I am always pleasantly surprised when someone known for a totally different field unexpectedly (to me) displays musical ability. Even if they aren’t the best, but still pretty good, I think it is cool.
Most recently, I was amused that John Cena (wrestler turned actor) plays piano, which they used in his HBOMax series Peacemaker.
Also an excellent classical pianist who went to Oxford on a Classical Organ scholarship.
John Sebastian (Lovin’ Spoonful and then solo career) is a virtuoso harmonica player, as was his lookalike father who played classical harmonica with orchestras and on record.
Yeah, I saw that too. The fact that she has been praised does not, to me, indicate (or prove) that she’s one of the best drummers who ever drummed.
I’m sure some may think so, but I do not.
I’m not a Karen hater. FWIW I think she has the most gorgeous singing voice I’ve ever heard.
mmm
Prince was primarily known as a songwriter, singer and performer. But he was highly skilled in many instruments (drums, bass, keyboards, guitar, etc). He was supposedly proficient on 27 different instruments, and near-virtuoso on a couple.
But he was really, really good on guitar. And self-taught mostly.
Johnny Depp has played and toured with a lot of great musicians. He’s very good on guitar.
Kevin Bacon has a band with his brother Michael. They are currently touring.
Someone in a recent thread linked to this scene from Living in Oblivion. It looked great so I watched the movie. It was terrific and I was surprised how good Dermot Mulroney was having never really had any opinion of him. I looked him up to see what else he had done and discovered that he is a classically trained cellist who has appeared on many soundtracks, either as a solo cellist or part of scoring orchestras for James Newton Howard and Michael Giacchino.
Giacchino discusses working with him here.
Yes, he does. He’s an amazing guy. I met him on The Family Stone, he’s an incredible player, and I was like, ‘You play cello. Can you read music?’ He goes, ‘Yeah,’ and I was like, ‘Alright, come in. Play on Mission: Impossible III, and he did. … If he’s in town, whenever we’re recording, he’s always in on the session. He plays on almost everything, you know, as long as he’s not working on some film somewhere.
I remember seeing this on Saturday Night Live, waiting for the punchline that never was. I’m not a fan of opera, but I was impressed.
From Wiki.
Morris has appeared in numerous television shows and movies since the early 1970s, but is best known as one of the original cast members of NBC’s Saturday Night Live.[6] Periodically on SNL he sang classical music: once a Mozart aria “Dalla Sua Pace”, Don Ottavio’s aria from Don Giovanni when guest-host Walter Matthau designated him as a “musical guest…in place of the usual crap”, and once a Schubert lied while the titles on the screen expressed his colleagues’ purported displeasure at having to accommodate a misguided request by him.
This is what I remember seeing.
John C. Reilly is an excellent singer. He sang all of his own parts in Walk Hard. They recorded several albums worth of music for the movie. Much of it didn’t even make it into the film.
And he could kick your ass in basketball. 
So you want an “artist” with under-reported skills?
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Martin Mull…
https://www.widewalls.ch/artists/martin-mull
.
And back in his days of being a “Sit Down Comedian” he did a lot of tasty guitar work as well. Here he is with Glen Campbell doing his cleverly-written “Licks Off Of Records”.
Morris was their only serious musical talent in the original cast. Would have been nice to get to see him sing more on the show.
For the longest time, I only knew Vince Gill for his angelic voice. It was only recently that I learned that he is an extraordinary guitar player. You can go down a deep YouTube rabbit hole of clips of Gill’s picking. Here’s just one:
https://youtu.be/Stv3ugVFZD8?t=185
Apparently, Mark Knopfler asked him to join Dire Straits at some point. I would love to hear the alternate-universe music they would have created together.
The skit is hilarious, but according to Micki Free every bit of it was true. Truth is stranger than fiction, and I think that makes it even funnier.
I think Prince even leaned into it by releasing a some small album called ‘Blouses’.
Glen was working hard to keep up. It must have been a short rehearsal. Martin had probably played it a hundred times in his act.
This was my introduction to Martin Mull in 1975.
We often think of Phil Hartman as being a gifted comedic actor, but he started out as a graphic artist. You’ll recognize at least a few of these well known album covers he designed.
Album Covers Designed By Phil Hartman | R. ONE Creative (r1creative.net)
Thanks for sending me down a Martin Mull/ Flo & Eddie rabbit hole.
When people think of Fred Gwynne, they identify him with Herman Munster. But he is also a very talented artist. He wrote and illustrated several children’s books.
He also was editor of the Harvard Lampoon.
I had no idea that was designed by Phil Hartman! As well as so many others. Thanks for posting that!