# What famous musicians played more than one instrument? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 15, 2009, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-musicians-played-more-than-one-instrument/503155 "2009-07-15T21:30:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quasimodal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/57b2e6/32.png) [@Quasimodal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodal)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-musicians-played-more-than-one-instrument/503155/1 "2009-07-15T21:30:53Z")
I’m curious to know. There’s obviously alot of Bass / Guitar players. How about odd combinations like Bass and Trumpet? ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-musicians-played-more-than-one-instrument/503155/2 "2009-07-15T21:33:35Z")
Bass and Trumpet/French Horn: John Entwistle. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-musicians-played-more-than-one-instrument/503155/3 "2009-07-15T21:37:02Z")
John Entwistle, I particulary remember the french horn on _Tommy_. [QUOTE=Wikipedia] John Alec Entwistle was born in Chiswick, a London suburb, in 1944 and attended Acton County Grammar School. He joined the Middlesex Youth Orchestra and his initial music training was on trumpet, french horn, and piano, all three of which would figure into his later rock playing. [/QUOTE] Bastard, took too long to compose my response! ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-musicians-played-more-than-one-instrument/503155/4 "2009-07-15T21:44:50Z")
IIRC Prince is pretty versatile. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-musicians-played-more-than-one-instrument/503155/5 "2009-07-15T21:46:53Z")
Paul Schaffer (spelling may be off)–the band leader for the Letterman show, plays drums and piano/keyboard. May play other instruments as well… ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-musicians-played-more-than-one-instrument/503155/6 "2009-07-15T21:48:36Z")
OK speaking of The Who, Pete Townshend also played the classic synthesizer riffs on \*Baba O’Reilly \*and _Won’t get Fooled Again_. ---
**Author:** ![jk1245](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/49beb7/32.png) [@jk1245](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jk1245)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-musicians-played-more-than-one-instrument/503155/7 "2009-07-15T21:49:45Z")
Dave Grohl rose to fame as the drummer for Nirvana and has played guitar in the Foo Fighters for the last decade plus. Brian Jones played a little bit of everything of various Stones albums. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-musicians-played-more-than-one-instrument/503155/8 "2009-07-15T21:50:34Z")
Paul McCartney plays bass and regular guitar, and also plays the piano. And also apparently the mandolin and ukulele, according to Wikipedia. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-musicians-played-more-than-one-instrument/503155/9 "2009-07-15T21:54:50Z")
Van Morrison, Neil Young and Bob Dylan all play guitar, harmonica and piano/keyboards during thier concerts----Morrison also blows sax on occasion… (recently, Dylan has not played much guitar live, due to arthritis in his fingers) ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-musicians-played-more-than-one-instrument/503155/10 "2009-07-15T22:01:50Z")
> [@Darryl\_Lict](#): > > Bastard, took too long to compose my response! Hey, the “Bass and Trumpet” was too big a softball for me to pass up! > [@Darryl\_Lict](#): > > OK speaking of The Who, Pete Townshend also played the classic synthesizer riffs on \*Baba O’Reilly \*and _Won’t get Fooled Again_. On the liner notes for **Who Came First** (tongue firmly implanted in cheek), he noted that he did _“…all instruments, vocals, recording, engineering, mixing, synthesisers, in fact everything except making the tea, in one gynormous ego trip.”_ ---
**Author:** ![HoboStew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f17d59/32.png) [@HoboStew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoboStew)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-musicians-played-more-than-one-instrument/503155/11 "2009-07-15T22:03:26Z")
Geddy Lee - at the same time! ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-musicians-played-more-than-one-instrument/503155/12 "2009-07-15T22:04:00Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > Van Morrison, Neil Young and Bob Dylan all play guitar, harmonica and piano/keyboards during thier concerts----Morrison also blows sax on occasion… > > (recently, Dylan has not played much guitar live, due to arthritis in his fingers) Bruce Springsteen as well. ---
**Author:** ![snailboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/97f17d/32.png) [@snailboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snailboy)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-musicians-played-more-than-one-instrument/503155/13 "2009-07-15T22:06:18Z")
With such a wide open question, there’s a huge number of answers. I’m sure the percentage of musicians that do this is large. There are some artists who take turns playing most or all the instruments in a song in the studio (probably with a little help) and only have a band for concerts. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails does this to a large extent. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-musicians-played-more-than-one-instrument/503155/14 "2009-07-15T22:07:20Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > Paul McCartney plays bass and regular guitar, and also plays the piano. And also apparently the mandolin and ukulele, according to Wikipedia. And drums. And recorder (on “The Fool On the Hill”). “One-man-band”-type multi-instrumentalists, who have recorded songs or albums on which they play all or most of the instruments, aren’t all that rare; we could probably compile a substantial list. From earlier times, Mozart was primarily a keyboard player, but he also played the violin. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-musicians-played-more-than-one-instrument/503155/15 "2009-07-15T22:27:11Z")
Brian Jones, a founder of the Rolling Stones, was known for playing multiple instruments. He played the following on their records: guitar, slide guitar, sitar, organ, marimba, recorder, saxophone, Appalachian dulcimer, accordion, saxophone, oboe, harpsichord, Mellotron, and autoharp. It was often said that he seemed to be able to just pick up nearly any instrument, start fooling around with it, and in a few hours be able to play it. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-musicians-played-more-than-one-instrument/503155/16 "2009-07-15T23:15:10Z")
On the best Peruvian group Frágil (nod to Yes’s Fragile) you see these guys playing live: Octavio Castillo: Keyboards, flute, and steel guitar (plus lead guitar on another group) César bustamante: Bass and keyboards (even both Geddy-Lee-style) plus guitar on records. The lead singer also plays guitar on some song and bass on a couple. Argetinian musician Charly García: guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, violin. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-musicians-played-more-than-one-instrument/503155/17 "2009-07-15T23:20:08Z")
[Rhasaan Roland Kirk.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahsaan_Roland_Kirk) ---
**Author:** ![C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C.Montgomery_Burns)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-musicians-played-more-than-one-instrument/503155/18 "2009-07-15T23:27:18Z")
Both Jimmy Dorsey and Woody Herman played clarinet and saxophone. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-musicians-played-more-than-one-instrument/503155/19 "2009-07-15T23:31:14Z")
Flea plays bass and trumpet. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-musicians-played-more-than-one-instrument/503155/20 "2009-07-15T23:59:57Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > Paul McCartney plays bass and regular guitar, and also plays the piano. And also apparently the mandolin and ukulele, according to Wikipedia. He also played drums on _Back in the USSR_ and on his first solo album. Mike Oldfield played everything (except drums) on Tubular Bells and Tubular Bells 2. When he was 19 or so (for TB 1). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-musicians-played-more-than-one-instrument/503155.md?page=2)