GuitarWorld.com recently launched a new readers poll in partnership with Samson: the Greatest Rock Singers of All Time Readers Poll.
We're certain that, even though our core readership is mainly made up of guitarists from different genres, locations and age groups, you — like us — have strong opinions about the skills (or lack thereof) of some of rock's most legendary singers.
And although we had hundreds of rock singers to choose from, we decided to narrow things down to a mere 16 names, all of which were carefully chosen by Guitar World's editorial staff. We took great care in choosing what's essentially a Sweet 16 starting point. Rock singers from every decade, starting with the 1960s, are represented, as are several rock sub-genres.
Here are our 16 rock singers in alphabetical order:
Phil Anselmo, Randy Blythe, Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell, Bruce Dickinson, Ronnie James Dio, Rob Halford, James Hetfield, Mick Jagger, Maynard James Keenan, Freddie Mercury, Jim Morrison, Ozzy Osbourne, Robert Plant, Axl Rose and Bon Scott.
From there, we drew singers' names out of a hat (It was, in fact, a Black Sabbath baseball cap) to help us create our opening 16-singer bracket, which is available for your viewing pleasure below. Obviously, none of these of singers are ranked or coming from a previously compiled list, so we chose purely random matchups to have as little impact as possible on the final outcome. We're actually pretty pleased with the way the bracket turned out.
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Round 1 and the Elite Eight round have come and gone, and the Final Four round kicks off today! As always, you can vote only once per matchup (once per device, that is), and we'll post two or three matchups per week, continuing with today's Final Four shootout, Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin against Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden.
Remember that, as with any poll, sub-genre might occasionally clash against sub-genre, so you'll just need to decide which singer has or had the most to offer within his genre and time period, which one has or had more natural talent or technical skill, which one had the biggest influence on other singers or rock in general — maybe which one was simply the stronger frontman.
Latest Results
Winner: Chris Cornell (55.47 percent) Loser: Ozzy Osbourne (44.53 percent)
Today's Samson Greatest Rock Singers Final Four Matchup (1 of 2) Robert Plant Vs. Bruce Dickinson
ROBERT PLANT
Born: August 20, 1948, West Bromwich, Staffordshire, England Associated Acts: Led Zeppelin, Band of Joy, the Honeydrippers, Page and Plant Website:robertplant.com
Quote: "I don't know how much more expressive you can get than being a rock and roll singer."
BRUCE DICKINSON
Born: August 7, 1958, Nottinghamshire, England Associated Acts: Iron Maiden, Samson, Tribe of Gypsies, Ayreon Website:screamforme.com
Quote: "I got into trouble for saying we're better than Metallica … and it's true! They might be bigger than us and they might sell more tickets than us and they might get more gold-plated middle-class bourgeoisie turning up to their shows but they're not Maiden. I did say it's a bit of a wind-up. I thought, if I'm going to turn into an asshole, I might as well, you know, go for it!"
Voting Closed!
Winner: Robert Plant (64.34 percent) Loser: Bruce Dickinson (35.66 percent)
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