Choosing the proper stage name is essential for any rising rock artists, since it plays a significant role in their popularity and reputation.
These performers frequently choose something flamboyant, unique, or shocking. A brand that stands out and is representative of the music they produce. On the other hand, it might be something so casual and modest that most people just have no idea it’s not genuine.
In any case, we just can not think of a better name for the ten icons on this list. Whether the stories behind the names are strange, weird, or simple and private, they are all very intriguing.
Buckethead
Guitarist Brian Patrick Carroll, also known as Buckethead, is one of the most well-known and mysterious guitarists of his era. Surprisingly, his alternate ego’s origins may be traced back to Michael Myers and 1988’s Halloween 4.
Simply told, he became so moved by the figure that he purchased a similar white mask, ordered some fried chicken, put the bucket on his head, gazed in the mirror, and exclaimed, “That’s Buckethead.”
He remarked on the incident during a 2017 interview on the Coming Alive podcast: “I could do everything I liked doing as this character that I’m totally scared to death to do otherwise. . . . I was like, ‘I can’t do it just like me.’ It was a great way to get all the stuff out.”
Slash
Born Saul Hudson, the English axe virtuoso was known as Slash already when he joined Guns N’ Roses. He became acquainted to character actor Seymour Cassel as a boy, and the experienced actor bestowed the nickname on him one day.
“I was friends with his kids, and he used to call me Slash because I was an aspiring guitar player, always hustling, never stopping to hang out. . . . So he started calling me that, and it stuck,” Slash revealed this to Swindle in 2010. Cassel essentially made it a “habit” to hang around at his place every time Slash “ditch[ed] school.”
Flea
Affiliating oneself with a bug may seem like a horrible idea, but Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Michael Peter Balzary refutes.
In a 2014 discussion with Larry King, he said that he began using the moniker Flea as a child: “I’ve always been kind of a spastic, jumping around, feral type of young man. Yeah, that’s how it came.” Although it increased Balzary’s evident sense of powerlessness at first – even though he went by Mike B. the Flea — he quickly accepted the moniker.
Iggy Pop
James Newell Osterberg Jr.’s career identity is derived from two sources. He transitioned from drumming and vocals for garage/surf rock band The Iguanas to performing with blues-rock band The Prime Movers as a teenager.
However, he was employed at Discount Records near the University of Michigan, whose boss Jeep Holland would regularly exclaim, “Iguana alert! ” anytime Osterberg Jr. arrived from the subterranean storage room of the store.
When his bald friend Jimmy Pop persuaded him to remove his brows, Pop took Jimmy’s moniker as well. Soon after, he formed The Stooges.
Zakk Wylde
Jeffrey Phillip Wielandt didn’t become Zakk Wylde until he teamed up with Ozzy Osbourne in 1988.
As he said to Christina Rowatt in 2008, he felt compelled to create a title worthy of the “legacy” of his immediate predecessor:“I was just sitting there watching Kim Wilde . . . and I go, ‘Well, Ozzy wants me to change my name. . . . What would be a cool name?””
The following day, he consulted Ozzy what he think of “Z-a-k-k W-y-l-d-e,” to which Ozzy replied, “Zakk, that’s the greatest name. It’s right up there with Randy Rhoads!” The task was completed.
Nikki Sixx
His family’s history was one of the reasons for the shift, and he was known as “Nikki London” and “Nikki Nine” initially. He continues: “But there was this girl, we were sharing a bed together, and she had a boyfriend named Nikki Six, so I said, ‘Not >only am I gonna steal his girlfriend, I’m gonna steal his name.’ It was a joke that turned out pretty cool.”
Ozzy Osbourne
To cut a long narrative short, heavy metal’s undisputed “Prince of Darkness,” John Michael Osbourne, was nicknamed “Ozzy” in elementary school. It’s clearly an abbreviated version of his surname, and regardless of the fact that his classmates intended it to be an attempt to belittle, Ozzy has unfailingly adopted it.
Alex Lifeson
Even for the most ardent Rush supporters may be unaware that Alex Lifeson’s real name is Aleksandar ivojinovi. So, why he altered it?
In 2012, he explained to Goldmine: “It is basically an English translation of my Serbian name. My last name is very difficult for people to pronounce, as there are a lot of vowels. My father certainly went through a lot with our name when we moved to Canada, and he actually thought at one time about changing our name. . . . Lifeson has been my professional name since I was, I don’t know, 15 or 16 years old.
Dimebag Darrell
Darrell Lance Abbott was known as Diamond Darrell for the first decade of Pantera. Darrell opted to change his appearance after 1992’s Vulgar Display of Power witnessed Pantera go further to groove and thrash metal, which required removing “Diamond.”
According to his lifelong partner, Rita Haney, the idea occurred while Darrell and Philip Anselmo were smoking pot: “[Philip] was always calling up Darrell to ask if he had any weed,” she told Billboard. “One night, [they] were getting stoned and Philip just started calling him ‘Dimebag’ and it stuck!”
Freddie Mercury
Farrokh Bulsara had self-doubt, therefore he desired to slip into a rock star image as soon as possible by utilizing an earlier Queen track as incentive.
“Freddie had written this song called My Fairy King and there’s a line in it that says: ‘Oh Mother Mercury, what have you done to me?’ It was after that that he said, ‘I am going to become Mercury as the mother in the song is my mother. And we were like, ‘Are you mad’?” Brian May revealed this to biographer Leslie-Ann Jones. It’s anyone’s speculation why he picked Freddie over Freddy.