Stephen Pearcy of Ratt. Even back in my hairband days, we called his style “singing by speaking in one note.”
Anthony Kiedis (Red Hot Chili Peppers). His tone and pitch are ruinous.
Liam Gallagher, Oasis
George Thorogood
Ozzy Osbourne
Bob Welch, mid-period Fleetwood Mac
Not that I don’t like them. Or Dylan and Tom Waits, who are so deliberately and ludicrously bad that I’ve always assumed it was something of an affectation.
The Grateful Dead didn’t have a true lead singer for most of their tenure. But they did have three guys who tried to sing. Jerry Garcia didn’t have range but I can see why people liked his voice. I don’t think anyone should have ever allowed Phil Lesh or Bob Weir to sing. Weir’s voice has gotten even worse with age, too.
Another legit nomination, I think. Most of their slow songs are pretty painful for this reason. I do like Soul to Squeeze because- well, Flea is Flea.
From a technical standpoint I’m sure he isn’t, and I’m not big Stones fan to begin with. But he does have personality and his voice fits their music.
I think his voice is very expressive. I’ve been listening to more Nirvana recently than I have in a long time. What I’m hearing is that while he’s not singing a lot of notes and you don’t always know what he’s singing (because he didn’t want you to), there is a lot happening in that voice. It’s intense and it’s gripping.
I didn’t used to like his singing, particularly the high-pitched stuff, but now I do. I just finally heard the right song and saw how the falsetto stuff fits into what he is going for. Lots of people have covered Neil Young songs but I think it’s hard to imagine some other voice fitting on the originals.
Is famous for talk-singing, but can definitely sing.
I think Petty based his vocal style heavily on Dylan’s, so this makes sense. 
I was thinking about Hendrix’s voice recently, and while I don’t think a lot of people have him on their list of favorite singers, I will say that some of his lyrics are very wordy and I think a lot of other singers would have struggled to make them fit with the music. Hendrix made it work. I don’t think he was ever fully confident in his singing. His best performance might’ve been the version of Bleeding Heart" on the recent outtakes album - he forgets the words a couple of times, but the vocals themselves are pretty strong.
Very few of these nominees make sense. It’s not “lead singers you don’t like”.
Ozzy and DLR are two of the greatest heavy metal singers of all time. Bob Dylan and Tom Waits can sing, they just choose to sing not so pretty.
Phish doesn’t have a lead singer. And they are actually pretty good singers for a jam band.
Most of my favourite singers are mentioned in this thread… Rather that attempt to refute what is, obviously, personal opinion, I shall just be sad, and listen to some recent Dylan.
I will point out that I consider there to be a difference between whether you consider someone’s voice to be attractive, and whether you consider that they use the voice they have effectively. The latter is emphatically what I would consider when judging whether someone can sing.
Fred Schneider of the B52s
Peter Garrett of Midnight Oil
Both these guys are awesome performers, that I’d pay money to see any day of the week. Fred Schneider presumably knows damn well he can’t sing, which is why he mostly talks, with only the occasional foray into musical vocalisation. Peter Garrett gets by on enthusiasm and stage presence.
This thread should have been “lead singers who can’t sing but nonetheless create great music”. Then it would have been much more interesting. Much shorter though.
Excellent post.
I don’t think it “works” though.
Change Rolling Stones to U2 and you’ve described Paul “Bonovox” Hewson
I didn’t know who Tom Waits was, so I googled him. I immediately thought “He sounds like a muppet! Oscar the Grouch? No, not quite… oh, Cookie Monster!”
So I then googled for “Tom Waits sounds like” and Google has “…like Cookie Monster” as the only auto-complete choice.
Then I found this. Perfect.
I could not disagree with you more.
Rose has an extremely broad vocal range and is uniformly spot on with the melody in all of those ranges.
Which Rose are you talking about? The anthemic hard driving voice he uses on Paradise City? The tuneful baritone crooner on So Fine or Patience? The soft-then-hard alternation of Civil War? The slow build from a sad love song to an anguished falsetto howl on Don’t Cry?
Rose’s voice is one of the best things about G n’ R. I can’t think of many lead vocalists whose voice was more adapted (and adaptable) to the other aspects of the band’s sound.
Ian Brown, my god!
and yet…The Stone Roses first album is superb. My 4 year old was bopping along like a mentalist to “she bangs the drum” just today. At the end he waited a beat then said…“I LIKE that one daddy!” Of course he does, how can he not?
To be honest, the technical excellence of the lead singer is a minor contribution. It really doesn’t matter. A bad singer can’t spoil a great song, but a good singer can’t make a bad song good.
Aww GD Duff did lead vocals on (and wrote) So Fine. But my point remains.
I second Jagger. I had a radio once that separated his singing. It was just terrible. Zero range.
Colin Meloy of The Decemberists. I love their music. LOVE it. Went to see them in concert in July and it was really excellent. But the dude does horrible things with vowels that needs correction.
Hey guys. If it’s rock and roll it’s not suppose to sound gooood.
One name not mention yet but I absolutely loathe to hear sing is
Scott Stapp from Creed. Fingernails on a . . . .
How on earth did it take 42 posts to get to this? Kiedis often slides his way up to notes in the attempt to find the right pitch, and yet misses.
And while Nick Cave absolutely cannot sing, he’s still one of my favorite singers. 
Wayne Coyne. I love the Flaming Lips, and I think Coyne’s voice works very well for their material. But any time I’ve heard him do a cover, I think it sounds awful–tinny, thin and pitched just a bit too high.
Nobody mentioned Brian Ferry yet! :eek: