Musicians who have (or may have?) Asperger's Syndrome.

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Ray Davies of The Kinks AS
Mick Avory of The Kinks HFA
Craig Nichols of The Vines AS
Peter Tork of The Monkees AS
Ladyhawk AS
Susan Boyle HFA
Joe Cocker HFA
Janis Joplin AS

None of The Beatles were on the spectrum.

Jimi Hendrix wasn't on the spectrum. He had Manic Depression.

Tom Verlaine??
I can't find any video clips of interviews with him as he's rather reclusive, but this from a published interview:

Interviewer: Tom, I've listened to and read your lyrics and listened to your songs for years now, probably most of my adult and young adult life, and I can't help to think that so much of what you write sounds like poetry. Would you agree with that?

TV: Well I’m not sure: What does poetry "sound" like? Dylan Thomas has great sound but the sense... a lot of it is psycho-sense or something and Lewis Carroll also sounds good in many places and his sense is really great, somewhere beyond foolosophy-comment. and all the Frank O hara types seem to have very little sound stuff going...it’s so chatty or something, although it’s kinda smiley-likeable in the informality- lack-o- big-statement, which functions as a comment as well i guess. Actually Emily D (Emily Dickinson). has great sound and sense. I wonder what all those Chinese poets sound like in Chinese. I like their distilled quality. Anyway, I am not sure I can answer the question — Which is quite not unusual!

(Read more: http://blogcritics.org/music/article/to ... z0lXBEJUUK)

huh!? definitely an eccentric genius of some sort ..


also re: the Wipers, Greg Sage had a major alienation theme in his songs but i think was largely writing about his homosexuality ("window shop for love / you want it so much / look but don't touch" and "not straight, not so straight / reject, reject")

based on his music I'd guess Brian Eno, but I've seen him speak and he seems very well grounded and comfortable, maybe just far too brilliant for most people to be able to follow him.

also see this thread:
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt97201.html

("asperger's syndrome in popular music")

I thought Marilyn Manson had far too much of an understanding of theory of mind to be AS.

Ozzy Osbourne says he was abused as a child, for example. This is possibly AS territory (more vulnerable, not instinctively knowing social norms and such). Then there's the drug abuse from an early age... That muddies things all day. Shame he ended up with the wife he did, though, it seems that she's a bit overbearing to say the least... and pimping him out.

People are a***holes all over. The alternative scene can be extremely pretentious at times (and refreshingly the opposite a lot, too, thank God).
Anyway, I saw Gary Numan walking across the street next to me, and surprise, surprise, he had a frown on his face!

I wondered about Eno, until I saw a bunch of programs on the telly about him. He has a unique mind but he does seem far too comfortable in himself to be an aspie.

hmmm..how about Adam Young (owl city)......i just get that kind of vibe from him....anyone know for sure? i can't find much online about him.........

I've been wondering about Mike Gordon, the bass player from Phish. He has always had a bit of that vibe about him, especially since he was always the cleanest one of the bunch.

mark mothersbaugh?

Since I can't find the recent thread on the John Lennon being an Aspie subject, I'll use one where he is mentioned.

I came across this a couple weeks ago.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wJjxF17kWI[/youtube]

I have heard that Ladyhawke has apserger syndrome. She is quite moody and I love her song called "My Delerium."

Sid Barret, Kurt Kobain, Eminem, and I think I remember reading an account of someone who knew David Matthews personally and that he even has an offical diagosis of AS.

I second Kurt Cobain again, he seems to remind me of it. At least the alienated outsider angst in his music. I believe his "suicide letter" gives off a few Aspie vibes, such as not feeling like part of the human race. And I easily recall him mentioning how he couldn't feel the empathy that normal people feel. That, and Craig Nicholls seems to be a reincarnated Kurt Cobain, and Craig has Asperger's, so...

I think John Frusciante (guitarist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers) was mentioned in this thread earlier, I think it's possible he has it. I found this post on a John Frusciante discussion forum:

I've seen him really uncomfortable in interviews before, and he doesn't seem to have active eye contact. There's a few videos of him as well, with a few things I've seen are attributed to AS, such as being stuck on a topic in a conversation, when everyone has moved on to a different topic.

To add to his "special interest", I read somewhere that he practiced about 8-15 hours a day. I know I've done this at times, where I do it all day.

I think I could go on, but meh. Tired.

Kurt Cobain had ADHD and bipolar. The symptoms are similar, but he didn't have Asperger's. And John Frusciante just sounds eccentric. Eccentric =! Asperger's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_and_the_brain

Based on behavior I think that two of the giants of post war jazz were aspies: Charlie Parker, and Thelonius Monk.

Especially Monk.

He was very spacey and eccentric.
He met a fellow bebop pianist and said "Those cats were right, you DO look like me".

Five years later his path crossed with same pianist again. The first thing out of Monk's mouth was "but you're uglier than I am."

He completed a sentence that he had started five years earlier.

Definetly aspie in behavior.

Wasn't this post already somewhere else in this thread? May have been a few years old though.

I don't know too much of him, while I'm a big fan of him, his music style is definitely different for jazz. Compared to other pianists, and bandleaders of his time, his style was really dissonant, uninterested in what jazz was in the period. You'd have to hear his music compared to others, it's hard to explain. I don't know if it's AS-ish, but it's definitely different. Uninterested in conventional approaches. More interested in banging on the piano, finding a lot of dissonances, clashing tones, trying to meld beautiful melody with going crazy, while I haven't written much myself, I could imagine myself writing music in a style similar to his if I was a Jazz pianist (bandleader) in his era.

Haven't seen his documentary, but I could believe it if he was AS. Unfortunately, we'll never know.