Famous Rock Star Best Friends

At the peak of their stardom, musicians might seem otherworldly. Or at least, their lives look completely different from ours — but they're really not. Famous rock stars have friends, families, break ups, and all the ups and downs of a human life. In fact, friendships often inspire great songs. 

A perfect example of the rock star bestie relationship is Paul McCartney and John Lennon — their up-and-down relationship gave us some great music, like "Too Many People," "How Do You Sleep," and "Here Today," which was written after Lennon's untimely death (via Far Out Magazine). McCartney explained to the Los Angeles Times (via the Paul McCartney Archives) that "Here Today" was an ode to his friend and an attempt to rewrite the feud portrayed by the media throughout the 1970s. 

So it goes for many other rock stars. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, their best friends are also in the music business, whether it's networking parties or common interests bringing them together. So here some of the most famous rock stars best friends.

As pictures show on Art Sheep, Iggy Pop and David Bowie performing or wreaking havoc together was a common sight throughout the 1970s. Bowie produced Pop's first two solo albums, and the two were flatmates in West Berlin, as per NME. Their friendship lasted until 2016, when Bowie succumbed to cancer, as per BBC News. Following the tragic news, Pop tweeted, "David's friendship was the light of my life. I never met such a brilliant person. He was the best there is."

After Bowie's death, Pop also opened up to the New York Times about the deeper meaning of their close friendship: "The friendship was basically that this guy salvaged me from certain professional and maybe personal annihilation – simple as that ... He resurrected me." As it turns out, both musicians were abusing hard drugs at the time, notes NME, but Bowie was sober (and kind) enough to help Pop renounce his self-destructing habits. 

Pop went on to write his famous song, "Nightclubbing," about his and Bowie's fun, albeit dangerous times during their European tour. In turn, Bowie visited Pop's parents in their Detroit trailer home, worrying their neighbors with his fancy car and bodyguards. Pop credits Bowie with teaching him how to behave like a rock star, introducing him to the Beatles, and of course, saving his life.

Ozzy Osbourne and Lemmy Kilmister's friendship spanned five decades. The two met in the 1970s when Kilmister was still playing with Hawkwind (Osbourne was already the Black Sabbath frontman), as per Rolling Stone. The two became inseparable afterward, also collaborating on musical projects like Osbourne's songs "Mama, I'm Coming Home" and "I Don't Want To Change The World" (via Louder).

As long as he's known Kilmister, Osbourne remembers he was shocked by his aptitude to stay awake for days on end (sometimes 10 to 12, at least, according to Kilmister). As per Osbourne (via Rolling Stone), the two friends used to joke about which one of them would be the first to succumb to their crazy lifestyle: "But I curbed my ways, staying up all night and all that s***, a long time ago. But Lemmy said to me one time, 'What's the point of living to 99 if you're not enjoying it? It's my life and I want to have fun with it.'" 

Kilmister lost his life to cancer in December 2015, just a few days after he turned 70. On his last day, Kilmister wanted to say goodbye to his best friend on the phone. Osbourne said (via Louder), "I was talking to Lemmy on the morning that he died, but I couldn't understand what he was talking about." It was a sad and shocking end for Osbourne, but he confessed to thinking about his best friend pretty much every day.

It's no secret that Stevie Nicks is Lana Del Rey's hero and witchy woman/rock star inspiration. Del Rey told KROQ (via Far Out Magazine), "She's just everything you hope she's gonna be." Del Rey went on to further applaud Nicks' process of going wherever inspiration may take her across projects like tours, new albums, and solo work. But after Nicks sang on Del Rey's 2017 album "Lust for Life," she said their collaboration was equally life-changing.

Since then, Nicks and Del Rey have become best buddies, and their interview shared by V Magazine speaks volumes. Nicks enthused over her newly found friend and the chance of them meeting: "I think all of these little things, in a really fairy tale way, lead me to you and lead you to me in a strange witchy way ... We are witchy sisters and that's it." Nicks went as far as saying Del Rey makes her a better person, and that's the only reason she wants to keep singing with her, in this life or the next. While they are generations apart, it's clear Nicks and Del Rey are lucky to have found each other in this lifetime.

There are quite a few similarities between Dave Grohl and Paul McCartney: Both were founding members of legendary rock bands, and both led impressive second acts after the bands broke up (Macca made their similarities all too clear when he inducted the Foo Fighters into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as per Variety). But when Grohl first met McCartney, he was dumbstruck (via Instagram): "I don't recall exactly how Paul and I were introduced, what was said, or how long we talked, but I do remember putting on my best 'this is not the most incredible thing ever to happen to me' face while trying to keep from making a fool of myself."

Grohl might have been intimidated by the ex-Beatle initially, but the two went on to form a very close friendship. As he confessed to Graham Norton, their wives are also besties now. And one time, Macca visited the Grohl family for dinner and ended up writing a song on the piano with Grohl's daughter, Harper. When he also played "Lady Madonna," Grohl thought, "This is like the most full-circle crazy moment of my entire life."

The two friends have had several collaborations, like the "Cut Me Some Slack" song for Grohl's "Sound City" documentary, or Grohl joining Macca on stage during his 2022 Glastonbury concert.

Elton John remembers meeting T Rex star Marc Bolan for the first time (via Twitter): "Marc Bolan seemed like he had come from another planet, just passing through Earth on his way somewhere else. At a time when I was still becoming Elton John, he was a great mentor." The two musicians enjoyed glam rock and otherworldly fashion equally, and they formed a tight friendship somewhere around 1970. In 1971, they performed the T Rex song "Bang A Gong (Get It On)" together on "Top of the Pops." The more John saw Bolan play, the more he was inspired by him. As he told the Guardian, "I thought, 'This guy doesn't give a f***, he's just being who he is and he's loving every single minute of it.' And that had a great effect on me."

Bolan was the victim of a horrific car crash in 1977, as a result of which he lost his life (via The Guardian). But the T Rex star remains intriguing and mysterious to many rock listeners, as he remains forever in John's heart. "He was always encouraging, never belittling; being with him was like having a hundred B12 injections at once," he said.

Alice In Chains bandmates Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell were closer than brothers throughout their time in the band, as Cantrell confirmed in this 1995 interview: "He's very insightful ... very sensitive, you know, very intuitive to what's going on around him and with other people ... He's my best friend in the world." As Ultimate Classic Rock reports, Staley passed away in 2002, following a speedball overdose (which was only the end of a decade-long depression and addiction).

Cantrell went on to pursue a solo career after his best friend's death, but as he told Louder, his musical peak, in his opinion, were the incredible harmonies he would do naturally with Staley. "We felt like a natural fit," he said, comparing their collaboration to that of The Beatles, Pink Floyd, and the Eagles. "Someone reviewed us once and called us 'The Satanic Everly Brothers.'"

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