Famous Musicians Who Could Never Seem To Afford Shirts

Red Hot Chili Peppers are known for their outlandish behavior and antics, and a lot of those antics have happened without shirts on. Over the years, the band has gone so far as to perform in nothing but socks on their, um, parts - though no matter what they're wearing or not wearing, they almost never wear shirts.

The joke was on the band when they appeared on The Late Late Show With James Corden for an episode of the "Carpool Karaoke" segment, and Corden joined them in shirtless versions of some of their biggest hits. 

Iggy Pop is almost as famous for not wearing a shirt as he is for his music. It became such a big part of his image that any time he does wear a shirt, it feels like a strange alternate universe. In an interview around his Post Pop Depression album, Pop talked specifically about what led him to abandoning a shirt as part of his image.

"When I dropped out of college to start the band, I kept my library card," he explained. 

"I’ve always had a student mentality, so I would go to the library, and take books. Cult books about culture and religion, and think about how I could apply those, and I kept seeing these pictures of the Pharaoh. He never wore a shirt. So I thought, ‘That just looks about right,’ you know? I don’t know why. I feel lost in a shirt. I just get lost." 

Henry Rollins has seemingly been without a shirt for decades, either while on stage performing with Black Flag or his own projects. The legendary vocalist, lyricist, activist and poet is quite comfortable with no clothes on, as evidenced by his appearance on the aptly-titled TV show The Shirtless Painter. 

While on the show, a shirtless Rollins paints a portrait of his shirtless host, while the host does the same in return. The shirtless painter's interpretation of Rollins was much more faithful than the singer, who decided on a more abstract approach. 

Tupac's entire aesthetic was arguably conceived around the absence of a shirt. The late hip hop legend almost always appeared shirtless, with his signature bandana and oversized jeans intact. The shirt-free persona allowed Shakur to show off his tattoos, which included one on his stomach that read "Thug Life."

Vogue noted that although he primarily performed without a shirt, Shakur was also spotted on several occasions in some more high-fashion apparel. Most notably, he famously walked in a Versace fashion show in 1996 and was a vocal supporter of high-end men's fashion.

Even well into their 50s, the members of Van Halen refused to wear shirts. Guitarist Eddie Van Halen has frequently gone without a shirt while performing, as have all the members over the years. What's perhaps a bit more disturbing than an aging rockstar running around with his shirt off is an aging rockstar doing basically anything else with his shirt off - something singer David Lee Roth should really learn.

Roth made headlines in 2013 when a Japanese short film surfaced online, starring Roth as a shirtless assassin. The weird character choice makes a lot more sense when you learn that Roth apparently wrote the movie himself. 

Guns N' Roses have often gone shirtless in concert, but one of their most notorious shirt-free moments happened in 1989 when guitarist Slash had a particularly bad drug experience that led him to run around a golf course naked.

According to Slash, his bad trip caused him to hallucinate that "predators" with dreads were after him. He proceeded to use a maid as a "human shield," run through the lobby of the resort naked, and hide behind a lawnmower. He subsequently gave police a detailed report of what he saw, later saying that he was "still high enough" that he "told the story without a shred of self-consciousness."