5 Classic Rock Artists Who Sold Out For TV Commercials And Will Always Be Haunted By It

Life really does hit you pretty fast; one day you're in platform boots spitting stage blood and trying not to let the pyrotechnics behind you set fire to your wig, and the next you're negotiating a deal for one of your best-known songs to be used in a coffee advertisement. In the world of classic rock, when a band reaches the point where commerce outweighs rebellion, there are bound to be missteps that leave smudges on your résumé.

The only compelling reason for some of the world's best-known bands to lease their song rights to corporate America — beyond making a little more money — is to wring a little more life out of a tune by hopefully catching an audience who will recognize and appreciate it. But that doesn't mean sticking rock 'n' roll classics into ill-fitting scenarios to sell groceries and fast food is the right move to make. Sometimes, these money grabs can haunt an otherwise stellar act, making them look like their finances are a little wonky while pairing their music with a less-than-rock-worthy operation.

Some bands, like Scorpions and Guns N' Roses, let their most popular songs be used for the sake of humor. Other acts, like Ozzy Osbourne and Vince Neil, actually appear in commercials that show they know they're on the downslope of success. Either way, the sellout spirit isn't something these acts are likely to outrun.

How does a rock star go from being the Prince of Darkness to a shill for margarine? The answer lies with Ozzy Osbourne, who descended from the heights of classic rock royalty as leader of Black Sabbath to a reality-TV star selling I Can't Believe It's Not Butter in the U.K. That's a wild pendulum swing from someone whose onstage and offstage antics became the stuff of heavy metal legends. Maybe he needed the money for a summer home in Spain.

In the 2006 commercial, Ozzy is seen cooking alongside a culinary show with the help of comedian Jon Culshaw, who is doing an incredible Ozzy impersonation with a visual "I can't believe it's not Ozzy" punchline. When the recipe calls for butter, Ozzy opens the fridge to find both butter and the butter substitute. Just like the audience can't tell the difference between the two Ozzys, Ozzy himself can't tell the difference between the butter and its stand-in. And when the narrator of the cooking show calls out that the recipe being made is for fairy cakes, both Ozzys insist on calling them "rock cakes" instead.

The ad is a great vehicle for showcasing Ozzy's legendary sense of humor and his great ability to laugh at himself, but it hurts a little seeing someone known for his larger-than-life persona being shrunken down to a product pitchman.

No one is arguing against the importance of staying regular. Having Fiber One cookies to help make the effort tastier is an advantage anyone with intestines would be foolish to pass up. But when a heavy metal bastion like Scorpions' rock history-defining song "Rock You Like a Hurricane" is lent out as a cheeky theme for making sure your pipes flow smoothly, something terribly wrong has happened to the heart and soul of rock 'n' roll; the colon of rock 'n' roll, however, appears to be in peak form. 

The ad doesn't feature the band or its members, preserving at least a little bit of dignity for Scorpions and their legacy. Instead, it shows the slow-motion delivery of Fiber One cookies by a stockboy wheeling his cart onto the grocery store floor. The women shopping in the store turn to watch him as he winks and runs his hand through his hair flirtatiously. It isn't until the last few seconds of the commercial that the object of their attention is revealed: They're all transfixed by his supply of high-fiber supplements in cookie form. 

Is it a noble pursuit for a classic rock band of Scorpions' status to lend their signature song to the cause of the health benefits of a high-fiber diet? Nah, but it's a cheap and easy way to add a passive revenue stream to your late-stage rock 'n' roll ventures without having to pawn your gold records.

There's no jungle like one that sells loaded steak fries and chalupas, a fact that Guns N' Roses cottoned onto when the band rented its classic tune "Welcome to the Jungle" to fast-food giant Taco Bell. The song helped promote the Quesalupa, a Frankenfood mix of a quesadilla and a chalupa that called for an electrifying soundtrack.

The ad itself is pretty clever, rolling out a series of vignettes in which sets of characters explain just how big the Quesalupa is going to be — bigger than man buns, Tinder, and the Texas Law Hawk, just to name a few. Each segment is smartly incorporated into the next for a fast-cut sequence of hilariously popular things that maybe shouldn't be quite so popular. And underneath it all, the strains of "Welcome to the Jungle" screech, which raises the question: Are Guns N' Roses one of those big things that this new Taco Bell invention is going to outsize? It's not the most flattering implication.

At least Axl and Slash had a huge audience to witness their degradation. The ad was a 2016 Super Bowl commercial, which means Taco Bell spent primo dollars to ensure maximum visibility. And now, Guns N' Roses will forever be known as a band that sacrificed integrity for an easy buck helping sell fast food. Long live rock 'n' roll — and commercial revenue!

Who doesn't remember the strange and unsettling Skittles ad featuring Aerosmith's Steven Tyler confronting his own likeness made of the colorful candies? It was one of the bigger head scratchers from Super Bowl 50, a continuation of the bizarre Skittles spots featuring the sweet and disconcerting treats being experienced in ways that candy shouldn't be, from a treadmill runner sweating Skittles to an office worker transforming whatever he touches into hundreds of fruit-flavored candies.

At least Tyler's Skittles experience didn't involve a strange affliction. Instead, the classic rock star is shown inspecting a new piece of artwork featuring himself as the subject. Instead of being a simple painting in a frame, the likeness is made entirely of Skittles. Tyler finds the finished artwork "disgusting," to which his Skittles counterpart replies, "You haven't heard me sing yet," before launching into a high-pitched rendition of "Dream On." Tyler coaxes higher and higher notes out of his portrait until it explodes into scattered Skittles all over the floor. Only his trademark mouth remains intact, still singing at a frequency humans weren't meant to hear.

It's actually a fun play on Tyler's over-the-top personality that doesn't shy away from lampooning his weirdness or his recognizable visage. But why he would choose to advertise Skittles is a mystery that's plagued fans since the commercial debuted. Like the real meaning behind Aerosmith's classic "Dream On," it's a haunting question only Tyler can answer.

Vince Neil hasn't had the greatest luck since Mötley Crüe kicked him to the curb. A solo career spun off in the early '90s failed to catch the same kind of fire as his work with the Crüe had. He suffered a stroke in 2024 that caused his reunion residency with the band to be postponed. And somewhere in between, Neil became the temporary spokesperson for ... a payday loan outlet? Cue dramatic needle scratch.

In the 2022 commercial for Dollar Loan Center, Neil drives a Zamboni — redubbed a "loan approval machine" with a custom rear license plate that reads "Mötley" — on the floor of an arena named after the company. An entire staff of human beings inside the Zamboni work desperately to get Neil's loan app approved; once it happens, Neil raises his arms triumphantly and declares, "That loan approval machine rocks!" It's cringeworthy in the cringiest sense of cringeworthiness, a scenario that requires new forms of the word "cringe."

Though Neil only appears for a few seconds out of the minute-long clip, his presence gives the whole production a sadness that belies his reunion with Mötley Crüe, which put him back in the rock 'n' roll driver's seat ... on the nostalgia tour circuit, anyway. But as long as the internet exists, this visual downgrade of a once world-conquering classic rocker will forever cast a shadow over his hard-rocking persona.