I’m going to nominate Mark E. Smith of The Fall, because even though he occasionally scraped away on a violin, he couldn’t really “play an instrument,” as the OP specifies.
Can’t say I’m impressed with Kate Mossman’s assessment of INXS as “a really boring band.” They’re an excellent band, shaped the fusion of dance and rock from the early 80s to their commercial pinnacle of 1987’s “Kick.” (In fact, musos are still discussing the guitar tones on that album.) The fact that they were able to soldier on a bit even after losing Hutch more or less contradicts this assessment. Suck on that, Kate!
Morrissey did play an instrument exactly once on an album by The Smiths - piano on “Death of a Disco Dancer” on their final studio album, Strangeways, Here We Come.
It does in fact sound as if he can’t play an instrument.
I beleive GG Allin went instrumentless.
Susan Boyle?
That depends on how turds are classified, as far as live performances go.
What did he do in concert then when this came up? Sit on an amp?
I know thats not him. Thats the joke.
Slightly related, in the past I had asked about “Bands that seem to have A backup member who only sing /play hand percussion.”…ex: That dude hanging in the back of Frankie Goes to Hollywood. But apparently even he did some keyboard work* on the album. And yes the lead singer of FGTH can play an instrument.
- Surrrrrre he did. As in “Here Paul…play these two notes over and over.”
There’s an entire rock group, consisting of four old men who don’t sing or dance or play any instrument.
Mount Rushmore
John S. Hall of King Missile(s) is a poet (and lawyer); he does not play any instruments.
My favorite band is the National and afaik Matt Berninger (also of EL VY and Matt Berninger solo) does not play any instruments. While I didn’t like it as much the best National albums, I enjoyed his recent solo album which was backed by Booker T. Jones and other talented studio musicians.
It has been widely reported that he doesn’t know music theory at all and can’t play any instruments. In a 2010 interview, Berninger said that he “can’t even play a tambourine.”
However, in 2020 he apparently did play the harmonica on the Late Show. I can find pictures of it online but I can’t find a clip to see how well he is actually playing it.