This year has seen rock stars thinking outside of the box and collaborating with artists you'd never expect. Blink-182 touring with Lil Wayne. Whaaaat?! Chvrches working with Marshmello. Did I read that right? Miley Cyrus covering Nine Inch Nails songs. Uhhhh?! Though these projects are all surprising, the rock world melding with other genres is nothing new. In fact, it's been happening for decades (remember that little song called "Walk This Way"?).
Need proof? Scroll down to see the 16 most unexpected rock collaborations of all time.
blink-182 & Lil Wayne
When blink-182 and Lil Wayne announced a joint tour in May 2019 it caught us all off guard, but what was even more unexpected was the collaboration that they released along with the news. A mashup of "What's My Age Again" and "A Milli" is the song we didn't know we needed.
Miley Cyrus & Nine Inch Nails
It was surprising enough to see that Miley Cyrus was starring in an episode of Black Mirror's fifth season, but when we watched "Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too" our jaws dropped when we realized Cyrus' character Ashley O's hit single "I'm on a Roll" is a reimagination of Nine Inch Nails' iconic "Head Like a Hole." In fact, the pop star covers the original at the end of the episode.
Brendon Urie & Taylor Swift
Swifties were screaming when the pop star revealed "ME!," the lead single off her upcoming album Lover, back in April, and Panic! At The Disco fans were excited to see their boy Brendon Urie score some serious points with a feature on the song. In fact, that wasn't the only genre-bending collaboration the singer was involved with in 2019. He was also featured on Juice WRLD's "Roses" and Lil Dicky's star-studded "Earth."
Death Cab For Cutie & Chance The Rapper
After a number of delays, Chance The Rapper finally released his debut album The Big Day in July 2019. The 22-track project includes a bunch of features, but the one that surprised us the most was Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard's smooth vocals on "Do You Remember."
Fall Out Boy & Lil Peep & iLoveMakonnen
When Lil Peep tragically died in 2017, he and longtime collaborator/friend iLoveMakonnen were working on a song together. After his passing, Makonnen reached out to his heroes Fall Out Boy to see if they'd be willing to contribute to the track. Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump immediately agreed, and in 2019 they released "I've Been Waiting." Stump also dropped a track called "Summer Days" with Macklemore and Martin Garrix this year.
Judah & The Lion & Kacey Musgraves
Judah & the Lion may have a twangy sound, but that didn't make it any less surprising to hear that they collaborated with country star Kacey Musgraves for their 2019 album Pep Talks. The singer leant her soaring vocals to the emotional ballad "Pictures"
Travis Barker & YUNGBLUD & Halsey
To the casual fan, a collaboration between blink-182's Travis Barker, YUNGBLUD and Halsey may seem super random, but "11 Minutes" is a fitting project for the pop star — she is an emo kid at heart, after all.
Chvrches & Marshmello
Perhaps the most unexpected collaboration of 2019 was Chvrches song with Marshmello, "Here With Me." However, Lauren Mayberry's voice fits pleasantly well with the producer's beats. The DJ also worked with Bastille this year on the monster hit "Happiness."
Bon Iver & Eminem
Bon Iver is not a stranger to hip-hop collaborations — he's worked with Kanye West and Chance The Rapper — but it was his "Fall," his 2018 track with Eminem, that was the most shocking. Upon its release Justin Vernon publicly denounced the song, claiming he wasn't in the studio when the rapper wrote the lyrics, which contain a homophobic slur. He said he asked for the track to be changed upon hearing it, but it wasn't.
Gerard Way & deadmau5
Before My Chemical Romance announced their hiatus in 2013, frontman Gerard Way was already testing out the waters as a solo artist. In 2012, he surprised us all and leant his vocals to deadmau5's rock-leaning electronic banger "Professional Griefers."
Alice in Chains & Elton John
In 2002, Alice in Chains frontman Layne Staley tragically died of a drug overdose. Seven years later, the grunge rockers released and album called Black Gives Way to Blue and the title track, a tribute to the late singer, features Sir Elton John on piano.
Jack White & Alicia Keys
When the 2008 James Bond installment, Quantum of Silence, hit the big screen it was the first time a duet was used for a Bond theme. And boy was it a surprising pairing. Jack White, who was still a member of The White Stripes at the time, teamed up with R&B star Alicia Keys for "Another Way to Die," and dare we say they killed it.
Linkin Park & Jay-Z
Long before blink and Lil Wayne tested out a rock/hip-hop mashup Linkin Park and Jay-Z put out a whole album of them. Their joint EP, Collision Course, came out in 2004 and featured songs from the rock band's albums Hybrid Theory and Meteora spliced with tracks from the rapper's The Black Album, Vol. 3: Life and Times of S. Carter, Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life and The Blueprint. Though the project was greeted with mixed reception, it was a delightfully bold move and "Numb/Encore" gifted both parties a Grammy.
Noel Gallagher & The Chemical Brothers
Noel Gallagher and The Chemical Brothers collaborated on not one, but two tracks in the '90s. In 1996, the Oasis singer leant his vocals to the gritty electro group's "Setting Sun" and in 1999 sang on "Let Forever Be." In fact, one of the songs off the Gallagher's High Flying Birds album Chasing Yesterday originally spawned from the "Setting Sun" session. "There's a song on this record that has taken me 23 years to finish," he revealed during an interview in 2015. "It's called 'Lock All the Doors.' I gave a bit of it away to the Chemical Brothers in the '90s when we did 'Setting Sun' and I always meant to finish it but I could never get a way for the verse to tie in with the chorus. But one afternoon, I was coming out of the Tesco Metro in Maida Vale and it just hit me, it came to me in a flash of inspiration."
Anthrax & Public Enemy
blink and Lil Wayne also weren't the first rock/hip-hop joint tour. In 1991, Anthrax and Public Enemy collaborated on a re-recording of "Bring The Noise." The song lead to the metal band and hip-hop group touring together, ending each night with a performance of that track.
Aerosmith & Run DMC
Speaking of rock/hip-hop collaborations, Run DMC and Aerosmith started it all in 1986 when they released "Walk This Way." The hip-hop group was originally interested in just covering Aerosmith's song; however, were able to convince Steven Tyler and Joe Perry to contribute vocals and guitar to the new version. The track was a hit and introduced hip-hop fans to the rock veterans, breathing new life into their career.
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