Stevie Ray Vaughn - because he didn’t finish making music, darnit.
Warren Zevon.
(note: I did not read the whole thread before quoting and addressing this, so please forgive me if I’m just “ditto-ing”)
Freddie would get my vote, too, but not just because he could sing like no one else (which he could) but he was just, like, maybe the greatest front-man in all contemporary rock. He could sing, yeah, but he was also just so damned sexy and charismatic!!
[side note]my 8YO daughter is very interested in music, and seems to have an ear for it; she came into the kitchen once when I was washing dishes and listening to Queen’s A Night At The Opera and she said “Hey, mom, is this rock music?”
I had to stop for a minute. Finally I said, “Well, kind of. It’s Queen. They kind of defined their own genre”. [/side note]
Jeff Buckley. He only released one fantastic album, and perhaps he would have spent the rest of his career trying to live up to it, but I sure would have liked to see him try.
Elliott Smith would be my second choice. He was quite unique in my mind, and I really enjoyed how he kept growing from album to album. Not necessarily better (I think he peaked with XO), but really experimenting with different techniques and styles. From A Basement On The Hill was to be his self-declared White Album, and it’s a shame he never got to finish it himself. He did stab himself in the heart, but I think he would have taken it back if he could…
Apparently, you haven’t seen him on Youtube, in concert, etc…
That being said, I’d go with Michael Hedges.
Failing that, I’d have to choose Marc Bolan.
Failing THAT, I’d choose the guitarist for Alice Cooper…Glen Buxton?
I was joking. Many people who’ve seen Dylan’s live performances lately have commented that he might as well be a corpse on stage.
I’d agree with you on Nowell. He could have potentially gone in a lot of directions. Sublime was sort of 50 percent punk rock, 40 percent reggae, 10 percent hip-hop or something in that vein. I fear if he had lived, with the boom in commercial radio rap in the late 90s and early part of 2000, he might have gone that route and gotten sucked into collaborating with (IMHO) untalented assholes like Kanye West and whored himself out for record sales by assimilating shitty rap beats and abandoning the punk rock side of Sublime, which is the side I always liked the most.
Most of mine have been mentioned. Lennon, Kurt, Strummer.
But no one has brought up Joey Ramone??
Hallelujah and amen.
Bob Stinson. I’d love to see the 'Mats one more time at their inebriated best.
So many good picks. I was going to add Roy Orbison but someone beat me to it.
I’ll add Michael Hutchence
That’s the way I feel about it. We were robbed of a man that had come back from the brink and was making great music again. I mean by comparison, why bring Elvis or the like back? He was pretty much washed up by then anyway.
Stevie Ray Vaughan, with Jimi Hendrix a close second.
Oh, and Eddie Van Halen. Definitely bring him back from the dead.
John Entwistle. I’m sure Mrs M would like to spend another afternoon chatting with her uncle, and I pretty much missed my chance to get to know him (not being a celebrity-hunter or a Who fan).
Freddie Mercury
Oh, definitely Buddy Holly.
I’d invite him to one of our barbecues and ask him to sing “Every Day” for all of us. It really is a lovely song and one of my favorites.
Then I’d give him a cookie. He just looks like somebody who likes cookies.
It would be a nice evening.
I’d be blubbing like a love-struck teen if I heard “Waiting In Vain” live. 
For one gig: Freddie
The fact that <expletive deleted>* is now, apparently, an actual part of Queen (they’re in the studio doing a new album) is a travesty beyond my comprehension. I never got to see Freddie live, and I sincerely regret that.
To prevent the death from ever happening: Jimi
A musical talent beyond compare, I would love to see what he could do with an extra 40 years of musical growth and influence.
In this category, I might list Marc Bolan, Jeff Buckley, and a few others who missed out on what might have been–as did we all.
- Paul Rogers, of Free and Bad Company, has an excellent rock-and-roll voice, but he is not even close to Freddie’s caliber as a performer, musician, composer, rock star.
Wow! Just fucking wow! After The Beatles, The Who is probably my favourite band.
I would have loved to have a chat with Uncle Ox about the good old days.
All of the above but if I could pick one somewhat obscure guy I’d go with Steve Clark of Def Leppard. I like SRV and Duane Allman better but I would’ve liked to hear what he’d be doing now. I really liked his songs, especially Switch 625.
…but not sure he is dead!
Seconded.
I wrote a long paragraph here, but deleted it. Shit, there’s nothing that can be said, really.