Buddhist Musicians/Celebrities
Being an amateur musician and a huge fan of music, I began wondering what other musicians out there are Buddhist. So I started researching it and am compiling the list here.
I decided to add other celebrities to the list that weren’t necessarily musicians.
- Kirk Hammett – Metallica
- Michael Stipe – R.E.M.
- David Bowie
- Patti Smith
- Leonard Cohen
- Tina Turner
- Mark Wahlberg
- Jennifer Lopez
- Adam Yauch – Beastie Boys
- Belinda Carlisle
- Pete Doherty
- K D Lang
- Alanis Morrisette
- Herbie Hancock
- Wayne Shorter
- Jimmy Dale Gilmore
- Joe Ely
- Butch Hancock
- Philip Glass
- Ottmar Leibert
- Oliver Stone
- Richard Gere
Entries (RSS)
The great jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter is also a Buddhist. Any others with strong name recognition?
That rocks! I’ll add him right now. I’m a huge Weather Report fan. Jaco was a real inspiration on the bass. Plus I love the music he did with Miles.
Mark Wahlberg is roman catholic which leads me to believe this list is all bullshit
Just calling my list ‘all bullshit’ seems a bit harsh, sir. I can assure you that I didn’t pick names out of the air. Just a simple google search revealed the following which seems to address the issue:
http://www.adherents.com/people/pw/Mark_Wahlberg.html
Unless I am misreading, sir, it says “It has been reported that Wahlberg became a Buddhist in 2005 after making the Buddhist-themed movie “I Heart Huckabees.”
I don’t know Mr. Wahlberg personally but am going by the small amount of research that I’ve done. If this is, in fact not Mr. Wahlberg’s faith, then I would be more than happy to remove the name from the list, sir.
Since I got this list from a small amount of research based on my own curiosity, I am pretty sure it’s not ‘all bullshit’ as you seem to assert, sir. I guess on this point, we have a difference of opinion.
in response to the above comment about Mark Wahlberg being Buddhist…it matters not what his religion whether he be Satanist, Catholic, Christian, or Atheistic; Buddhism is a philosophy, a way of life, not a religion at all. No worshiping takes place. So arguing over the “bullshitness” of the list is a null and void point.
Actually there is worship in different forms of Buddhism. I am novice monk in Theravada Buddhism and the lay people that come to the temple worship the image of the Buddha and his teachings, which consist of compassion and mindfulness.
That’s an interesting list. I knew Bowie was very interested in buddhism, as lots of his early work (Hunky Dory) have references to the subject. (ch,ch,changes!) I also find the use of the word ‘bullshit’ as a bit harsh…it’s only a list.
How exiting to read this, thanks. I am amazed and pleased. I am wondering which classical music musicians are buddhist, but you might not be interested in that type of music.
It would be nice if I could post this on facebook. Could you make a link please?
greetings
Nene
Hi Nene!
I’m glad you enjoyed the list. I love classical music, but I haven’t really found any information on Buddhist classical musicians but I’m sure they’re out there. I’ll have to research a little bit and if anyone else out there has this information, just let me know and I’ll add it to the list.
If you want to link this in facebook or anywhere else, you should just be able to copy the address from the browser address bar, or feel free to copy and past the info if you want.
Thanx!
Lans
Stuart Davis: Dharma pop! Really fine, deep lyrics.
That is a great very impressive line who have posted. Many thanks for your extremely remarkable post!
http://www.nndb.com/lists/869/000071656/ is a pretty long list.
nndb have obviously done their research and outed those pesky closet Buddhists. Who would have thought: Richard Gere? Dalai Lama? Buddha? More interestingly, Herbert von Karajan, my earliest favourite conductor (his 7th woke me to Beethoven). No surprises from the Mystic East (Jackie Chan, Mr Honda, King of Thailand, etc., etc.) Or Hollywood.
Good for them all!
Uhh, it’s going to be long…
By examining the http://www.jonimitchell.com one can discover that her teacher was tulku Chögyam Trungpa. It’s not a surprise, if you read the lyrics of ‘Borderline’, for example.
Might need still more proof, but also Annie Lennox is said to be buddhist.
Some more I’ve found:
-Eliane Radigue (minimalist composer)
- Pekka Airaksinen (experimental composer, also ‘the Sperm’)
-Laurie Anderson
-Mick Jagger
-Suzanne Vega
-Phoebe Snow
-Sting
-Seal
-Courtney Love (Just read the text she’s written on the booklet of ‘Nobody’s daughter’)
-Meshell Ndegeocello
-Mylene Farmer (maybe)
-Boris Grebenshtshikov (at least partly)
-Avril Lavigne (maybe)
-Paul Simon (interested)
- Dan Reed
- Sonny Rollins
-Andy Bell
-members of ‘Joydrop’
keep up the good work!
One of my favorite musicians Matt Johnson from The The (don’t you love the name!) embeds the lyrics with Buddhist view.