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SPIN magazine publisher Bob Guccione Junior has compiled a list he calls "The 100 Greatest Rock Stars Since That Was a Thing."
He says, "The problem with lists like this is they are invariably [bull crap]. So our prime objective was to make sure we didn’t do a [bull crap] list."
Then he adds, "I’m not saying we did a scientific one either... In fact we didn’t even, technically, do the 'we. I picked the list. I ranked everyone and along with several excellent SPIN contributors... This is a list of rock stars, not necessarily the best musicians, or most important songwriters, (although we won’t have missed many of them). A star is, perhaps by definition, undefinable. They just are. They’re luminescent. Even when, in some cases, they didn’t want to be."
"There's several on this list."
The Top-10 is as follows:
- Keith Richards
- Prince
- Jimi Hendrix
- Jimmy Page
- David Bowie
- Bruce Springsteen
- Bob Dylan
- Mick Jagger
- Grace Slick
- Kurt Cobain
Elvis Presley topped the list at 100 and in between are the likes of Janis Joplin, Eddie Vedder, John Lennon, The Edge (at 13 -Bono was the 98th), and many of the usual suspects: Freddie Mercury, Alice Cooper, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Chrissie Hynde, David Lee Roth, Eddie Van Halen and Axl Rose.
Some interesting choices include Gary Puckett, Leslie West, Steve Van Zandt, Johnny Winter, Joan Jett, and Duane Allman but not his brother Gregg.