Top 10 Angry and Violent People in Rock (Probably NSFW)

[This week’s list from the Dept. of Lists manager, Brent Chittenden. Should you have an idea for a list, let us know and we’ll get right on it. – AC]

Anger is something we all deal with. Stuck in traffic, served bad food, etc, sometimes it can just set us off. Take Billie Joe for instance. Sure there was something else helping that anger along but it’s obvious from the video footage that he snapped. But this is a rare occurrence for Billie Joe, there are some people out there who for whatever reasons are angry all of the time. And some of them are in rock. Here’s our top ten list of The Angriest People In Rock!

10) Joe Jackson

The stage manager father of the Jackson 5, he kept the kids in on the go with violence and abuse. Jackson would often use belts and switches and shove his children sometimes without provocation. Joe claims this comes from his strict up-bringing.

9) Sharon Osbourne

I feel worried about even putting her on this list. Sharon is notorious for being a ruthless manager and Insane Clown Posse even has a story about how she kicked another manager of a band (rumor has it that it was Korn’s manager) down a flight of stairs which she has never denied. She even started pelting Iron Maiden with eggs at Ozzfest due to some perceived slight towards Ozzy.

8) Henry Rollins

While now regarded as a elder statesman of alternative rock, Rollins younger days in Black Flag were filled with fights, punches and general violence at both his shows and after concerts were done. Henry still admits to having a lot of anger in him he just now channels it differently (mainly into work and touring). His anger is such that National Geographic asked Rollin to participate in a documentary about the “warrior” gene, a genetic anomaly that might predispose people to violent behaviour.

7) Axel Rose

Axel has a temper. He has beaten up audience members, stormed off stage and never made the stage in the first place due to his anger issues. He’s fought with promoters, band mates, wives, girlfriends and his anger issues also caused him to have a fist fight with Tommy Hilfiger.

6) James Brown

We’d all like to remember James Brown as the godfather of soul, nice and smiling and happy but the fact remains that occasionally he went off including abusing his wife, threatening to stab an city electricity worker with a steak knife and a famous incident where he entered an insurance seminar with a shotgun and a pistol yelling at everyone to leave at which point he tried to out run the cops.

5) Faust

Drummer for black metal band Emperor stabbed a man to death and ended up serving time for it. Unlike others in the black metal community, Faust seemed to stay away from his crimes after being released from prison instead of using them to build a reputation.

4) GG Allin

Allin’s performances are more well known than any song he ever wrote. A product of punk and hardcore, GG would hit people, cut himself, defecate on stage, destroy venues and equipment. Most of his songs all held to an anti authority ideal. The best way to sum up this man’s anger is that Henry Rollins may have beat people in the audience but he never beat them and threw poo at them.

3) Gaahl

Gaahl is the former lead singer of Gorgoth, a black metal band and has been convicted TWICE for the confinements and torture of two men, once in 2002 and again in 2006. The torture also involved threats of Gaahl drinking his victim’s blood.

2) Varg Vickernes

Varg was the main man in Burzum, one of the first black metal bands. He also had a hand in the burning of four churches and the murder of Mayhem leader Euronymous (stabbed to death). While I imagine Varg would argue with me that he was not an angry guy let’s be honest here, it takes a good amount of anger to stab someone. It takes a whole lot of anger to stab someone 26 times.

1) Phil Spector

The fact that Phil Spector DIDN’T shoot anyone before his 2009 murder conviction is pretty astounding. While nobody can dispute Phil’s legacy as a producer in rock, it should be noted that he had a habit of pulling guns on people including John Lennon and The Ramones. He also threatened Leonard Cohen with a crossbow. Yes, a crossbow.