I was sure Foghat was from Alabama or the SE US. They are British but the latest lineup has 2 Americans.
I thought Stray Cats were British but they are American.
Cowboy Junkies are from Toronto, Canada which certainly would not have been my first or second guess.
It never occurred to me that Elvis Costello was English until maybe about 10 years ago.
When I first heard the Colin Hay, lead singer of Men At Work, was Scottish it felt like my entire life was a lie.
What?? And now I know how you feel.
How did you feel when you found out Malcolm and Angus Young, and Bon Scott were also born in Scotland?
I never really thought much about it, actually. I mean, Bon Scott wore it proudly, and I never got a sense that being Australian was a huge part of AC/DC’s identity.
It was a while before I discovered the Bee Gees were born in the UK. All the publicity at the time was that they were from Australia, where they moved in 1958.
Are we talking about people merely born somewhere else, or who were raised somewhere else? There’s a huge difference between someone merely born in a foreign country like say… Andy Gibb or Kathie Lee Gifford, and someone entirely raised somewhere else, like Terri Clark (Canadian, who knew?)
Another who thought AC/DC was an American band, but I never paid much attention to them. For a long time, I didn’t know that both Joni Mitchell and Neil Young were Canadian.
I didn’t really realize Dire Straits were British for quite a while Knopfler doesn’t seem to have much of an accent when singing. Even interviews I see with him his accent seems very light almost sounds fake to me for some reason, like an American with a bad fake accent, it’s probably just my false assumption of how a British accent should sound from movies.
ABBA, how can they sing songs in English so well but not be from an english speaking country?
I am saying this because I saw where they once performed “Dancing Queen” live on American Bandstand and Dick Clark could really only talk to 2 of them because only they spoke english.
I read in “Hammer of the Gods” early on a lot of fans were surprised to find out Led Zeppelin were British and not American.
Based on their name and reputation of namesake city as a music capital, I was slightly surprised to find out Manchester Orchestra were from the state of Georgia.
Sort of related, Spinal Tap was on MTV once and they took calls and a few callers did not seem to know they were a fake band.
Vast majority of British rock/pop singers sing with an American accent.
Freddy Mercury being Zanzibari was a surprise to me when I found out. (I don’t know where I thought he was from!)
some people were surprised when they saw Christian Bale on TV speaking in his normal British accent. He has done interviews using an American accent.
When I first heard that Golden Earring were Dutch, I could not believe it. I was sure that the source was mistaken.
A favorite song of mine is this song, by another Dutch group with American accents. I had no idea they were Dutch for about 20 years.
I never would have guessed Dave Matthews was from South Africa based on his singing voice.