In every interview I’ve seen with Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, he seems to have a noticeable lisp. (It is not as apparent in his singing.)
Are there any other singers who have lisps or other speech impediments?
Well, there’s Mel Tillis.
Terrible stutter, but you don’t hear it at all when he sings.
Linda Thompson. She suffer(ed/s?) from hysterical/spasmodic dysphonia.
Tommy Shaw of Styx has one that I’d never heard until their live album from a year or two ago. It’s not apparent on any of the old catalogue Styx albums where he sang lead. He has bad problems with sibilants. It sort of makes you wonder how they disguised it for all those years.
I read the thread title and thought, “that guy from Red Hot Chilli Peppers!” Because I found the lisp *very *noticeable on ‘Under the Bridge’, though none of my friends did.
Apart from strong brogues from some celtic groups, which is more accent than impediment, I got nuthin’.
Thom Rapp of '60s acid folkies Pearls Before Swine (and later a solo artist) has a very strong lisp. John Wetton of King Crimson/Asia sometimes seems to sing with a lisp, but I’ve never been quite sure if it’s him or just the way his voice is recorded.
Gareth Gates was the runner up in the first UK series of Pop Idol. He had a very severe stammer, now overcome via the McGuire program. When he was interviewed/questioned during the show, it really was very difficult. But he could sing, and deserved to get to the final.
His career since then has been less than spectacular, mostly involving a really poor choice of material and acquaintances (Jordan :smack: ). His interviewing since 2004 has been great, but you can still hear the catch as he copes with the stammer.
I have a lot of respect for him as a person, but I don’t like his music.
Si
Bob Dylan?
I’m serious. I really think the guy is tone-deaf and if you’ve ever heard him live, I’d bet you would agree.
But tone-deafness isn’t a speech impediment. Unless maybe you’re trying to speak Vietnamese or something.
I’m with maggenpye. I’ve always heard Keidis’ lisp very clearly in his singing.
I think Mick Jones of The Clash had some kind of lisp thing going on.
Richard Carpenter’s lisp is pretty pronounced. You can hear it on the chorus of “We’ve only just begun”.
Cookie Monster? Not only is he a singer himself (“C is for Cookie, That’s Good Enough For Me”), he has inspired dozens of death metal vocalists.
My impression about Mel is that he really plays it up for humorous effect when he’s on a talk show. Years ago I saw him being interviewed about a serious subject (I think it was about the death of some other musician) and his speech wasn’t nearly so bad.
John Fogerty has a bit of a lisp.
Richard Thompson was a stutterer who managed to mostly get over it, but he retains the odd facial quirks (especially very pronounced blinking) common to many former stutterers. And apparently he still stutters at times, especially on the phone.