10 rock songs where guest stars stole the show
Rock bands don’t always have to be so self-contained all the time. For every great rock and roll band that has never changed a single member of their group, there are always a few that tend to play fast and loose with the rules, with musicians coming and going left, right and centre. Then again, if musicians can get musical help from one of their friends like Eric Clapton or Steve Howe, they’d be a fool to not try it at least once.
Even though every one of these acts were more than capable of putting together something on their own, these songs were taken to new heights when they got another champion on the track, bringing a whole new flavour to the song and putting in pieces that the track would be incomplete without.
This isn’t always just someone coming in and laying down a solo for the hell of it. If anything, one could argue these musicians should be co-writers on the tracks collected below, either bringing in the most memorable melodic line or working with the musicians to arrange everything in the correct way so it would blow people’s minds once they actually heard it.
They might not be core members of the group, but that doesn’t really matter. There are no rules in rock music, and sometimes the greatest songs are brought to life by someone who isn’t even in the group.
10 rock songs where guest stars stole the show:
‘Fade In Out’ – Oasis (Guest: Johnny Depp)
By the time Oasis were working on Be Here Now, it almost felt like they had become too big to fail. They certainly seemed to test that theory on the album proper, though, making songs that were way too drawn out and production so bad that Noel Gallagher slags it off as one of the worst projects Oasis has been a part of. There was more than just a bunch of debauchery going on, and one of their heaviest tracks to date had some help from someone out of Hollywood.
Long before he had been known for his guitar skills with Hollywood Vampires, the slide guitar solo on this song is actually being provided by Johnny Depp, having had a break in between making movies to hang out with the Gallaghers during the recording sessions. And for his reluctant debut, Depp isn’t half bad on the track either, having a delicate touch with the slide and putting menace into the solo that seems a bit more reminiscent of what the Rolling Stones might have done during their peak period.
Then again, pulling from the old guard of rock and roll was always going to endear him to the Gallaghers, and Depp was more than up to the challenge of making something that was a bit off the wall. He might not have been anyone’s first choice for a session player, but Depp has that kind of rock-and-roll attitude flowing through his veins.
‘The Great Gig in the Sky’ – Pink Floyd (Guest: Clare Torry)
Even in the era of playlists, Dark Side of the Moon is one of those few albums that fans really need to sit with from beginning to end to soak in. This isn’t just a collection of songs; Pink Floyd really put together a tracklisting that works better together than apart, breaking down human nature and why we are drawn to everything from money to the impermanence of time. Amid all of the heavy subjects, we get to rest a little bit on ‘Great Gig in the Sky’, with one of the most powerhouse performances in the rock canon.
Not being sung by any of the band members, Clare Torry was brought in to provide vocals for the track, which was originally conceived as a bit of soundtrack music. Seeing the potential of the track as a reflection of mortality, Torry was told to freestyle in the studio, making up different vocal lines while thinking about death. Switching between sounds of horror and being soothed, Torry’s performance makes the track, using her voice like an instrument and delivering a chorus that’s much more forceful than anything production could have hoped to do.
Even though ‘Sky’ may have been part of one of Floyd’s masterpieces, it took a while for the world of business to come around on Torry, eventually giving her a co-writing credit for the tune years after the fact. She might not be a full member of the band, but ‘The Great Gig in the Sky’ practically feels like Torry’s song that just happens to feature the members of Pink Floyd.
‘Don’t Give Up’ – Peter Gabriel (Guest: Kate Bush)
The entire journey of Peter Gabriel’s career in the ‘80s was fairly strange. Here was one of the kings of the prog-rock realm, and all of a sudden, he found himself on the album charts, giving his old band a run for their money trying to make pop progressive on songs like ‘Sledgehammer’ and ‘In Your Eyes’. And while both of those songs may have become staples of the decade, one of the best songs off his record, So doesn’t even have him singing half the time.
Bringing in superstar Kate Bush on ‘Don’t Give Up’, the pop queen steals the show from Gabriel with how supportive she can be. As much as Gabriel may have written this song about a person going through losing a job, Bush is the one that gets to sing the chorus, coming in like a warm hug to assure him that everything is going to be OK. As much as the synths may sound a little bit cheesy these days, the words that she’s saying here are something that most people still need to hear today, not wanting to stress on the little things and knowing that somewhere along the line they will find a place where they belong.
Across the entire song, it’s never clear what role Bush is supposed to have in the relationship here, whether she’s Gabriel’s love interest, parent, or just a good friend looking to talk him down. Then again, this is a song that doesn’t really need all of that context. Bush’s voice is practically his conscience trying to help him through every one of those dark days.
‘Fairweather Friends’ – Queens of the Stone Age (Guest: Elton John)
It almost feels like cheating to put a band like Queens of the Stone Age song on a list like this. Since the only recurring band member is Josh Homme, the entire project of Queens has always been about having somewhat of a revolving lineup, putting together musicians that don’t normally work together and finding some way to make them fit. Dave Grohl and Trent Reznor may have seemed like odd choices to bring together on songs off of Like Clockwork, but there’s a good chance no one was expecting rock royalty to enter the picture either.
When listening to ‘Fairweather Friends’, the background is being hammered out by Elton John, who was asked to contribute to the album and responded that if they were making a quality record, they would need a real queen for the sessions. This is strange because this song is not a ballad by any stretch of the imagination. Instead of the excellent piano lines that John has written over the years, the backing track here feels like the distorted organ from hell.
John’s voice starts coming out towards the end as well, sounding a lot more tortured than anything found on Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Queens had already been at top of their game at this point, though, and this kind of collab was just proof they could turn anything into gold.
‘No Sleep Till Brooklyn’ – Beastie Boys (Guest: Kerry King)
Right when the dividing lines were being drawn between rock and hip hop, the Beastie Boys were one of the few bands that tended to get the rockers’ nod of approval. Maybe it was the fact that they had more of a punk rock aesthetic or the fact that they sampled a lot of rock songs on their records, but a lot of the hard rock crowd tended to favour The Beasties much more than they would people like Eric B and Rakim. The Beasties were proud of their rock roots, though, and on one of their first mainstream hits, they managed to pull one of the best metal guitarists in the game.
Although ‘Fight For Your Right’ may have been the first real hit that the guys had, ‘No Sleep Till Brooklyn’ is more indicative of their rock sound, having a more straight-ahead theme of life on the road and how wild those years tend to become. None of the guys were necessarily the best behind their instruments, so the solo on this song was performed by Kerry King from Slayer, whose style is evident from the first note that he hits. While hooking up with the Beastie Boys may have been strange for someone with King’s pedigree, this was actually more of a friendly collab than expected, with King already knowing them through producer Rick Rubin.
Having had a hand in making Reign in Blood one of the greatest metal albums of all time, Rubin had asked if King would be interested in putting down a solo, and this is probably the best that he could have asked for, putting a lot of divebombs into the mix that almost mimics the sound of DJ scratches. ‘No Sleep Till Brooklyn’ may have been proud of its hip-hop roots, but this was rap on rock and roll’s terms.
‘Rebellion’ – Linkin Park (Guest: Daron Malakian)
It looked like Linkin Park were finally on firmer ground after coming out with The Hunting Party. Stripping away some of the electronic fluff, Mike Shinoda had talked about this album being the kind of record that they wanted to hear as kids, bringing together songs that were a lot more aggro and even surpassed some of the heaviest that we got used to on Hybrid Theory. They did have some help, though, and ‘Rebellion’ had the nu-metal match made in heaven behind the guitar riffs.
In an attempt to get in touch with their roots, there are a lot of guests featured on this album, like Page Hamilton from Helmet singing on ‘All For Nothing’ and Rakim contributing a verse to ‘Guilty All the Same’. The real standout for the whole record though is Daron Malakian of System of a Down on ‘Rebellion’, taking the bare-bones elements of Linkin Park and adding his unique flavour to the mix. Compared to every song on the record, this is Malakian making his own System of a Down track from the ground up and gifting it to Linkin Park, with a riff as chunky as anything on Toxicity and a bit more technical prowess than what fans were hearing on albums like A Thousand Suns a few years before.
Whereas something like Tom Morello’s appearance on the record may have been served better somewhere else, ‘Rebellion’ is probably one of the purest collaborations in metal, taking the strengths of each band and making something even better out of it. This kind of heaviness might not have stuck around for much longer in Linkin Park’s discography, but at the moment, this was one of the heaviest songs nu-metal fans could have asked for.
‘Know Your Enemy’ – Rage Against the Machine (Guest: Maynard James Keenan)
No one is really going to be coming to a band like Rage Against the Machine for their expert use of melody. Tom Morello always likened Rage to a metal version of what someone like James Brown might have done, where it always comes back to the one beat and has a heavy emphasis on rhythm. So when they did eventually get that little bit of melody, it made every metalhead’s ears perk up, especially if it’s the guy from Tool.
Having already been friends with Adam Jones for a while, Morello had been working on ‘Know Your Enemy’ and thought it would be nice to have a change of pace in between sections of the track. While Zack de la Rocha is still outstanding for most of this track, it takes on a completely different character once Maynard James Keenan enters the fold, having a more searing register than de la Rocha and putting a lot more musicality into his delivery.
While the band have to switch things around a little bit for the new singer, the is the heavy metal equivalent of chocolate and peanut butter, with Keenan settling into his groove and practically turning this song into a Tool track for a second before de la Rocha comes screaming back in to finish the tune off. Rage have always prided themselves on letting their anger out, but when it comes to talking about something purely dark, it doesn’t hurt to take a few cues from the guy who gave us Opiate.
‘Gimme Shelter’ – The Rolling Stones (Guest: Merry Clayton)
Some of the best Rolling Stones songs always tend to feel like entering the best jam session that rock has to offer. Both Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were always students of the blues, and record like Beggars Banquet and Sticky Fingers saw them putting every piece of their homework to use, from reinterpreting Robert Johnson to making their own down-and-out bluesy romps. There was also a lot of menace in the Stones as well, and ‘Gimme Shelter’ is the sound of walking through dystopia.
After the haunting guitar sets everything up for us, Mick Jagger’s voice sounds frayed this time around, talking about finding some sort of shelter before he fades away. Jagger can sing his heart all he wants, but Merry Clayton really is the star of the show, with her searing backing vocals putting a lot more drama into the lyrics. When she’s singing the lines “Oh Children,” she’s practically cautioning her descendants to not go down the same dangerous path that she has gone down. Most session singers might like to play it up just for the paycheck, but Clayton puts her entire soul into this song by the end, especially when her voice breaks as if she’s trying her best to hold herself together.
Even Jagger seemed to think the performance was phenomenal, being heard on the overhead speakers yelling in approval after one of her brilliant vocal runs. The world of the ‘60s may have been on fire at the time, but this is the kind of duet that makes the apocalypse actually seem like a good time.
‘Innuendo’ – Queen (Guest: Steve Howe)
For most of their career, Queen had always thought of themselves as an insular group. Not counting their duet with David Bowie on ‘Under Pressure’, most of their tunes normally would be performed only by the four members of the band, with everyone playing different instruments to get just the right sound they wanted. When making something as ambitious as ‘Innuendo’, though, they needed a little bit of help along the way.
Musically speaking, the title track to one of Queen’s final albums actually might be the biggest successor to ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, spanning six minutes and going off in different directions, from stadium rock to atmospheric breakdowns. It was for said breakdown that they thought they should have some sort of break in the action, with someone suggesting adding a Spanish-flavoured guitar part. Although Brian May might not have known the intricacies of that style, the man across the hall did, with Steve Howe from Yes coming in to visit and being asked to play an acoustic guitar on the final track.
Even though this may have broken the rule that they set for themselves, Howe is practically the glue that holds this section together, going through different runs of notes without knowing the key he was playing in. Given that the song changes keys most of the time, Howe described the whole thing as a bit of a balancing act, always trying to keep everything in check as he rolled through different flamenco-style runs to get what his friends wanted. Queen may have been musical geniuses, but it takes something truly god-tier to have a member of Yes think it’s fairly challenging.
‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ – The Beatles (Guest: Eric Clapton)
There has always been a persistent debate as to who qualifies as ‘The Fifth Beatle’. Although people like Brian Epstein and George Martin may have done their best to turn the Fab Four into something greater than an average rock band, only the Fabs themselves knew what it was like to go through the onslaught of Beatlemania and then work together in the studio. That sort of camaraderie tended to stall out during the sessions for The White Album, though, and George Harrison managed to keep the peace by bringing Eric Clapton into the mix.
After recording the demo for ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’, Harrison began to get frustrated that his bandmates weren’t taking it seriously. Looking to shake things up in the studio, Harrison eventually asked Clapton if he would play on the tune, letting him use a Les Paul that Clapton had given him earlier in the year. When they turned up in the studio, the band were suddenly on their best behaviour, with everyone rising to the occasion to give their touch, from the heavy-as-hell bass lines playing chords underneath the track to Paul McCartney’s inspired high harmonies.
It’s not like Clapton doesn’t do a great job either, staying with his usual bluesy runs and making it actually sound like the guitar is crying out in pain. The Fabs may have already been drifting apart around this time, but the sound of this song captured just the right kind of melancholy that every one of them could recognise.
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