There are plenty of well-known families throughout music history: Tim Buckley and his son Jeff Buckley, the Beach Boy's Wilson brothers, but some musicians are related in ways that are more unexpected or even obscured. Here are eight pairs of musicians that you may not know are related.
1. Ravi Shankar & Norah Jones
When sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar passed away in 2012, one news report I read said that he was survived by his daughter Norah Jones, and I immediately thought " Wait, Norah Jones is Ravi Shankar's daughter?!" Jones' full name is Geetali Norah Jones Shankar, and is the only child that Shankar had with American concert producer Sue Jones.
2. John Lydon & Ari Up
It's hard to believe that there's someone on Earth who finds John Lydon (a.k.a. Johnny Rotten) pleasant enough to marry him, but there's at least one: Nora Forster, who in addition to being Lydon's wife is also the mother of Ari Up, the late lead singer of the Slits. This would make Lydon Ari Up's stepfather, despite being only six years older.
3. Patti Smith & Meg White
Though Meg White's most famous husband is of course her former bandmate Jack White, the two divorced in 2000 before the White Stripes became world famous. White would marry again in 2009 to Jackson Smith, the son of punk pioneer Patti Smith, which would make her Smith's daughter-in-law. Sadly, White and Smith divorced in 2013.
4. Alvino Rey & Win Butler
Although you may not know who Alvino Rey is, and I'm not going to pretend I did before I wrote this article, he's one of the most important figures in the history of popular music. He not only helped develop one of the first electric guitars (the Gibson ES-150), he was also a pioneer of the lap steel guitar, the defining instrument of country music. When Rey passed away in 2004 at the age of 95, his grandson Win Butler paid tribute to him on the album Funeral, the debut of his band Arcade Fire.
5. Johnny Cash & Nick Lowe
Though Johnny Cash is the epitome of Americana and Nick Lowe is the epitome of British new wave, two incredibly different styles, the two were actually family during the '80s. In 1979, Lowe married Carlene Carter, the daughter of June Carter Cash and the stepdaughter of Johnny Cash. Though the couple would divorce in 1990, Lowe remained friends with Cash and even worked with him.
6. Ringo Starr & Joe Walsh
Ringo Starr and his wife Barbara Bach have been married for 33 years, which is pretty much 1,000 years for a rock star marriage. In 2008, Bach's sister Marjorie married Starr's friend Joe Walsh, lead guitarist for the Eagles, which made Starr and Walsh brothers-in-law.
7. Maya Rudolph & Minnie Riperton
Maya Rudolph may be best known as an actress, but before she joined Saturday Night Live in 2000, she was a backing vocalist and keyboardist for alt-rock band the Rentals. Rudolph's mother is soul singer Minnie Riperton, and if you don't know who that is, you definitely know her 1975 hit "Lovin' You." Sadly, Riperton passed away in 1979 of breast cancer, when Rudolph was just seven years old.
8. RZA, GZA, & Ol' Dirty Bastard
At times it may seem like the Wu-Tang Clan consists of every rapper in New York City, but the group originally consisted of just RZA, GZA, and Ol' Dirty Bastard, who are all cousins. This core trio was known as Force of the Imperial Master, which eventually became All Together Now. After adding six more members to the group in 1992, they became known as the Wu-Tang Clan.
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