Musician Cameos In Movies

[Mr. DS]

I started a conversation at work the other day about music acts that pop up in movies (as themeselves performing) in cameos.  Heres a few I thought of:
Armored Saint  (I think it was them) - Hellraiser 3: Hell On Earth
Cannibal Corpse - Ace Ventura Pet Detectice
Aerosmith - Wayne's World 2

Theres more but I figured I'd open this up to everyone else.

[BeyondTheGrave]

Repo Man- Circle Jerks.

[clockworkcanary]

(animated) Devo in Heavy Metal

Gwar appeared in some late 80s date movie -can't remember the name.

Ween appeared in It's Pat I've been told

But beyond the actual music acts, Alice Cooper has appeared in a lot of b-flicks: Monster Dog, that Bee Gees flick, Prince of Darkness, Sextette, Freddy's Dead, and I think he was the carny in Darkman but I'd have to look it up to be sure.

Gene Simmons and Ozzy have appeared in a lot of movies too - both appeared in Trick or Treat I believe.

[Automan2000]

Gwar appeared in some late 80s date movie -can't remember the name.

Gwar appeared in Hardware in 1990. They were seen on TV and I seem to remember that the song playing wasn't even them.

They also made an appearance in Empire Records but I can't remember if they were performing or not.

[peter johnson]

Alice Cooper & band appeared in a club, playing music, in "Diary of a Mad Housewife".
Guns and Roses, but with an unbilled Jim Carrey appearing as Axl Rose/singer, appear briefly at the beginning of one of the Clint Eastwood cop movies -- One of the Dirty Harry's, I think, but I can't remember which one.
Cab Calloway and Orchestra make 2 appearances/perform 2 numbers on a "television" during "International House".
For that matter, you could name any number of films from the '30's and '40's wherein a band would suddenly show up and play a number for no reason at all during the course of a movie.
This tradition was carried over into Teen Horror movies in the '50's and '60's -- How many of those have you seen -- "The Giant Gila Monster" springs to mind -- wherein the action stops cold & suddenly in the malt shop or in a grocery store, or in a garage,  Wilbur and The Poseriffics, or somesuch, break into song with "Their New Latest Top-40 Hit Single!!"?  Would this count?
peter johnson/denny hey kids let's do the show right here!!

[Bill C.]

Gene Simmons actually played a villain in a couple of 80s flicks: Runaway (Tom Selleck, happy fun robots) and Wanted Dead Or Alive (Rutger Hauer, "f@*k the bonus").

Mick Fleetwood had a supporting role in The Running Man (which, judging from the dialogue, may have been a cheesy older version of himself).

James Brown, of course, tore it up in Rocky IV.  (R.I.P., Godfather.)

And then...there's The Blues Brothers (James Brown, Aretha Franklin, John Lee Hooker, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, the Blues themselves, and Chaka Khan!).

[Automan2000]

Guns and Roses, but with an unbilled Jim Carrey appearing as Axl Rose/singer, appear briefly at the beginning of one of the Clint Eastwood cop movies -- One of the Dirty Harry's, I think, but I can't remember which one.

That would be The Dead Pool

[Bill C.]

Lip-syncing Welcome to the Jungle, no less.  And, yes, it's as hilarious as you think it is.  (GnR itself, minus Axl, appears in a different scene in the movie with a harpoon gun.)

ZZ Top, come to think of it, popped up in Back to the Future Part III.

[RCMerchant]

The Sick F#cks (a real band!) apeared in the Jack Palance nut house movie ALONE in the DARK.
The RAMONES,of course,in ROCK and ROLL HIGH SCHOOL!!!!
KISS meets the PHANTOM
Tom Jones in MARS ATTACKS!
Lemmy (of Motorhead) appeared in AIRHEADS and the aforementioned HARDWARE.
Roger Daltry appeared in a number of films,though the only one I can rember the title for is VAMPIRELLA.
JOAN JETT was in one with Mcheal Fox...(can't remember the title.)
Johnny Rotton was in one with Harvey Keital in one as well and again I can"t.....

[zombie no.one]

The blind guitarist Jeff Healy playing himself as a member of the local bar's in-house band in "Roadhouse" (and he has some dialogue as well).

Twisted Sister having their video-shoot interrupted by Pee Wee escaping from Warner Bros security in "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure"

The guitarist from Faith No More breifly appears as himself in one of the "Bill & Ted" films (I think...not 100% sure if he's playing himself or a character.)

Jerry Lee Lewis as himself in "The King Of Comedy" - classic...that is my favourite example of a musician playing themself in a movie.

[SaintMort]

First; yes the guitairist from Faith No More is playing himself... more importantly Primus plays in that movie :)

Also damn you for taking the Twisted Sister in Pee wee's big adventure from me

um there's white zombie in Airheads also to add to the list
Ozzy and Gene Simmons in Trick or Treat
Lemmy makes some cameos in a couple troma movies
And even though he's not a musician he's a pretty famous rock DJ wolfman Jack was in Motel Hell (and American Graffetti but he was a pretty important character throughout the film)
Letters to Cleo in 10 things I hate about you (and Save Ferris)
there's a good about of 80's bands that appeared in the 80's teen flicks too

[zombie no.one]

First; yes the guitairist from Faith No More is playing himself... more importantly Primus plays in that movie :)

^^ thought so

Also damn you for taking the Twisted Sister in Pee wee's big adventure from me

^LOL...sorry

edit: did'nt know Primus were in B+T. ages since I saw that film.

[peter johnson]

No, that's Jerry Lewis the comedian in "King of Comedy" -- Jerry Reed played a lot of redneck hillbilly characters in different movies in the '70's/'80's, but Jerry Lee Lewis has never played anything in any movie that I know of --
peter johnson/denny crane

[El Dogo]

Digital Underground, back when Tupac Shakur was a member no less, showed up in Nothing But Trouble for absolutely no damn reason.

It's not worth seeing the movie, unless the sensation of your jaw hitting the floor is pleasurable to you.  It's hard to put into words just how bad Nothing But Trouble is.

[Yaddo 42]

Are we sticking to performance cameos, or including bit roles also (seems that way). If we include musicians with full acting roles (lead or supporting) this could long and messy. People like Willie Nelson, Ice-T and Tom Waits who have opened their careers to include lots of acting work might make it easier to just link to IMDB filmographies.

Screamin' Jay Hawkins played himself in A Rage in Harlem playing at an undertakers' convention/social function. And had a too brief appearance performing in American Hot Wax. He was the jaded but funny hotel manager in Mystery Train, IMDB lists a few other credits either as himself or small acting roles including a French scifi drama and and a violent but interesting sounding film called Perdita Durango.

80s country singer Johnny Lee played himself in some movie work (like Urban Cowboy and TV shows (the episode of the A-Team with Boy George!). But he had a bit part as a jailed country singer (that's how IMDB lists him) in the 80s teen sex comedy School Spirit, a late night USA staple. I remember the scene because when he's asked why he doesn't get his lawyer to get him out of jail, he reveals that his lawyer is the guy beside him in the cell.

Joe Walsh is one of the dancing prisoners at the end of The Blues Brothers. There are tons of musician cameos (performing and not) in the wretchedly unfunny Blues Brothers 2000. They should have junked the plot and just filmed performances (lipsyncing or not) and jams until they had enough for a movie.