The great Musicians with Disabilities thread.

[Beware the Beast Man]

Yes, there are the obvious (Stevie Wonder or Ray Charles), then some that a few may not know about (Brian Wilson was deaf in one ear).

For starters, I'll go with Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath. He is missing the tips of three fingers on his fretting hand.

Any others?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. The one armed drummer for Def Leppard

sorry, forgot his name

[Beware the Beast Man]

10. I said "great" musicians with disabilities.

:evilgrin:

[CBGLuthier]

16. I would quibble but

Since Def Leppard is touring with Bryan Adams (see post 6) this summer you may have a point.

BTW everyone, the drummer's name is Rick Allen. And all kidding aside, I do admire his guts for putting his life back together after the accident.

[progmom]

14. rick allen

He plays mainly with foot pedals, I think.

[progmom]

2. Django Reinhardt

here's the scoop:
In 1928, the "caravan" in which Django lived caught fire. Before Django could escape he was burned over much of his body including his left hand. The injury never really healed and he was to adapt his playing style so that his music could be performed with only the two remaining functional fingers on his left hand. When listening to his dynamic playing or hearing his astonishingly long chromatic runs, it is almost beyond belief that he was able to overcome this adversity. And yet he did so and never looked back.

http://www.djangoscadillac.com/djangology.htm

[Magrittes Pipe]

3. Here:

[progmom]

5. you are a quick one, hedges!

i'm impressed. ;)

[Magrittes Pipe]

8. Well, I was digging for the pic anyway....

By the time I found it, you'd already posted. ;)

[leftofthedial]

9. damn

damn

one wonders if that great "gypsy jazz" thing would have ever happened if not for his injury.

[Cooley Hurd]

4. how about the drummer for def leppard?

lost an arm in some sort of vehicle accident and still drums for them.

doesn't change the fact that they suck, tho...;)

[CBGLuthier]

6. Bryan Adams

Most people dont know this, but Bryan Adams was born with a debilitating lack of talent.

Yet he has somehow overcome that to have a career as a "musician"


:-)


Sorry, just can't help myself.

[leftofthedial]

11. LOL

:headbang:

[Beaverhausen]

17. Celine Dion suffers from that same disability.

[progmom]

30. Are you insinuating there's some kind of Canadian disease?

:D

[CBGLuthier]

31. Neil Young offsets them both

Does seem to be a pattern until you factor in Neil Young.

[progmom]

33. and Joni Mitchell

You cannot forget Joni Mitchell. And Oscar Peterson. Fine canadians both. And Sloan!

[Beaverhausen]

36. yes Canada has produced some fine musicians

I'll add Jane Siberry to the list.


However, Bryan and Celine are not among them.

[progmom]

37. i agree wholeheartedly

no arguments from me! :hi:

[kwassa]

47. including the late funkmeister Rick James

give it to me, baby

he was actually in a band with Neil Young in Toronto in the early days, believe it or not.

[johnnie]

7. Keith Richards

I mean..the cat has been dead for 25 years, and he is still playing. Can't get much more disabled than that..lol.

[regularguy]

12. Curtis Mayfield

Paralyzed from the neck down for the last ten years of his life due to a freak accident (collapsing lighting equiptment) and still recorded more albums.

[Beaverhausen]

13. Beethoven

I know...an obvious response.

Still amazed at what he wrote after he became deaf.

[tridim]

15. Joe Cocker?

Honestly I don't know if he does have a disability, but he sure acts like he does.

[Beware the Beast Man]

26. Surprisingly, there's nothing wrong with him.

That's just his performing style.

[Redstone]

18. Jerry Garcia, though he always tried

to hide the missing finger.

He wasn't a bad mandolin and banjo player, either!

Redstone

[XNASA]

19. Remember this dude?

The guy who played for Pope JP2. He's better than Clapton. Then again, who isn't?

[Beaverhausen]

20. Oh my god. I saw him on Paula Zahn's show last week

He is amazing. I could NOT believe how beautifully he could play.

[johnnie]

23. I forgot about that dude

He has been around a while now..hasn't he? I think I remember him from about 15-20 years ago.

Gotta slam Clapton every chance..huh? :)

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

21. Jimi Hendrix...he was so busy slamming horse

he had to play guitar with his teeth :evilgrin:

[kwassa]

45. He taught himself to play a right-handed guitar left-handed

Self-taught, with the strings upside down, so I've heard.

you can see how that really held him back.

[CBGLuthier]

22. Itzhak Perlman

Polio survivor with both legs paralyzed. Plays a mighty mean fiddle. :-)

[johnnie]

24. Jeff Healey

He was a pretty good player too. I think he had a bit of trouble with the booze too. I wonder where he has gone?
He was the one that played in that Roadhouse movie.

[Ron Green]

25. Chick Webb.

The stompingest, swingingest drummer in Harlem during the golden age of the Savoy ballroom. He propelled his band to outplay any big ensemble that came up against them, including Benny Goodman's. Chick had a tubercular infection in his spine, from childhood, and was only about 4 feet tall. But he was a giant on the greatest music scene in this country's history until his death at an early age (early 30's, I believe.)

[kwassa]

44. Chick Web is a giant in his own way

I wish I could have been at the Savoy on the battle of the bands between him and Goodman's band!

He also discovered Ella Fitzgerald, didn't he?

[Ron Green]

52. That's right, he was the one who put Ella on the bandstand, and after

Chick's death she took over his band for a while. Of course, she rose to superstardom pretty fast, seeing as how she was just about the Greatest of All Time.

[Magrittes Pipe]

27. Blind Willie McTell:

Blind Willie Johnson:



Blind Lemon Jefferson:

[Ron Green]

28. And Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Blake and Blind Alfred Reed....

and, of course, Doc Watson.

[Magrittes Pipe]

29. Damn, I'd forgotten about Doc.

You know, since he doesn't have "Blind" in his name. :P

Have you heard the old recordings he made with Clarence Ashley?

[Ron Green]

53. No, I gots to get me some of that...

[CO Liberal]

32. Teddy Pendergrast

Parilyzed after a car accident.

[CO Liberal]

34. Ted Nugent

Has had a non-functioning brain for many years now....

[AngryAmish]

35. Geddy Lee

Canadian








Just some Canadian-baiting...

[warrens]

38. Robert Wyatt

Crippled from the waist down after falling out a window.

[auburngrad82]

39. Vic Chesnutt

from Athens, GA.

From AllMusic:

"Though Michael Stipe had been a fan of Vic Chesnutt since the late '80s, producing his first two full-lengths, it took the Sweet Relief Two tribute album to make a star of him in mid-1996. The album featured artists such as Madonna, Hootie & the Blowfish, Smashing Pumpkins and R.E.M. covering the songs of Chesnutt, a paraplegic who was injured in a car accident when he was 18. The singer/songwriter began playing contemporary acoustic folk around Athens, GA ..."

[Beware the Beast Man]

40. I read somewhere that Bob Mould has tinnitus

from all those years of playing guitar as loud as possible. He said he has to crnk the volume on the TV at night to drownn out the buzzing. I'm sure tinnitus cases are a dime a dozen in the rock world, though.

[Redstone]

41. One of the greatest blind guitarists of all,

Riley Puckett. If you play American flat-pick acoustic guitar, you owe him a salute - he pretty much invented the style in the 1920s, though not many have neard of him.

And let's not forget Jose Feliciano.

Redstone

[mr blur]

42. Ronnie lane

of the Small Faces, Faces, Slim Chance et al. Ronnie had MS which, sadly, led to his death.

[Beware the Beast Man]

48. Victoria Williams as well.

[u4ic]

43. Keith Jarrett

has CFIDS

[derby378]

46. Ludwig van Beethoven

Totally deaf when he composed Symphony No. 9 - a damn good piece of work no matter what period of history you're from.

[kwassa]

50. maybe the 9th made him deaf ....

all that screaming at the end.

At least that's what singers day. %^)

[Beware the Beast Man]

49. John Mellencamp was born with spina bifida.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

51. How about the deaf percussion soloist Evelyn Glennie?

She's an amazing musician...incredibly sensitive!

Here are links:
http://www.evelyn.co.uk/
http://www.drummergirl.com/interviews/glennie/glennie.htm

[RetroLounge]

54. Ian Dury

He had Polio...

http://www.icebergradio.com/artist/11441/ian_dury_and_the_blockheads.html

RL