From Michael Jackson hawking Suzuki scooters to sponsor-driven concerts like the Honda Civic Tour, commerce and music have always gone hand-in-hand. While many artists rally against corporate influence in their music, plenty of them have used their fame to endorse products that often have nothing to do with their day jobs. Here we highlight a few of what we consider to be the strangest musical pairings.
Slash and Black Death Vodka
At one time, Guns N’ Roses may have been the biggest band in the world, but you would have been hard pressed to find a company that would want notoriously debacherous members like Slash and Axl Rose promoting their products. In the early ’90s, however, Slash got behind Black Death Vodka, a beverage that came with coffin-shaped promotional packaging, and a label that featured a familiar-looking skull sporting a top hat. It was the perfect item for Slash to promote, but like the Appetite For Destruction-era GN’R lineup, we’re not planning on seeing Black Death Vodka in American liquor stores again anytime soon.
“Weird Al” Yankovic and Presidents of The United States Of America
You may remember the Presidents Of The United States of America from their ’90s grunge anthems “Lump” and “Peaches,” but you probably don’t realize that the band got back together nearly a decade ago and have been making records ever since. They also received a healthy endorsement from two unlikely candidates last year when they welcomed “Weird Al” Yankovic and Wayne Kramer of the MC5 to perform with and “endorse” the Seattle-based trio. However, that wasn’t the first time “Weird Al” endorsed the band — just check out his parody “Gump” for an entertaining introduction to their relationship.
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50 Cent and Vitamin Water
Lots of rappers are also entrepreneurs, but 50 Cent set the bar extremely high when he sold his Vitamin Water drink Formula 30 to Coca-Cola for somewhere between $100 million and $400 million (depending on which article you read). Maybe this wasn’t as glamorous as an endorsement from Bentley or Prada, but we bet he’s laughing all the way to the bank! Now we’re waiting for Slash’s Black Death Vitamin Water. Hey, stranger things have happened, right? Just keep reading … but first check out the 50 Cent Vitamin Water commercial below.
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Dwight Yoakam’s Chicken Lickin’s Buffalo Bites
Dwight Yoakam is best known as a country music superstar who’s sold more than 20 million albums worldwide. But if you happen to look in the freezer section of your local supermarket you might also see his name endorsing breaded-chicken patties called Chicken Lickin’s Buffalo Bites. We’re not exactly sure what they taste like, or what this snack has to do with Yoakam’s music, but he has coined the phrase “Just heat ‘em and eat ‘em.” That said, we hope he’s a little more creative with the lyrics on his next album.
Michael Anthony’s Hot Sauce
Hot sauce seems like the product of choice for enterprising rockers. Just ask the Offspring’s Dexter Holland, or Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry. For our money, though, it’s hard to top former Van Halen and current Chickenfoot bassist Michael Anthony’s Mad Anthony brand hot sauces, which come in every variety from Mild to XXXTRA hot. While even the latter product may not be as blazing as Eddie Van Halen’s guitar solos, it does seem far less messy to deal with — and can you really put a price on that?
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