Joe Cocker?
Leonard Cohen?
Iggy Pop?
Iggy Pop plays guitar. I have no idea what else he plays, but he plays guitar for sure.
ETA, same for Leonard Cohen.
Joe Cocker was a pioneer with the air guitar. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
Sigh. Does no one read my posts anymore?
Anthony Kiedis, who fronted one of the most successful bands of the 1990s and 2000s, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, played no instrument. The rest of the band’s lineup, which changed numerous times, all had a high level of technical proficiency on their instruments, but Kiedis is strictly a vocalist. Looking it up, it seems like there were a few occasions when he performed, nominally, while holding a guitar and playing a few chords, but this was a massive outlier.
Scott Weiland of the Stone Temple Pilots was also not known to perform with an instrument. Again, there may have been a few times when he did so for novelty value, but he was another 90s alt frontman who was strictly a vocalist.
Various accounts say Ann Wilson of Heart was given a guitar when she was 12 but didn’t much care for it. I guess she at least learned a few chords even if she never played in public.
Micky Dolenz of the Monkees famously had to fake playing the drums after he was told to play a drummer on TV, but Dolenz had a guitar at home, and so probably also knew a few chords.
Perhaps there should be a distinction between a vocalist not performing with an instrument, and a vocalist not knowing how to play an instrument (which obviously includes the former).
He played some banjo with the Faces.
I always thought this was an impressive performance…
I was wondering about 3/4 of the Mamas and the Papas. My hunch is that many play some instrument or other (guitar and piano being most common) well enough to compose songs.
Denny’s entry lists guitar
Cass’s lists vocals, nothing else.
Michelle’s says vocals and tambourine
I love how you can listen to them and think you’re hearing instruments but they’re singing “dit…dit…dit dit dit” etc.
It depends on whether or not you count this:
Actually he can play the guitar. I can’t find any audio or video to determine how well. All I found is this pic:
Iggy was a drummer before he formed the Stooges and became the singer.
Morrissey?
I’m pleased to report that Joe Strummer did indeed play some guitar.
You can’t have a name like this and only play tambourine or harmonica.
This website lists him as a percussionist
Since it provides no details it could just be referencing him banging on a huge bell as part of the AC/DC stage show when they perform the song Hell’s Bells.
TCMF-2L
But he played guitar and keyboards. And eventually learned drumming well enough that he played it on tour. Interesting fact from his Wikipedia article: he purchased the 3rd modular Moog sold commercially.
The Monkees were were pioneers in that regard and one of the very first rock/pop bands to work with and release synthesizer (Moog) tracks.
Cite:
I can’t find any evidence to suggest Fee Waybill ever played an instrument.
All four of the Monkees got placed onto instruments/roles that didn’t necessarily match up to their preferred instruments. Peter Tork has commented that, if the four of them had been assigned based on which instrument they were best at (out of the four of them), it would have been Davy Jones on drums, Mike Nesmith on bass, Tork on lead guitar, and Dolenz as frontman/singer.
I don’t recall that Jim Morrison played any instruments with The Doors, or could have.
Wikipedia says that he played a bit of keyboard, and harmonica, as well as tambourine and maracas.