Classic Rock Aspies

Post Reply New Topic

Thought of some classic rockers that could be Aspies Enjoy. Let me know of anyone I missed.

John Lennon
Jimi Hendrix
Jim Morrison
Janis Joplin
David Bowie
Bob Dylan
Brian Jones
Sid Vicious
Ozzy Osbourne
Joey Ramone
Tiny Tim

A couple of years ago I posted the aspie characteristics of Jimi Hendrix, if you'd care to search the forums under: jimi hendrix-an aspie?

I'm more than half-way through with "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead", the biography of Warren Zevon.
He certainly had many AS traits, too.

Oh! Let's not forget Gary Newman and David Byrne from the New Wave side of the aisle.

Gary Numan has been dx'd aspie

David Bowie -very eccentric if not Aspie
Sting (The Police) -his lyrics seem to reflect Aspie-thinking, although I'm not sure if he has the tic or not
Gord Downie (The Tragically Hip) -reputed to be an eccentric wordsmith
Neil Young -I've seen his name mentioned here before

Brian Wilson the child prodigy genius behind the Beachboys! yay! I don't know if he was ever diagnosed but he certainly seems a likely Aspergers or hfa person. Amazing creativity from a young age, a unique point of view, and tremendous difficulties with other people, just the sort of difficulties one would expect. "They say I've got brains, but they ain't doin me no good, I wish they would, Each time I think I've got something going for myself, what goes wrong? Sometimes I feel very sad, sometimes I feel very bad, I geuss I just wasn't made for these times" lyrics from "I wasn't made for these times" Brian Wilson and Tony Asher, from the album "
Pet Sounds, which Brian made mostly while the other Beach Boys were on tour without him, because he could no longer stand touring.

Also I agree that Bob Dylan has Asperger's traits. Thats why he's so brilliant. Read his memoir, "Chronicles, Vol 1" where he describes his singleminded pursuit of music, his ability to learn a song by hearing it once, his focus on peculiar details in his world (Barry Goldwater was his favorite politician because he liked his stetson!) I've been listening to Dylan ever since I heard Like a Rolling Stone on the radio in 65. And his meanings shift and deepen all the time. It's nice that the world at large appreciates him more than ever now. He's always been an obsession for me. I love to quote him, have at times done it so much people tell me to cut it out.


Also, those of us old enough to remember his moments of glory might suspect that Phil Spector might be an aspie.

oh, and what about that famous momma's boy, Elvis Presley?


Rock n roll has been IT for me ever since I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan in '64 or was it Dec '63. I loved the Beatles so much! I collected Beatle cards. I did feel a little peculiar when I realized it was almost entirely something that girls did.....

Also I learned later that the Beatles themselves saw those sweet early love songs as more the sort of thing they would tell a girl to weaken her resistance...I thought that was really the way they felt, when young nt guys on the make were really more like the Rolling Stones......they were cynical, using these sweet songs to appeal to girls. Of course they did grow up and for the most part have wonderful and exemplary marriages.

My very favorite group is the Byrds. When I was a kid I would be so happy when my parents and brothers were all out of the house because I would put my Byrds records on the stereo and dance alone to them in the dark. Something marvelous and so reassuring about their jangly sound, their warm enveloping harmony, their optimism. Turn! Turn! Turn! Indeed.

lets not forget bob seger and the silver bullet band guys

Perhaps Sly Stone if only because he is a recluse

You do know that Michael Jackson is a pedophile ? I don't think most Aspies would want to include him in their ranks .[/quote]


oops. Agreed.

Do you have any other traits of Elvis, besides being a momma's boy that make him seem Aspie ?[/quote]


Look at "Last Train to Memphis" and "careless Love" , Peter Guralnick's 2 volume biography you might see what i was thinking about ...ihe was an odd duck, polite and more appealing to teachers than to his peers. He almost got clobbered when he tried out for football. He developed his clothing and hair style at a time when it just made him seem weird in high school and he hardly seemed to notice. Elvis got rotten fruit thrown at him in high school. He fixed on music at about age 10 but he was more than shy and seemed to have no clear idea about how to get along or how to perform at parties.....he sort of slowly blundered into appreciating that girls liked him...and they liked him as much for his harmlessness as anything else at first. His relations with humans were always on the strange side, he was passive, and allowed decisions to be made for him that increasingly isolated him and made him miserable. He ended up going out with his entourage of employees only after midnight, watching movies in rented movie theaters. He really is a tragic figure. To call him aspie may be a little extreme, maybe capricious, I don't know. He had real problems relating to people, he was pretty much helpless. He let his manager take him away from the musicians he made his best records with, made all those terrible movies, what a shame!

But he did have real musical talent as well as a talent for mimicry combined with a way of combining his influences from rhythm and blues and country and even crooners like Dean Martin into something original, all the while with an innocent quality, as if he didn't know what he was doing. The screaming girls sort of guided him. That wiggling around on stage may have been just his nerves!

but who knows? I'm new here, and I feel embarassed about shooting my mouth off without thinking!

Do you know of any other classic rock Aspies besides Elvis and Brian Wilson ?