Top 10 Non-Metal Musicians Who Like Metal Music

You're scrolling through your favorite metal bands, horns up, head nodding, and then someone drops the bomb that your favorite pop star just admitted to loving Slayer. Wait, what?

It turns out there are a surprising number of artists whose music couldn't be further from brutal riffs and blast beats, but who still keep metal albums in heavy rotation when the cameras are off. This list is all about those unexpected fans. Think jazz cats, country crooners, synth-poppers, and folk whisperers who secretly or not so secretly headbang on the side.

The Top Ten

Lady Gaga

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress.
Early in her career, she performed at Lollapalooza on August 4, 2007, as part of "Lady Gaga & The Starlight Revue," where she was noticed by Interscope Records executive Vincent... read more

Lady Gaga is probably the most high-profile pro-metal musician of the 21st century. She mainly loves Metallica, but not exclusively - she has talked about her old metal days in Jersey and the Lower East Side. She's a proud metalhead with a long track record of celebrating and working with heavy metal, going deeper than the typical modern celebrity's aesthetics.
While headlining Lollapalooza, she danced to Metallica's "Metal Militia"! Metallica's drummer Lars Ulrich said about her, "I knew she was a metal chick at heart, but I didn't know how deep her metal roots were. Her relationship with Metallica goes way back - like deep album cuts on the early couple records."
In 2017, Lady Gaga joined Metallica for the band's Grammy performance of "Moth into Flame." Performing with Metallica was like a dream come true for her, and she rewarded herself with a new tattoo inspired by the song. However, this collaboration was met with mostly negative responses from a portion of Metallica's fandom.
The Born This Way album cover is reminiscent of Judas Priest's album art for both Painkiller and Defenders of the Faith. It even contains the song "Heavy Metal Lover." Lady Gaga also toured with Babymetal as an opening act. She once said, "I always used to say to people, when they would say, 'Oh, she's the next Madonna.' No, I'm the next Iron Maiden."
Ryan Adams

He's a country musician who always wanted to be in a metal band, and he proved it - in 2010, he recorded the album Orion, a tribute to Voivod, a Canadian metal band that is obviously his favorite.
Dave Grohl

David Eric "Dave" Grohl is an American rock musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, producer, and film director. He was the drummer for the influential 1990s grunge band Nirvana and is the founding vocalist and guitarist of the alternative rock band Foo Fighters. He has also performed as... read more

Dave Grohl's genre is close to metal, so loving metal isn't a big surprise. However, he's not just a fan - he's done more than just listen to metal. He recorded his own one-off metal album, Probot (2004), which Grohl described as "a death metal Supernatural."
The album features metal musicians whom Grohl admired, including members of Venom, Voivod, King Diamond, Celtic Frost, Sepultura, Napalm Death, and more. In an interview, he said Voivod blew his mind in the '80s.
John Darnielle

John Darnielle is the singer/songwriter for indie folk band The Mountain Goats. Oddly enough, perhaps their best-known song is "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton," about two high school kids who form a death metal band.
But Darnielle's metal love doesn't stop there - he also wrote a book about Black Sabbath's Master of Reality for the 33 1/3 series. Additionally, for Pitchfork's "Situation Critical" feature, where musicians choose songs to soundtrack hypothetical situations, all of his selections were songs by Danzig.
Demi Lovato

Demetria Devonne "Demi" Lovato is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. After appearing on the children's television series Barney & Friends as a child, she received her breakthrough role as Mitchie Torres in the Disney Channel television film Camp Rock and its sequel Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam... read more

Demi Lovato said, "[Metal isn't] all I listen to, of course, but there was a period of time where it was. I guess it started in school. I started listening to stuff with screaming in it, and then I started [exploring] more metal. MySpace helped me a lot, and friends would tell me about certain bands. And some of the bands I like aren't necessarily too metal. It's funny, because the Jonas Brothers dance and play dance music in their dressing room, and I'll be across the hall, and I just blare metal. People walk by and go, 'Really?'"
What does she like about metal? She obviously respects the musicianship because she explained, "It's so completely different from anything else. You've got vocals that I can't do, the double bass drums, the incredible guitar solos... every part of the band does more difficult stuff than your average rock band does. I listen to these bands, and I wish I could do all of that, but I can't."
Kenny G

Kenny G is a sax player known for smooth jazz, but he was seen at least twice at Opeth shows in LA. Opeth is a death metal band from Sweden.
Why doesn't Opeth invite him to play a sax solo on their next album? Opeth's style is progressive enough to include some odd sections, in my opinion. Some other metal bands have already done similar collaborations - Tobias Sammet sang jazz in the middle of a power metal song, and I liked it.
(Check out the list: Top 10 Metal Songs That Include Rare/Atypical Combinations with Other Music Genres.)
Kurt Cobain

Kurt Cobain (February 20, 1967 - April 5, 1994) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician, best known as the frontman of the grunge band Nirvana. Founded in 1987, Nirvana achieved global success in the early 1990s, reshaping rock music with albums like Bleach, Nevermind, and In Utero. Cobain died... read more

You may be surprised, but he loved Celtic Frost, one of the bands that pioneered extreme metal in the '80s (prototypes for black, death, and thrash metal). Cobain's favorite Celtic Frost album was To Mega Therion.

He also really enjoyed The Melvins, who, especially back in those days, were about as 'heavy' as you could get...

Wow. And grunge was made to kill metal...
Rivers Cuomo

Rivers Cuomo is an American musician and singer-songwriter. He's best known as the lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter of the alternative rock band Weezer As of December 2025, he has released fifteen studio albums with the band, including the popular self-titled Blue Album and Pinkerton... read more

Weezer's band member was part of the prog-metal band Avant Garde (active from 1985-1990) before Weezer was formed. Also, Weezer's 2002 album Maladroit incorporated some metal riffing into their usually softer sound. Cuomo's most recent reference to his metal past is the title of Weezer's 2010 compilation Death to False Metal.

Rivers was actually inspired by Kirk Hammett to learn guitar. I believe Maladroit had some inspiration from bands like Black Sabbath, as I've heard. So Rivers was definitely a fan of the genre.
Avril Lavigne

Avril Ramona Lavigne (born September 27, 1984) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and actress. At age 14, she won a radio contest singing with Shania Twain, performing before a large arena crowd. By age 16, she had signed a two-album recording contract with Arista Records, reportedly worth over $2 million.... read more

She's a big metal fan and even sang Metallica's Fuel live when she was 18-19.
Amy Lee

Amy Lynn Lee is an American singer-songwriter, classically trained pianist, and composer. She is best known as the co-founder and lead vocalist of the rock band Evanescence, which gained global fame with its 2003 hit Bring Me to Life.... read more

She's not very high on this list because her genre is close to metal, but she should be included because she likes death metal, which is quite far from what she sings. She started listening to death metal at 15-16.

The Newcomers

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Ryan Peake
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Daniel Adair

The Contenders

Chad Kroeger

Chad Robert Kroeger is a Canadian musician and producer best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist for the rock band Nickelback.
He was married to Avril Lavigne from 2013 until their separation in 2015, and their divorce was finalized in 2016.... read more
Beck

Beck Hansen, known by his stage name Beck, is an American singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. He is known for his eclectic musical style and fusion of genres such as folk, funk, soul, hip-hop, and alternative rock. His breakthrough album, Odelay (1996), received widespread critical... read more

He's a fan of Carcass, a band that plays death metal and goregrind/grindcore.
Deryck Whibley

Deryck Jason Whibley (born March 21, 1980) is a Canadian musician, best known as the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, songwriter, and producer of the punk rock band Sum 41. To date, he has released eight studio albums with Sum 41, including their most recent album, Heaven :x: Hell, which was released... read more
Mike Dirnt

Michael Ryan Pritchard, known professionally as Mike Dirnt, is an American musician best known for being the co-founder, bassist, backing, and occasional lead vocalist of the American punk rock band Green Day. He formed the band with Billie Joe Armstrong in 1987. Green Day achieved major success with... read more

He has cited Cliff Burton as an influence, alongside wearing an ...And Justice for All shirt in the music video for "Revolution Radio," so I'm sure he's a Metallica fan.
Eminem

Eminem, born Marshall Bruce Mathers III, is an American rapper, actor, and music producer born on October 17, 1972, in St. Joseph, Missouri. Eminem has sold over 220 million records, making him the best-selling hip-hop artist of all time. In addition to his solo career, he was a member of D12 and (with... read more
Adam Gontier

Adam Wade Gontier is a Canadian musician and songwriter. He is the lead singer, rhythm guitarist, and main songwriter for Saint Asonia, and a co-lead vocalist for Three Days Grace. Gontier initially left Three Days Grace in January 2013 but rejoined the band in October 2024 to share vocal duties with... read more
Mike Kroeger
Bruce Forsyth

He was a singer and dancer who was an Iron Maiden fan and even attended the same show as me in London in 2013. No lie. May he rest in peace, charmer.
Eric Church

Wasn't he a country musician? I didn't know he liked metal.
Billie Joe Armstrong

Billie Joe Armstrong (born February 17, 1972) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actor best known as the lead vocalist, primary songwriter, and guitarist of the punk rock band Green Day, which he co-founded with Mike Dirnt.... read more
Jared Leto

Jared Joseph Leto is an American actor, singer-songwriter, and director. He is the lead vocalist for the rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars, which he formed with his brother Shannon Leto. Leto has received critical acclaim for his acting, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role... read more
Shaun Morgan

Shaun Morgan Welgemoed, known publicly as Shaun Morgan, is a South African musician and the lead singer and guitarist for the post-grunge and alternative metal band Seether. He co-founded the band, originally named Saron Gas, in 1999 before relocating to the United States. Seether gained popularity with... read more
Benjamin Burnley

Benjamin Jackson Burnley IV is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the founder, lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Breaking Benjamin, which he formed in 1999. The band has released several successful albums and is known... read more
Aaron Lewis

Aaron Lewis is an American musician who is the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and founding member of the rock group Staind. With the band, he has released seven studio albums, and he has also pursued a solo country music career, releasing albums such as Town Line and Sinner.... read more
Shimon Moore

Shimon Moore is an Australian singer best known for being the former frontman of the alternative rock band Sick Puppies. Born on November 11, 1982, in Sydney, Australia, Shimon has been passionate about music from a young age. He co-founded Sick Puppies in 1997 and served as the lead vocalist and guitarist... read more