Duane Denison (The Jesus Lizard, Tomahawk) Names His All-Time Top Bands: “I Will Be Sad the Day He Passes Away”

Duane Denison, guitarist for both The Jesus Lizard and Tomahawk, is among the more than 70 artists who helped determine Consequence‘s list of the 100 Best Bands of All Time – and one of the select few who made the list himself.

The Jesus Lizard landed at No. 73, and all of Denison’s personal picks clocked into the Top 10: Led Zeppelin (No. 10), The Rolling Stones (No. 5), and The Velvet Underground (No. 3). Not exactly the order Denison himself may have placed them, but he’d surely be happy to see them all represented.

Keep checking our Band Week content to see ballots from more contributing artists, including Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme, Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, Brandi Carlile, Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker, and Fred Armisen. You can also pick up the 25 Essential Albums by the Greatest Bands of All Time.

Watch the compilation video above to see Duane Denison and others (including KISS’ Paul Stanley, Lizzy McAlpine, Pierce the Veil, Flipturn, and more) talk about their personal picks for the best bands ever, and read the guitarist’s descriptions of each act below.

This past summer, Denison embarked on the first Tomahawk tour in 13 years, and prior to the outing caught up with the Melvins’ Buzz Osborne for Consequence‘s Two for the Road series.

The Rolling Stones

“The Rolling Stones… had a rawness. They had a swagger. They were sexy and kind of dangerous in a way that The Beatles weren’t. And they lasted longer, and they kept it going. And Mick Jagger’s voice has been in my ear my whole life practically. I will be sad the day he passes away… and Keith Richards, his role, too, obviously.

The Velvet Underground

“The Velvet Underground, just for sheer influence. They were so perverse and so different, and people talk ‘alternative.’ When you consider that when they started, they were around the same time as the Beach Boys, who I also like, and I’m not dissing… Not only did they sing about things that were odd, drugs and sex and all these odd things… Lou Reed was a great writer, and then they had the weird classically trained John Cale, et cetera, et cetera… When I meet people who like The Velvet Underground, usually I kinda like them. Usually I feel like, well, I can get along with them. Whereas millions of people like the Rolling Stones… I don’t necessarily like all of them.”

Led Zeppelin

“For the last one, I’m gonna say Led Zeppelin. I would say that first album they did was probably the best debut album by anyone ever… When they first showed up and delivered, they were like no one else, and I got so tired of hearing people… I like Jeff Beck, but when he said, ‘Oh, they just were copying my album Truth…’ Like, no, they weren’t. I grew up on listening to those albums, and it never occurred to me that one was like the other. So, I’m gonna go with that: Rolling Stones, Velvet Underground, and Led Zeppelin.”

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