Top 15 Mustaches in Rock History

To my knowledge, rock and roll mustaches have never been publicly recognized. I’ve encountered stache after stache over the years, but I’ve never taken the time to compile a collection until tonight. This list came off the top of my head, so it is by no means definitive. If I’ve missed any, please leave a comment.

Let’s pay homage to our hair-lipped music icons. Is it spelled mustache or moustache anyway?

Frank Zappa - He barely qualified for consideration because of his soul patch. Fortunately his stache overshadows it…

Frank Zappa

Ted Nugent - This is what Larry Bird’s 80’s mustache would have been if he would have let it go. Nice long hair lip.

Ted Nugent

Jesse Hughes - Eagles of Death Metal lead singer or one of the guys from Mythbusters?

Jesse Hughes

Freddie Mercury - Freddie grew this mustache in 3 hours.

Freddie Mercury

The Edge - Irish cowboys come off as Village People.

The Edge

Jim Croce - I always thought Jim Croce looked like Luigi from Mario Brothers.

Jim Croce

Duane Allman - Not many can connect their mustache with their lambchop sideburns. Duane is in an elite class.

Duane Allman

Derek Smalls - Spinal Tap. Best Rock Movie Ever.

Derek Smalls

David Crosby - Melissa Ethridge hand selected this guy’s sperm. Unbelievable.

David Crosby Mug Shot

Carlos Santana - Is he wearing lip gloss? I never liked Santana.

Carlos Santana

Chuck Berry - One of those well groomed-mustaches I could never figure out. He shaved above and below the stache to give separation between the upper lip and lower nostrils.

Chuck Berry

John Oates - This is what he looks like without Hall holding his hand. The overexposed picture really brings out his bushy Cheech Marinesque stache.

John Oates

Jeff Baxter - Puts David Crosby’s walrus to shame.

Jeff Baxter

Ringo Star - I’ve never seen anyone take their mustache so seriously. Seriously.
Ringo Star

Franz Nicolay (The Hold Steady) - Like Zappa there is chin carpet, but that curly, imperial moustache is incredible.

Franz Nicolay


22 Responses to “Top 15 Mustaches in Rock History”

  1. 1 Woody

    Hetfield has had a couple of solid ones as well.

  2. 2 Woody

    what about Mr. Moustache?

  3. 3 Drinking Buddy

    The Beastie Boys had some sweet ones in the ‘Sabotage’ video. How can you leave off Hendrix? He’s one of the few people that actually wore a moustache well. But my favorite is a tie between John Oates and Chuck Berry. John Oates donned a moustache strictly to distract you from his terrible complexion. I believe Chuck Berry used some sort of mousse in his. He’s the type of guy that would also braid his pubes.

  4. 4 Woody

    Billy Kreutzmann - Drummer for the dead

  5. 5 moish

    I’m blown away by the neglectful omission of Lemmy from Motorhead. I believe young Derek Smalls was channeling the ace of spades auteur in Spinal Tap. Kudos to you for this list.

  6. 6 MJM

    If there isn’t a minimum height or weight requirement, Prince’s stache was a good one. Although, it may have been painted on, so I understand the omission.

  7. 7 Mofongo

    Back in his partying, 70’s hey-day, Jimmy Buffett had a moustache with few peers.

  8. 8 Top Ten Lists

    […]Top 15 Mustaches in Rock History[…]

  9. 9 Mark

    Freddie Mercury looks a lot like Borat.

    Hetfield should be in this list. AND HOW… HOW… could you forget… SONNY BONO?????

    http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:Wj7d-W1LNpjfFM:http://www.drinkatwork.com/sonny-bono.jpg

  10. 10 Joe

    Disappointed to see the omission of my favorite indie rock ’stache: Greg Norton from Husker Du.

    http://world.std.com/~thirdave/zinestuff/ew0594_hdpic.jpg

  11. 11 Esau

    How could you forget members of Foghat?

  12. 12 Freddie

    Freddie Murcury is awsome!
    ( i was named after him)

  13. 13 kool

    Hilarious! Lemmy should definitely make the list. I saw him at The Rainbow Room recently and his stache is still rockin!

  14. 14 mrs.brown

    Billy Childish should be in the list!!

  15. 15 s1

    I can’t believe Lemmy of Motorhead is not on the list!
    Rock n roll!

  16. 16 Danijela

    You should put Serj Tankian (from SOAD), he has some crazy mustache as well!

  17. 17 Jk Simmons

    John Oates looks like Gary Del Abate from howard stern, babba booey!!!

  18. 18 oz

    He also looks like a serial killer.

  19. 19 Fireball

    Nick Cave is missing ;-)

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