David Johansen has found the most success as a solo artist, both as himself (for 1978's campy rocker "Funky but Chic") and as his louche lounge-singing alter ego Buster Poindexter (for the still-ubiquitous 1987 conga-line generator "Hot Hot Hot"). But that's not a knock on the New York Dolls, the revolutionary glam-punk outfit that launched Johansen's career in 1971.

You famously met Slash for the first time in 1984 at Canter's Deli in Los Angeles. What did you order?
You would think that somebody would have asked me that over all these years, but no one ever has. Sadly, I don't remember.

To a certain age group, Lionel Richie may have more cred for being the adoptive father of Nicole Richie than as a musician -- which, like many things related to Paris Hilton's BFF, makes no sense whatsoever. After all, the 59-year-old has sold more than

If you're hankering to see a low-budget sci-fi movie featuring a suicidal Santa that very loosely concerns the fate of the first baby conceived in space, then by all means, check out Christmas on Mars. That such an offbeat film is the directorial debut of Wayne Coyne, frontman of psych-rock oddballs the Flaming Lips, should surprise no one.

The binges, the arrests, the pimp hats -- Scott Weiland has lived dangerously for much of the past two decades. But the man can safely claim to be one of the most successful artists of the past 20 years, pushing 35 million records worldwide as frontman for grunge-era scene-stealers Stone Temple Pilots and supergroup Velvet Revolver.

In 2005, Faheem Najm (a.k.a. T-Pain) descended on the scene armed with a quavering robo-tenor, audacious top hats, and an endless supply of lyrics about strippers.