Jim Gordon, one of the most talented session drummers of the 1960s, murdered his mother in 1983 with a hammer and a butcher’s knife. He was diagnosed with acute paranoid schizophrenia, convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to sixteen years to life with the possibility of parole. So far he hasn’t gotten it.Jim Gordon (musician) - Wikipedia
You know, just because an artist creates “weird” music it doesn’t make them insane.
OR musically talented…
I wasn’t commenting on Thelonious Monk’s music. He was most likely manic-depressive. At the very least there were some serious issues there.
**From the “Gale Encyclopedia of Biography”:**The film also provides glimpses into the emotional turbulences in his personal life. He was “acutely sensitive and moody and perhaps a manic-depressive,” according to the same review. “Illness eventually made it impossible for him to perform.”
**From Wikipedia:***Monk’s son, T. S. Monk, says that his father sometimes did not recognize him, and he reports that Monk was hospitalized on several occasions due to an unspecified mental illness that worsened in the late 1960s. No reports or diagnoses were ever publicized, but Monk would often become excited for two or three days, pace for days after that, after which he would withdraw and stop speaking. Physicians recommended electroconvulsive therapy as a treatment option for Monk’s illness, but his family would not allow it; antipsychotics and lithium were prescribed instead.[17][18] Other theories abound: Leslie Gourse, author of the book Straight, No Chaser: The Life and Genius of Thelonious Monk (1997), reported that at least one of Monk’s psychiatrists failed to find evidence of manic depression or schizophrenia. Another physician maintains that Monk was misdiagnosed and prescribed drugs during his hospital stay that may have caused brain damage.[17]
As his health declined, Monk’s last six years were spent as a guest in the New Jersey home of his long-standing patron and friend, Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter, who had also nursed Charlie Parker during his final illness. Monk didn’t play the piano during this time, even though one was present in his room, and he spoke to few visitors.*
SS
Robert Schumann
Alexander Scriabin
Carlo Gesualdo
Other classical HMs include Beethoven (who had a strange fixation with his nephew), Liszt (who cut the webbings of his hands out to increase his reach), and Edward MacDowell, who descended into madness after an accident involving a Hanson’s cab.
If I can take “undeniably talented, undeniably insane” to mean “undeniably untalented, undeniably irritating”, yessss. His horrible groanings make some otherwise very brilliant playing completely unlistenable.
Mozart’s fixation with scatological humor could be, at least in the view of some, the result of mental illness. But I suppose “undeniably insane” is probably pushing it.
Phil Spector, perhaps?
Although he was never formally diagnosed, there’s suggestions that he had Asperger’s syndrome. Far from insane but…something, right? :rolleyes:
Sinead O’Connor is in no wise crazy. She is annoyingly self-righteous, but you could find similar minds in any college town.
How is Lady Gaga crazy? She’s over-the-top theatrical, yes. In the world of pop music, I don’t consider outrageous costuming to be a sign of insanity, because then vintage Elton John would be on the list.
Joni Mitchell is an advocate for sufferers of Morgellon’s Syndrome, also known as delusional parisitosis. This may or may not make her insane, but she does believe alien fibers are generating beneath her skin, so it may qualify. Then again she might just fight into the hippy dippy demographic who is credulous enough to believe in that type of thing.
I love Sinead, but I do think she is loony. She has waaaay too many issues going on that she seems unable to adequately deal with. She’s admitted bipolar disorder and I suspect depression. I would still enjoy a romantic interlude with her (if we weren’t each married), but I would have to stay far away after that.
Genesis P. Orridge. He/She is way out there, but seems to be functioning within society…kind of…for now…
Not sure if he’s technically insane, but certainly operating on a different world than the rest of us…Mike Patton.
How so? I don’t know one way or the other, but I’ve never read anything about her that made me think she was crazy.
Yeah, if it’s just the costuming, I consider that to be a case of trying too hard to be shocking. Poor Lady Gaga, it’s hard to be shocking these days.
If nothing else, this thread has introduced me to the name “Baroness Panonica de Koenigswater,” for which I shall be eternally grateful.
A huge and highly successful 30+ year career as one of the best musicians of all time? We should all be so crazy.
I deny the insanity of both of these, so they don’t fit on this list. 
Prince has, to quote one of his entourage, lived in Princeland a long time. Lady Gaga is a businesswoman with a creative streak a mile wide (actually, that applies to Prince, too, except the “woman” part).
While I don’t think she’s insane, I always wondered how an epigone of Madonna somehow became known as an “insanely” creative genius, either.