here are 12 instances when famous faces grabbed a bit of the limelight from other artists, just because.
Yungblud's The Funeral, feat: Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne crops up throughout the video for Yungblud’s The Funeral and is joined by his beloved wife and manager Sharon for the killer pay-off when she hits the Doncaster-born singer with her car.
"What the fuck was that?" Ozzy asks.
"Just some fucking poser," Sharon replies.
"Ah, run him over again then."
Yungblud told NME.com that Oz’s cameo came with bonus words of wisdom on the set. "He’s so intelligent and so fucking beautiful," he said. "People are scared of him until they hear him speak. He said that he saw a lot of himself in me. He said, ‘Never apologise for anything. They will understand you later. Time always tells’." Awwww.
Foo Fighters' White Limo, feat: Lemmy
If you’re going to score a guest appearance for the video to one of your heaviest songs, you might as well go for the legend that was late Motorhead frontman Lemmy – especially if your little black book is as crammed with stars as Dave Grohl’s undoubtedly is. Mr Kilmister is the driver of the titular vehicle here, picking up band members in Los Angeles and eventually hurtling right off the edge of a cliff. Textbook.
Motionless In White – Immaculate Misconception, feat: Dee Snider
Twisted Sister frontman and shock rock OG Dee Snider appears in the controversial video for MiW’s Immaculate Conception, flogging the unrepentant Chris Motionless as he’s crucified in a crown of thorns. Dee’s son Cody directed the video.
Afterwards, Papa Snider said in an interview: “Bands like MiW deal with the same misjudgment and ignorance that Twisted Sister dealt with when we were first starting out. In its own way, Immaculate Misconception is the We're Not Gonna Take It for its generation. It's an amazing song of defiance, rebellion and belief in one's own self worth."
Nickelback – Rockstar, feat: Gene Simmons, Ted Nugent, Jerry Cantrell
Of course Nickelback were going to pack this video with rock stars and celebs, given its tongue-in-cheek worship of the lifestyle. Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top delivers the rumbling spoken word bits but Gene Simmons, Ted Nugent and Jerry Cantrell appear to be here entirely for shits and giggles, and fair play to them.
Other 'faces' lip synching here like their lives depend on it include actresses, sports stars, reality TV contestants and assorted famous in America/Canada randoms who presumably also want a brand new house on an episode of Cribs and a bathroom they can play baseball in.
Joe Strummer – Fantastic, feat: Eddie Vedder
Filmmaker Lance Bangs, who has directed videos for Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Green Day and more, pieced together unseen footage to create a visual accompaniment for one of Joe Strummer’s final recordings.
Released in 2022, the video for Fantastic features a lengthy spoken word introduction from Strummer, along with documentary footage of the former Clash frontman travelling the world. Long-time fan Eddie Vedder also makes an appearance, not long after he covered Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros’ track Long Shadow to mark Strummer’s 70th birthday.
Fall Out Boy – I Don’t Care, feat: Gilby Clarke, Mark Hoppus, Pharell Williams
We could almost have done a full list of Fall Out Boy videos just featuring cameos from Panic! At The Disco’s Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith (What a Catch, Donnie; the glorious vampiric slapstick of A Little Less Sixteen Candles, a Little More Touch Me; Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet).
But we’ll stick with I Don’t Care largely due to the fact that Guns N’ Roses alumnus Gilby Clarke gets to proclaim that he’s “taken shits with bigger rock stars” than FOB. Drummer Andy Hurley turns out to be Mark Hoppus in disguise, with rappers Tyga and Pharrell Williams also making an appearance.
Steel Panther – Wasted Too Much Time, feat: Stone Sour
The Steel Panther/Stone Sour bromance has flourished since Corey Taylor first appeared on the LA mock-cock-rock quartet's breakthrough single Death To All But Metal, with the bands having undertaken co-headlining tours together. Stone Sour don’t actually contribute to the Steel Panther track Wasted Too Much Time, but they appear in the NSFW video, with Corey doing his best Michael Starr impersonation.
“I know that Corey Taylor sings in all kinds of bands, he’s a musical whore. There’s really nothing he won’t do for $50,” guitarist Satchel shared before the Stone Sour/Slipknot man joined them onstage at last year’s Shiprocked Cruise. We see no lie.
New Found Glory – My Friends Over You, feat: Brody Dalle, Travis Barker, Tim Armstrong
Back when pop-punk veterans New Found Glory were pop-punk’s fastest rising stars they put out this infectious little gem, with the live performance video punctuated by quirky moments. There are inflated heads and wrestling moves, onstage tattooing, pugs and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameos from Blink 182's Travis Barker, Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong and Rob Aston (all then of The Transplants) plus Brody Dalle of The Distillers.
The Struts – Primadonna Like Me, feat: Alice Cooper
British glam rockers The Struts flew from the UK straight into Las Vegas and started shooting in the casinos and penthouse suites for Primadonna Like Me. Then they ran into shock rock legend Alice Cooper purely by chance and asked if he’d be in the vid. Obliging fellow that he is, the Coop is seen delivering a few pointers to frontman Luke Spiller on how to use the throwing knives that he apparently always takes on tour with him. Because who doesn’t make sure their specially weighted weapons are the first things they pack before heading out on the road?
Limp Bizkit – Break Stuff, feat: Jonathan Davis, Eminem, Snoop Dogg
Back in the day, nu-metal heavyweights Fred Durst and Jonathan Davis went head to head in the video for Limp Bizkit’s Break Stuff. Quite literally as they screamed the bozo venting anthem at each other, with the Korn frontman wearing a jacket that makes him look like a 50 year old ex-hippy called Sandra who endlessly recalls her days on the backpacker trail. Snoop Dogg, Eminem and Eminem’s daughter Hailie also make appearances.
A Day To Remember - All I Want, feat. pretty much the whole scene
Now, this is just getting silly. Perhaps seeking to show that they're dead popular and lovable and stuff, A Day To Remember packed a whole host of stars and contemporaries into their bro-down video for All I Want.
Luminaries miming along to the words include - deep breath! - Pete Wentz, Winston McCall of Parkway Drive, The Devil Wears Prada, Bring Me the Horizon, Sam Carter of Architects, Dallas Taylor from Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, Silverstein, Andrew W.K., August Burns Red, Seventh Star, Matt Heafy of Trivium, Vic Fuentes of Pierce the Veil, Mike Herrera of MxPx, Vincent Bennet of The Acacia Strain, Veara, Set Your Goals and former ADTR guitarist Tom Denney.
Amon Amarth – Raise Your Horns, feat: Black Label Society and every metal band ever (probably)
This is basically the metal equivalent of A Day To Remember’s All I Want vid, as Viking metallers Amon Amarth get a whole horde of fellow warriors raising their horns for the cause.
Black Label Society get a special mention as Zakk Wylde and bassist John DeServio get things off to a cracking slapstick start. Other participants include the likes of King Diamond and Doro Pesch, past and present members of Anthrax, Slayer, Disturbed, Megadeth, Machine Head, Killswitch Engage, Kreator, Cattle Decapitation, Entombed A.D., TesseracT, Enslaved, Apocalyptica, Nightwish and more – not to mention various athletes, TV and radio personalities. Skol!
