The 10 Most Surprising Musician Collaborations of All Time
Musician collaborations are always a tricky topic. They are usually done from a commercial perspective or lack the impact that the people involved aspire to achieve. Other times, they can be quite interesting, especially when different styles collide. This is something that has happened time and time again in the world of rock and metal, pushing the envelope in the process.
In that regard, there are several musician collaborations that were instrumental in the success of some musicians. Furthermore, there are others that made tremendous songs that withstood the test of time. And there are some collaborations that are simply musical oddities that deserve a listen. All the team-ups on this list fit into those categories, which are featured in no particular order.
1. Eddie Van Halen and Michael Jackson
Musician collaborations rarely get bigger than this. Eddie Van Halen and Michael Jackson making music together during their respective primes. During the making of Michael Jackson‘s 1982 soon-to-be legendary masterpiece, “Thriller“, the Van Halen guitarist was contacted by the producer, Quincy Jones, for a collaboration. He was excited for the possibility and crafted what would become one of music’s greatest-ever solos.
“The funniest thing of all was I actually rearranged the song,” Eddie Van Halen said once to CNN. “The section they wanted me to solo over was just … there were no chord changes underneath, so I had to rearrange the song. Then Michael came in and I said, ‘Oh, I hope you don’t mind but I changed your song.’ And he listens and he goes, ‘No, I really like that high-fast stuff you do!’”
However, this would also cause problems for Eddie in his own band. His brother Alex wasn’t happy about his contribution to Michael Jackson‘s album. This was mentioned during the 2024 Rolling Stone interview.
“Why would you lend your talents to Michael Jackson? I just don’t f… get it,” Alex Van Halen said. “And the funny part was that Ed fibbed his way out of it by saying, ‘Oh, who knows that kid anyway?’ You made the mistake! Fess up. Don’t add insult to injury by acting stupid.”
Be that as it may, there is no denying that this is one of the greatest musician collaborations of all time. Arguably, the best example of that when it comes to the 80s.
2. Black Sabbath and Ice T
The idea of Ice T and Black Sabbath playing together definitely sounds like a fever dream. However, it happened in the 90s and is definitely one of the craziest musician collaborations. During the making of the band’s 1995 record, “Forbidden“, the guys of Black Sabbath called rising rap star Ice T, who, believe it or not, is a massive fan of theirs.
“The first rock album I ever owned was the first Black Sabbath album,” Ice T said to Revolver Magazine in 2024. “When you listen to ‘There Goes the Neighborhood‘, that’s Black Sabbath. It’s not their lick, but it could have been. It’s their style. And on my first record as a rapper, ‘Rhyme Pays,’ I sampled ‘War Pigs‘. Word got out that I really liked Sabbath and they were at a point in their career when they decided to do something different.”
“I didn’t like it,” vocalist Tony Martin said to the Metal Voice in 2022. “Cozy Powell didn’t like it. Geoff Nichols was really uncertain about it. (Tony) Iommi was into it and his manager was into it but we were totally bemused in the beginning. So imagine somebody coming into the writing studio and trying to tell Cozy Powell how to play drums and Cozy looking at him going, ‘Are you sure about this?’ ‘Yeah it’s gonna be great.’ ‘Well, I don’t see it myself but I’ll give it a try.’ So it was just bizarre, just really bizarre you know and nobody was really getting it.”
It was definitely a bizarre creative decision, but one that has become a rather peculiar moment in the band’s history.
3. Anthrax and Public Enemy
In hindsight, this makes sense. Anthrax have always been willing to experiment, so this might be one of the most influential musician collaborations of all time. After all, this could be one of the earliest examples of rap metal. The thrash metal giants covered Public Enemy‘s “Bring the Noise” song and decided to collaborate with the rappers for this interpretation, leading to the 1991 hit.
“I was approached by the guys about me rapping over a version of ‘Bring The Noise‘ that Anthrax had decided to ‘metallise’,” Public Enemy vocalist Chuck D said in 2020. “I said, ‘Why don’t you guys just record it? Because I already did it, you know.’ I didn’t get why I had to get down and do it again, because the original ‘Bring The Noise‘ was not too long before that.”
“The band recorded my riff and the drums and made a f… crushing track,” Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian added. “We thought we’d use it for Anthrax if it didn’t work out with Public Enemy. We sent over a cassette, and Chuck called us and said, ‘We love it. How do we do it?’ We spent months trying and failing to get into the studio at the same time, so they sent us the vocals, and me and Charlie (Benante, drummer= spent a week cutting and pasting them on the instrumental tracks. A whole week! That’d take five minutes now, but it took hours and hours a day. Everybody thought we were crazy, but we said, ‘No, we’re gonna f… do this!’ and kept going until it was perfect. For years, we never told anybody how it was done: everybody assumed that the bands were in a room together.”
4. Metallica and Lou Reed
Much like Black Sabbath and Ice T, this is another example of musician collaborations not working out. The legendary metal band reached out to Lou Reed for a collaboration, leading to the now-infamous “Lulu” record. It was a very peculiar decision by both parties, although, in a way, it fits with their modus operandi throughout the years.
“We were both outsiders, we both never felt comfortable going down the same path that everyone else was doing,” Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich said in The Guardian in 2013, honoring Lou Reed after his passing. “Metallica‘s always been autonomous, and Lou Reed is the godfather of being an outsider, being autonomous, marching to his own drum, making every project different from the previous one and never feeling like he had a responsibility to anybody other than himself.”
“We shared kinship over that. And we brought him something that he didn’t have, or maybe hadn’t experienced so much, which in his own words were ‘energy’ and ‘weight’ and ‘size’ and whatever it is that happens when we start playing. He was so into what we brought him. And, of course, he brought us this incredible piece of work that he had already written, Lulu, and about her escapades and sexual endeavours. We brought something to each other, and we shared a common lack of ability to fit in with our surroundings.”
The album doesn’t have a positive legacy. However, it is a testament to these musicians’ constant desire to push the envelope, which deserves respect.
5. Aerosmith and Run DMC
This might be one of the most important musician collaborations in history. Mainly because of what it represented for both Aerosmith and Run DMC. The rap group’s 1986 album, “Raising Hell“, would become one of the genre’s landmarks, featuring a collaboration with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry in their rendition of the Boston band’s legendary hit, “Walk this Way“.
“We went into the studio and laid down a weak version – because we didn’t want to do the record – and left,” DMC said to Classic Rock in 2023. “Eight hours later, we get a call to come back to the studio. We walk in and Joe Perry is playing his riff, Steven Tyler is in the booth doing the lyrics. Me and Run knew we had to step our game up. Jay was like, ‘Yo, don’t think of the record as ‘Steven Tyler and Joe Perry’s record’, think of those lyrics as Run-DMC lyrics’. So we went in the booth and that went so good that Steven said, ‘Yo, let me get in with y’all’.”
“People tell me it’s the greatest rap record ever made and the greatest video. VH-1 did the ‘Top 50 Videos Of All-Time’ – we were No.1. It was about bringing generations of music together, which is what music is supposed to do – evolution and unity.”
This collaboration would also revive Aerosmith‘s commercial fortunes. That would be further upped with their 1987 comeback album, “Permanent Vacation“. Furthermore, this is one of those songs that is credited for birthing rap metal.
6. Dio and Stars
Granted, this is a special case of musician collaborations, albeit a very good one. Vocalist Ronnie James Dio gathered a lot of 80s metal royalty for the “Hear ‘n Aid” project to raise funds for people in Africa. While the song, “Stars“, isn’t anything to write home about, the value of seeing so many legends in the same track is historical.
Rob Halford, Geoff Tate, Blackie Lawless, Yngwie Malmsteen, George Lynch, Vince Neil, Ted Nugent, Dave Murray, Adrian Smith… the list goes on. It is one of metal’s biggest musician collaborations and deserves to be highlighted.
7. David Bowie and Queen
The early 80s were weird for Queen and 1982’s “Hot Space” is a testament of that. These English giants were trying to find their foothold in a changing music scene and this record shows that doubt. However, this album did have a massive hit, “Under Pressure“, which featured legendary singer David Bowie as a collaboration.
“It wasn’t easy because we were all precocious boys and David was very… forceful… Freddie and David locked horns, without a doubt,” Queen guitarist Brian May said to the Express in 2023. “But that’s when the sparks fly and that’s why it turned out so great… (They battled) in subtle ways, like who would arrive last at the studio. So it was sort of wonderful and terrible.”
When interview by Lisa Robinson in 1983, Freddie Mercury revealed that David Bowie said backing vocals on one of the songs of the record but wasn’t released.
“That was something else. He did backing vocals on one of my songs that was on the album, that wasn’t ‘Under Pressure‘, that was another one. When it came to being released he didn’t like what he did. I was like, ‘a**hole, he tells me right the tail end when the thing is just about to come out!'”
One of the most important musician collaborations, but definitely one with a lot of issues in the background.
8. Elton John and Queens of the Stone Age
During the making of Queens of the Stone Age‘s sixth album, “…Like Clockwork“, Dave Grohl managed to pull some influences to get legendary singer Elton John to collaborate with them. The drummer was playing with the band at the time and John was a fan of them because of happenstance.
“It actually stemmed from an old roommate of mine, who drives really high-end folks around now, and Elton was in the car listening to Them Crooked Vultures, I guess,” Josh Homme explained at the time. “And his assistant was saying, ‘Oh, you’ve got to hear Queens, the other band of this guy,’ you know. And because my old roommate was driving the car, it was like, ‘Do you want to talk to him?’ And I just got a phone call at my house on a Sunday. You know, he said, ‘The only thing missing from your band is an actual queen,’ and I said, ‘Honey, you have no idea.’”
“He came in and we tracked a rock song live together, which was a wonderful experience,” Homme explained to BBC 5 Live. “That is what collaboration is all about, learning something from someone else and about someone else and maybe reminding them of something they enjoy too. To experience that with Elton was wonderful. There are piano-based, mellower songs on our record but that’s not really the point. It’s about strange chemistry and doing what you’re not supposed to do.”
John would perform in the album’s seventh track, “Fairweather Friends“, thus making one of those peculiar musician collaborations that need more attention.
9. Bjork and Carcass
This might be one of the most shocking musician collaborations of all time. Mainly because of the musicians involved and how it has been forgotten to a degree.
During the making of their “Swansong” album, the death metal band Carcass was asked to rerecord Bjork‘s “Isobel” track. They did this by adding a very heavy and metal-based instrumental while maintaining the singer’s vocals. It is a very peculiar musical oddity, but one that a lot of people have forgotten. It deserves a lot more recognition.
10. Alice in Chains and Elton John
Another major collaboration featuring Elton John and it seems that the Englishman can’t help himself in that regard. It was done in Alice in Chains‘ title track of the 2009 “Black Gives Way to Blue” album, with guitarist Jerry Cantrell on vocals. This was meant to be the band saying goodbye to vocalist Layne Staley, who passed away in 2002.
John played piano on the song, making this one a very heartfelt collaboration. It is a tribute to someone who was essential for Alice in Chains‘ history and the legendary Englishman contributed in such a pivotal moment.
