Rock Stars Who Changed Names

Names are important.  A great name goes a long way as far as branding goes.  Just ask us, we both ended up with Newb names and this podcast just happens to be called NewbsRadio.  What are the odds?  But sometimes your birth name, or christian name if you’re so inclined, is just not good enough.  Take ol’ James Wyatt Olsen up there in the picture.  Changed his name to Beezow Doo-doo Zopittybop-bop-bop and never looked back.  We here at NewbsRadio come across people just like ol Beezow all the time – and we usually let you know about em.  We call em “Name-changers” and there are about a kajillion of them out there.  Here are but a few that we’ve come across so far in our year on the air – so to speak.  We’ll follow up each with a link to the episode that includes the reference so you can listen and hear more about these rock stars who changed names.

Elton John – Reginald Kenneth Dwight (The WKRP Podcast)
Elvis Costello – Declan Patrick McManus (The WKRP Podcast)
David Bowie - David Robert Jones (The David Bowie Podcast)
Alice Cooper - Vincent Damon Furnier (The Tom Petty Podcast)
Bob Dylan - Robert Zimmerman (The Chelsea Hotel Podcast)
River Phoenix - River Bottom (The Stand By Me Podcast)
Tupac Shakur - Lesane Parish Crooks (FUTURE EPISODE!)
The Big Bopper – Jiles Perry Richardson (The Ritchie Valens Podcast)
David Crosby – David Van Cortland (The Ritchie Valens Podcast)
Buddy Holly – Charles Hardin Holley (The Ritchie Valens Podcast)
Jimi Hendrix – James Marshall Hendricks (The Steve Albini Podcast)
Mick Jagger – Michael Phillip Jagger (The Altamont Podcast)
K.C. – Harry Wayne Casey (The Paul’s Boutique Podcast)
B.B. King – Riley B. King (The Concert for Bangladesh)
Huey Lewis – Hugh Anthony Cregg (The WKRP Podcast)
Liberace – Wladziu Lee Valentino Liberace (The Neil Young Podcast)
Little Richard – Richard Wayne Penniman (The Ritchie Valens Podcast)
Van Morrison – George Ivan Morrison (The Last Waltz Podcast)
Gram Parsons – Ingram Cecil Connor II (The Altamont Podcast)
Les Paul – Lester William Polsfuss (The Wilco Podcast)
Iggy Pop – James Jewell Osterberg Jr. (The David Bowie Podcast)
Axl Rose – William Bruce Rose (The Appetite for Destruction Podcast)
Yusef Muhammed – Cat Stevens – Steve Georgiou (The Copyright Infringement Podcast)
Ritchie Valens – Richard Stephen Valenzuela (The Ritchie Valens Podcast)
Sid Vicious – John Simon Ritchie (The Chelsea Hotel Podcast)
Weird Al Yankovic – Alfred Matthew Yankovic (The Frank Welker Podcast)

A few we haven’t mentioned YET:

Freddie Mercury – Farrokh Bulsara
Stevie Wonder – Steveland Judkins
Pat Benatar – Patricia Andrzejewski
Jon Bon Jovi - John Bongiovi
Boy George – George Alan O’Dowd
Patsy Cline - Virginia Hensley

Special mention:

Sam Cooke – Sam Cook (Really?)
Conway Twitty – Harold Lloyd Jenkins (WTF?)
Engelbert Humperdinck – Arnold George Dorsey (WHY?)

Okay, now who did we miss?

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