Elton John would be my nomination…at least in terms of quality and frequency of performance. I don’t know what Prince’s schedule is like (I’m sure the quality is there), but Elton works ALL. THE. TIME., and everyone I’ve known who has seen him perform has said he was superb.
Good choice with EJ. Fwiw, Prince is legendary for playing a 2+ hour concert - a full-on, choreographed, get-your-money’s-worth-and-more type of show, THEN make his way to a private or small club for an after-hours show for a couple of hours, play more open-ended jams and covers, and THEN going into a studio (his, if he is local, or just booking studio time at the local good one when he is on tour) and working on tracks he is writing.
My drummer (the record producer) was working on something at Olympic studios in London when he noticed that a very expensive, main recording room was empty - he was told it was booked for the night. At around 3am, Prince showed up and was there for a few hours working on tracks while my buddy was in the next room pulling an all-nighter…
He is a machine, I’m convinced.
Ditto this. He may be 20 years past his peak production years, but damn, the man looks like he secretly possesses The One Ring. He doesn’t age. I haven’t seen any of his shows for a long time, but I understand he’s still blowing his audiences away (as confirmed again by you). I’ve seen five of his shows in my lifetime, and other artists’ performances are just boring by comparison. He’s the tops.
I saw concerts by both in roughly the same time period, sometime in the mid 80s. Not even close. Prince blows Elton John away, at least on the tours I saw them. Elton John was some puffy guy playing piano (energetically, to be fair). Prince was all over the damned place. Guy is a dynamo.
You spelled Keith Richards wrong.
I haven’t seen Prince; the hardest-working musician I’ve seen is Beck. The impression I got with Beck was that it didn’t come naturally–that he was really working to entertain the audience.
I read a magazine article sometime last year, I want to say it was in GQ, and the author was interviewing George Clinton, who repeatedly had to sneak off to smoke crack until he got tired of sneaking off and just started openly smoking in front of the interviewer.
Big deal. Paul McCartney died in the Sixties and not only still works, but has a three year old.
It appears that there may be a disconnect over the meaning of the term “hardest working”. I took it to mean someone who performs consistently and well, not necessarily who works hardest during the performance itself. My impression (which may certainly be wrong) is that Prince works sporadically, whereas Elton works constantly - touring all over the world and putting on quality shows. I would imagine that there are many acts that work harder onstage than Elton.
I agree with Prince. I heart him.
For the hardest working woman, I’ll nominate Kathy Griffin. That woman will do anything for a gig.
I suspect that there are still bands that tour by driving themselves around in a big van, from city to city, gig to gig. Maybe they have a friend that helps them lug the equipment around. They play to half-empty bars in one-horse towns and end up sleeping in the van or couch surfing. Then they get up and drive another 500 miles to the next show. Those guys doing a lot more work than Elton John or Prince.
Is Ron Jeremy even still around?
Sure is – I saw an ad just a few months ago that he was running a wet-T-shirt contest in a strip club in West Virginia, but only for two nights. :eek:
One of my heroes. I think there’s even a documentary about him.
This is Vaginal Tap?
In country music: Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton.
Um, so I might have, er, read his book. But not out in public.
Once again, Vince McMahon has been doing that for the last thirty-fourty years. Then getting beat up for fun. While running the business.
If he wasn’t also running things, I’d go for Rick Flair, but Vince probably works harder.