The transition from singer to actor is something already well-documented, but for our money there’s nothing better than seeing your favorite rock star turn up somewhere you never expected. Here, we recount a few of the strangest and most memorable rock star film cameos of all time. If you’ve got any of your own, feel free to write in and let us know!
Lemmy Kilmister in Airheads — Airheads rules to begin with: It’s got Adam Sandler, Brendan Fraser and Steve Buscemi playing latex-clad rockers. Our favorite moment is the parking lot confession scene where Motörhead’s legendary frontman Lemmy proudly proclaims, “I was editor of the school magazine!” Our second favorite moment: When asked by a suit who would win in a wrestling match between Lemmy and God, that person is chastised for selecting Lemmy. Trick question: “Lemmy is God.”
Billy Idol in The Wedding Singer — On the surface, The Wedding Singer is just another romantic comedy about a musician struggling to make it (a theme that most of us can probably relate to.) The cameo from Billy Idol on the airplane is probably something that no one expected, considering that it came at a largely dormant point in his career. The most amazing part isn’t just that Idol agreed to be in an Adam Sandler flick, but how great he looked and, yes, acted.
Ozzy Osbourne in Little Nicky — Little Nicky isn’t going to win any awards for movie of the decade anytime soon, even by Sandler standards. But the scene where Ozzy Osbourne recreates his infamous act of biting a bat’s head off makes the movie worth seeing. It almost allows us to forgive Ozzy for subjecting us to his reality show The Osbournes a few years later. Hey, we said almost.
The Donnas in Jawbreaker — In my opinion, high school sucked — but it would have sucked a lot less if I’d had the Donnas play my school dances. That’s exactly what happens in the teen flick Jawbreaker, which sees the band rocking out on-stage like they were at CBGB instead of a cafeteria. Kudos to whoever produced the movie; the band got a full four minutes worth of screen time.
Joel Madden in Fat Albert — That’s right, that snotty kid dressed in all-black giving Fat Albert’s crony Dumb Donald a hard time in class about his hat is none other than Good Charlotte frontman Joel Madden. Honestly, we’re still confused why Madden would even want to be in this adaptation of Bill Cosby’s classic series, when you consider the fact that his band was at its commercial peak when he appeared in it.