so last week i shot interview clips for a new VH1 special on ‘the 100 greatest artists of all time.’ they emailed me a big old list and had me fill out a ballot with my top 10. then i got to go in, be on camera and nerd out on my top 25. you have to understand, when i was a kid… i DREAMED about shit like this. if a show had existed then where you talk about why your favorite bands were your favorite bands, i would have wiped the flaky puff crumbs off my sweatpants, put down the dungeons & dragons handbook, marched my heavy-set ass out of the basement to wherever they were filming and gotten my dork on! in short… even though the list VH1 sent had some glaring omissions (the pretenders, the pixies, ray charles), the experience was still, pretty much, the highlight of my 2010. i wanted to share my list with you. but decided to chunk it out into installments. and post it every few days or so… starting with 10.. moving to 1. obviously 1 is the highest. duh. ok… so, the band in my 10th spot….. QUEEN - first off: THE SONGS. they have an ENDLESS stream of amazing songs… all of which sound like they were beamed in from mars. - brian may = total legend. he built a guitar with his dad from a fireplace mantle and played it for his entire career. if that wasn’t rad enough, the TONE of said guitar is the aural equivalent of triumphant, orgasmic angels singing. -the bass player, john deacon, wrote ‘another one bites the dust’… THE BASS PLAYER! - freddie mercury wore short shorts. had badger teeth. and was balding and made all of that look EFFORTLESSLY COOL! - roger taylor, the drummer, not only wrote ‘radio gaga,’ but he also hit all the background vocal high notes live. - queen’s live shows were a huge spectacle… the epitome of showmanship. and to their credit, they were able to pull it off while still remaining inclusive. when you watch queen play, you never feel like an outsider. you never feel like you are watching people who you wish you could be. for all of the bombast of their music, and the over blown-ness of freddie mercury’s on stage persona, you always feel like you are watching people whose job it is to elevate you. to make you feel like you are a part of something amazing… not on the outside of it. and to me, that’s what great music’s all about.