10 band members that don’t deserve to be forgotten

Dave Mustaine – Metallica

This might be a weird one to start off with. While most metal fans are acutely aware of how much Dave Mustaine has contributed to the metal world as part of Megadeth, there are bound to be a handful of Metallica fans who have no idea that he was one of the group’s founding members. And while two great bands are better than one in most cases, it’s strange to know how much Mustaine had a hand in putting together many of their classic hits before Kirk Hammett entered the picture.

Despite being kicked out for his heavy drinking, Mustaine was a foundational piece of their sound, and when he left, his old band wouldn’t let him take all his riffs with him. Megadeth already have some intense moments in their catalogue, but many songs from the band’s thrash heyday have Mustaine’s fingerprints all over them, from the chords to ‘The Call of Ktulu’ to the central riff of ‘Ride the Lightning’ to almost every piece of the song ‘Jump in the Fire’. But that doesn’t mean Mustaine couldn’t steal from himself.

He had told the band not to use his licks, and if they went back on their promise, he was well within his rights to make his own songs out of them, like turning the chord progression from the middle of ‘The Call of Ktulu’ into ‘Hangar 18’ when his band started gaining traction. Any good riff is evergreen, but it takes a special kind of composer to get two kickass metal anthems out of the same idea without anyone noticing.

Meg White – The White Stripes

There’s a good chance many people are waving their knives and pitchforks at the mere mention of Meg White’s name on a list like this. Jack White did most of the heavy lifting in The White Stripes, and compared to the noise that the duo could make with only two instruments, it’s easy to classify Meg’s drumming as nothing but rudimentary bashing in between Jack’s maniacal songwriting. So let’s put those arguments to bed right now: all those criticisms are absolutely correct, and that’s why the band works so well.

As much as people might have expected members of a duo to play more to have their voices be heard, Meg’s strength was always in playing the bare essentials of what the song needed. She didn’t need a distortion pedal or an octave effect to get the sounds that she wanted, but considering how fantastic the drums sound on ‘Blue Orchid’ or the slow build in tension in the middle of ‘Seven Nation Army’, she always knew the importance of how to create atmosphere on most of her tracks.

And while Jack has seen a lot of success as a solo artist, there’s a reason why people talk about his solo years and The White Stripes as two completely different entities. That’s because as much as he wants to make something sound like it was made in a garage, that only comes from the kind of rudimentary genius that Meg had behind the scenes for all those years.

Mick Mars – Mötley Crüe

Nearly every person on this list has had to deal with a few bruised egos along the way. The whole point behind a band might feel like a democracy, but there comes a time when the crowd unanimously goes with only a handful of people to focus on when everyone hits the stage. And while it might be a hard pill to swallow, how would you like it to be in one of the biggest hard rock bands of the 1980s, and somehow you get overshadowed by the goddamn bass player?

Well, that tragedy befell Mick Mars for so many years. Every member of Mötley Crüe was a larger-than-life character most of the time, but since he was the quietest and reserved member of the group, he would always be put on the side, coupled with the fact that he was the de facto “old man” of the group since he had been around for a while. But with age comes wisdom, and Mars’s love of classic rock gave the LA hellraisers so much more depth in their glory years.

Nikki Sixx was writing a lot of ratty punk songs back in his early days and would occasional throw in some pop chords, but Mars was the Jeff Beck fan in the group, so it wasn’t out of the question for him to throw in some old-school blues licks now and again, either, especially when working on the breakdown on songs like ‘Wild Side’. It was hardly going to contend with the fact that Sixx died for a few minutes or that Vince Neil killed somebody, but the musicians in the audience were certainly paying attention.

Joe Hahn – Linkin Park

By the time that nu-metal breathed its dying breath, the idea of someone being a DJ in a band was always the kiss of death. Yes, DJ Lethal did some great things in House of Pain and even made a handful of Limp Bizkit songs tolerable, but it didn’t make up for the fact that he would not get nearly as far as anyone onstage with a guitar in their hand. But whereas some of the turntablists were banished into the background most of the time, Joe Hahn took his laptop and turned it into an instrument.

After all, Linkin Park was all about making futuristic soundscapes, and a lot of Hybrid Theory’s best moments are shaped by Hahn chopping up the beats in a different way. Everyone might be headbanging in lockstep with the riff of ‘Points of Authority’, but the best parts of the song come in the final few seconds when the entire thing darts to glitch out a little bit and Hahn starts going haywire behind the board.

And in terms of his sample selection, the instrumentals across all of their mainline albums are fantastic, like the strange samurai-style beat on ‘Nobody’s Listening’ or the scratch track ‘Cure for the Itch’, which breaks down into one of the most soaring string and piano sections to come out of the 2000s. Any other rock band would usually bring out the samplist and get a good laugh from the crowd, but no one was saying a word once Mr Hahn got behind the board.

Jim Keltner – various

When talking about the forgotten members of bands, session musicians tend to get their own field. Considering most of them are meant to be faceless half the time, it’s not hard to see why most of them are banished to the world of album sleeves, if they are even mentioned in the conversation. But even for someone that’s remained a faceless part of countless bands, Jim Keltner is worth including for the sheer number of legends that he has played with over the years.

A lot of what Keltner did may not have been that flashy, but his cool demeanour and ability to play with pretty much anybody are what made him so bankable back in the day. He was never planning on being in the spotlight, but sharing the stage with all the Traveling Wilburys, along with Tom Petty and George Harrison’s solo ventures, has made him a mainstay of classic rock radio for years.

And given the amount of time he turned in with Steely Dan, it’s not like Keltner didn’t know how to show his stuff when he wanted. Anyone who has been through the wringer of being a session player knows the importance of refining their chops, but Keltner stands beside Ringo Starr as one of the few artists who knew how to serve every single song that they played on when sitting behind the kit.

John Deacon – Queen

There’s a certain power in being “the quiet one” in any rock and roll band. While it’s easy for most people to come off as standoffish if they don’t have a guitar in front of them, there’s a reason why there was an allure to listening to what George Harrison could do whenever he got in front of the microphone next to his fellow Beatles. The quiet ones are always reserved, but given what John Deacon could do in Queen, the quiet ones are also the ones to watch out for.

Despite being one of the most reserved members of the band, he’s also responsible for penning some of their greatest hits. Before the days when most of the band took all of the songwriting duties democratically, Deacon had his hands in writing everything from ‘You’re My Best Friend’ to ‘I Want To Break Free’ to ‘Another One Bites the Dust’, each of which took Queen into a soulful direction that let Freddie Mercury play up his vocal chops a little bit more.

Although Deacon is now more accustomed to living the quiet life at home while Brian May and Roger Taylor celebrate the magic of Queen, his spirit is there whenever they play one of his hits. Because as much as the band identified themselves as a rock and roll outfit, there was no limit to where they could go, and Deacon was always the one bringing the soulful heart to everything they played.

Atticus Ross – Nine Inch Nails

For all the previous bands on this list, it was easy to classify them as a group of musicians. In the case of Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor is the brainchild of every single thing they do, and when Atticus Ross came into the fold, it was easy for everyone to simply shrug and accept him as Reznor’s buddy rather than a fully-fledged band member. But listening to what he has done for the band since joining, every record has had a certain weight to it that it didn’t have before.

Since Ross joined during the With Teeth era, much of the album focused on Reznor’s sobriety, but many of Ross’s best moments helped colour the sound a little more. Now, instead of relying on himself for everything, Reznor could get different patches of noise out of Ross that perfectly captured what his mind was feeling like, which has remained a fixture of the band ever since.

It’s much better felt when Ross assists Reznor in their various soundtrack pursuits, but even when he flew solo for a movie like Love and Mercy, Ross always immersed the viewer in an entire ocean of sound half the time. While the joke of the movie-going experience being an escape has been played out in media at this point, Ross manages to provide every project he works on with sound you can feel.

Izzy Stradlin – Guns N’ Roses

For all intents and purposes in the 1980s, Guns N’ Roses was more than a simple rock and roll band. They grew up in the same clubs that housed acts like Ratt and Warrant, but they felt more like a street gang that happened to have guitars in their general vicinity half the time. But while Duff McKagan was the punk heart of the group, Slash and Axl Rose were the streetrat version of Lennon and McCartney, and to most people, Izzy Stradlin was the one making the magic happen.

Although most rhythm guitarists are banished to the realm outside the spotlight unless their name is Keith Richards, Stradlin pushed the band forward with his songwriting. He clearly went to the Rolling Stones school of guitar playing, and a lot of his tunes were the perfect heartache songs with a touch of Ronnie Wood mojo added to everything, like the beautiful ballad ‘Patience’ or the grizzly imagery on a song like ‘Dust N’ Bones’, where he actually managed to strip the mic away from Rose for a second.

Stradlin might often prefer the shadows, but even if he only comes back to Guns N’ Roses for a few one-off performances, that shouldn’t dissuade anyone from listening to what he can do. There’s a true songwriting genius underneath that shaggy hair in the press photos, and even if Rose took that over one too many times, we can still appreciate the few chances he did have to shine.

Benmont Tench – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

There’s no point in ever trying to compete with the kind of band setup that Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers had. When the band is already christened the ‘Important Guy and the Whathisnames’, how many people are asking to remember the drummer’s name or pay attention to whatever the hell the bass player is doing? But for Petty, he treated his band like a family, and all of the emotional foundation of his records came from how the guitars played off Benmont Tench’s piano.

Before the band even started, though, Tench was by far the most skilled musician. He had an endless library of songs in his arsenal when they were playing in Mudcrutch, and while it took him a little while to hone his craft at songwriting, his piano helped add the right colour to some of his famous records. Yeah, he would still play what Petty wanted to if he needed something specific, but when he added his own ideas, it was beautiful.

A song like ‘Southern Accents’ might not need much outside of the traditional piano accompaniment, but whereas a song like ‘Here Comes My Girl’ would have sounded fine as is, the best moment of the song comes in the chorus when Tench’s massive piano hook comes in between Petty’s vocals. Tench is always proud to deliver the goods and nothing more, but there’s a certain power in having those notes that tug on people’s heartstrings rather than draw attention to themselves.

Christine McVie – Fleetwood Mac

The entire concept of Fleetwood Mac’s band dynamic has changed a few times. Peter Green was their fearless leader, and when he disappeared from modern living, it was easy to turn to people like Bob Welch to see where they wanted them to go next. But even in the days when everyone had their eyes transfixed on Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie was the musical older sister of the group who had lived and seen it all behind the scenes.

Christine had already been a fixture of the band well before they got their pop makeover, and she could sing blues like no one else, but her turn as a songwriter is what made her immortal. Everyone likes to draw on the drama that Buckingham and Nicks had on Rumours, but Christine walked away with the best songs on the project, from the achingly beautiful ‘Songbird’ to the endlessly catchy ‘You Make Loving Fun’.

And even if things got a little bit rough during the final phase of her tenure with the band, she never stopped delivering quality songs whenever she went into the studio. Whereas it was anyone’s guess where some of the band’s dueling songwriters were going half the time, everyone could count on Christine coming through with great songs that could compete with any other pop songsmith.