Seven Rock Artists Who Made Cameos in Movies

In March, Terrence Malick will be releasing his latest film, ‘Song to Song.’ The film, about two “entangled couples” navigating the music industry in Austin, Texas, stars Rooney Mara, Ryan Gosling, Michael Fassbender and Natalie Portman as its main characters. And to make the film seem authentic, Malick has enlisted the help of musicians Iggy Pop, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Patti Smith, Florence + the Machine and The Black Lips, among others, to make cameos.

Obviously, these musicians are not the first to make cameos in films. There have been many artists that have lent their presence to a film, some in more storyline-driven roles than others.

Vinyl Bay 777, Long Island’s top music outlet, has picked seven of the most interesting rock artist cameos made on the big screen. Some of these artists just had to play, others got to be in on the fun of the plot. Either way makes for good (or halfway decent) cinema.

1.       The Offspring, ‘Idle Hands’: ‘Idle Hands’ was a late 1990s teen horror flick about a high school student whose hand becomes possessed. The Offspring doesn’t come in until near the end, when they play at a school-sponsored Halloween party. Things get crazy when the teen’s severed hand attacks Dexter Holland, scalping him mid-song.

2.       Billy Idol, ‘The Wedding Singer’: Billy Idol doesn’t actually sing in this film, about a wedding singer who falls in love with one of the waitresses at a gig. Idol’s cameo comes when Adam Sandler’s wedding singer character is on a plane talking about his waitress (Drew Barrymore) that got away. When Sandler realizes that the waitress is on the same flight, Idol and others help him try to win her back.

3.       Sugar Ray, ‘Father’s Day’: Sugar Ray is more of a plot point in this film about two men who go searching for their potential son who has run away from home, even though the band does make an appearance. The runaway boy is in fact following the band across the country. The two men finally confront the boy at said Sugar Ray show.

4.       Bruce Springsteen, ‘High Fidelity’: Springsteen makes a brief appearance in this 2000 classic as a figment of main character Rob’s (John Cusack) imagination. Rob has an imaginary conversation with The Boss about life and love while Springsteen picks at a guitar and gives him advice.

5.       Cannibal Corpse, ‘Ace Ventura: Pet Detective’: Cannibal Corpse seem like a weird choice to appear in a comedy flick, but they did. The band was in a couple of scenes, including one in which Ace Ventura makes his way to the stage while being chased and stage dives.

6.       ZZ Top, ‘Back To The Future 3’: Another interesting choice, ZZ Top was the band that played in the Old West. The band got into character too, even leading people in a square dance.

7.       Blink-182, ‘American Pie’: It wasn’t a big cameo, but Mark, Tom and Travis did have a short appearance in the first ‘American Pie’ film. They were the band playing while Jason Biggs’ Jim was being filmed failing to seduce the girl on his bed, stopping their rehearsal to watch the webcast.

There have been many artists who have made cameos in films, either playing music or helping to advance the storyline. Perhaps the cameos in ‘Song to Song’ will do both. We’ll have to wait until March 17, when the film hits theaters, to see.

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Find music from all of these artists and more at Vinyl Bay 777 and vinylbay777.com. Long Island’s top new independent record shop has thousands of new and used vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, DVDs, memorabilia and more. New titles are being added to our selection all the time, so make plans to stop-by and browse.