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Behind every great rock star, there's often an incredible muse... Join us as we count down our picks for the most impactful and independently iconic people who inspired rock music's greatest creatives! Our countdown includes Pattie Boyd, Yoko Ono, Bebe Buell and more! Who do you credit as the true vision behind your favorite songs?
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00:00Want the same kind of life for a daughter or a granddaughter.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most impactful and
00:10independently iconic people to inspire rock music's greatest creatives.
00:14Can you live on aesthetics?
00:16Well, you can live on aesthetics a lot more than concrete and rubbish, yeah.
00:22Number 10.
00:23Sharon Osbourne In 1979, Black Sabbath manager Don Arden
00:28addressed frontman Ozzy Osbourne's reckless lifestyle by firing him.
00:32It was Arden's daughter Sharon who turned him around.
00:35Love it first night?
00:36No.
00:37No, not at all, I was like, oh lord, look at them.
00:40She married Ozzy in 1982, sternly managing his rise to a stellar solo career and helping
00:46him achieve sobriety.
00:47The heavy metal madman responded with the classic power ballad Mama, I'm Comin' Home.
00:52I'm Comin' Home.
00:58Meanwhile, Sharon Osbourne management launched the likes of Leta Ford, Gary Moore, and Motorhead.
01:03The sole employee then became a superstar after inviting audiences into her and Ozzy's home
01:09for MTV's groundbreaking reality show, The Osbournes.
01:12Sharon Osbourne was instrumental in making the Prince of Darkness a titan in his own right.
01:25No less impressive is how she made herself a legend.
01:29I love you more than any words, any vows, any poetry could ever capture.
01:35I am privileged to be your wife, and thank you for my babies.
01:43No.
01:449.
01:45Mary Austin
01:46For all his spectacle, Queen frontman Freddie Mercury was very reserved offstage.
01:51He typically found his passion in his close relationship with Mary Austin.
02:01The two were even engaged for six years, only to split over Mercury's struggles with his
02:06sexuality.
02:07It took a long while for me to really fall in love with this man, but once there, I could
02:14never turn away from him.
02:15He still recognized Austin as the love of his life, and declared this in a ballad on the
02:21album A Night at the Opera.
02:22Love of my life, don't leave me.
02:28It's even believed that Bohemian Rhapsody was inspired by Mercury's lonely confession to
02:32his fiancée.
02:33It's certain that she made his life less lonely.
02:36After his death in 1991, Mercury arranged to have Austin spread his ashes in a location
02:41known only to her.
02:42She's since lived a low-profile life, commemorated by her significant role in creating a legend.
02:48I was able to look inside and almost another human being, and what I saw was a treasure
02:57trove of…
02:59Number 8.
03:00Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain
03:02It's hard to imagine Nirvana's Kurt Cobain settling down, so he never did.
03:06His marriage to fellow grunge pioneer Courtney Love was marked by intensity, even after the
03:10birth of their daughter.
03:11Why do you feel so bad?
03:13Why?
03:14Because I want to.
03:19It's my fault.
03:23They also enabled each other creatively.
03:25Cobain inspired the whole song's beautiful son and doll parts.
03:29Well, Love inspired Nirvana's heart-shaped box, and you know you're right.
03:38I've never been so swell, I have never felt that well!
03:44But Love faced heavy backlash for her hostile persona, even after her husband's shocking
03:49death in 1994.
03:51Love confronted the tragedy with Hole's biggest album, Live Through This.
03:55Even her critics mourn with her and recognize her place in alternative music, direct and
04:00indirect.
04:01The 2010 song Honey shows Cobain's own lingering effects on a groundbreaking artist.
04:06And I hope all to you.
04:11Number 7.
04:12Nico
04:13The New York art scene of the 1960s was enchanted by German actress and singer Krista Pafkin, better
04:19known as Nico.
04:27She inspired Bob Dylan's I'll Keep It With Me and expanded Jim Morrison's philosophy.
04:31Andy Warhol was so impressed that he brought her into the velvet underground.
04:36I'll be your mirror, reflect what you are, in case you don't know.
04:42The three or four songs she sang were perfect for her, and anyone else singing them, it just
04:48doesn't work.
04:49Their debut album became a seminal piece of experimental rock, distinguished by Nico's
04:53subversive style and impaired hearing.
04:56Though this put her at odds with Lou Reed and John Cale, their brief creative and romantic
05:00relationships were transformative.
05:02So, in the studio, she would lose sight of exactly what the recording process involved.
05:08At the end of the day, she would sort of burst into tears, and you'd wonder what on earth
05:11had you done to warrant this, and she would say, no, no, no, it's just beautiful.
05:17Nico continued to influence artists like Morrissey, Robert Smith, and Susie Sue, before tragically
05:23dying of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 49.
05:26Surely, Nico's incomparable aesthetic lives on in the works of her contemporaries and
05:31experimental musicians since.
05:33These days I sit on cornerstones and count the time in quarter tones to ten.
05:39Number 6.
05:40Anita Pallenberg
05:42It's bound to get complicated when a whole band claims one muse.
05:47If I don't get no shelter, love I'm gonna fade away.
05:54Internationally recognized model and actress Anita Pallenberg joined the Rolling Stones through
05:58multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones, whose volatility drove her into a 13-year relationship with Keith
06:04Richards.
06:05She moved the band into the experimental phase of rock in the late 60s.
06:09Gimme shelter, she's a rainbow, and you can't always get what you want are just some of the
06:14songs believed to be written for her.
06:16She demanded that people follow on her terms.
06:20Jealousy inevitably arose in the band, compounded by Pallenberg's alleged affair with Mick Jagger.
06:26Time for your new image.
06:28Now we're getting started.
06:31Her own career was devastated by this pressure and the death of her son, Tara Joja.
06:36But besides her indirect mark on music, Pallenberg gave the world plenty before and after the
06:41stones.
06:42So, I'm your little one-eyed winch.
06:46I'm also the great tyrant.
06:49Number 5.
06:50Linda McCartney
06:51American photographer Linda Eastman met Paul McCartney in London while covering the 1967
06:56launch of Sgt.
06:57Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
06:58Did you study to be a photographer or did you just show an early flare?
07:01No, I didn't study, I just was encouraged by somebody to take up photography.
07:06If you hadn't, you wouldn't have met Paul, is that right?
07:09Probably not, you never know.
07:11Could've been a good move.
07:12They married two years later.
07:14Linda was the key to her husband's activism and vegetarianism, never mind his art after
07:19the Beatles broke up.
07:20The couple formed the band Wings in 1971, making Linda a rock star and expanding Paul's
07:25musical horizons.
07:27He wrote so many great love songs about his wife, both for Wings and as a solo artist.
07:32Baby, I'm amazed at the way you help me sing my song.
07:37They also founded Linda McCartney Foods to help make veganism mainstream.
07:41Sadly, almost two decades of an iconic marriage ended, with Linda dying from cancer in 1998.
07:47I said, I don't know what to do with myself, I can't believe it.
07:50He said, I have a word with her, she'll tell you what to do.
07:53The multi-talented visionary nonetheless highlights rock history as, not only a muse, but a full
07:59creative partner.
08:00Is she a good family man?
08:01Not bad.
08:02No, it's good.
08:03It's good.
08:04Especially when I'm asleep.
08:064.
08:07Marianne Faithfull
08:08Folk singer Marianne Faithfull seemed to get lucky when she befriended the Rolling Stones
08:13in 1964.
08:14Really, frontman Mick Jagger was the lucky one.
08:17Faithfull expanded his artistic tastes and vision during their four-year romance, spawning
08:26such classics as Wild Horses.
08:28Her own unique artistry was distinguished from the music and acting industries.
08:33Sadly, her status in the 70s was stifled by financial difficulties and substance use disorder.
08:44Faithfull mounted a comeback going into the next decade, and went on to mentor and collaborate
08:49with many major musicians until her passing in 2025.
08:53Trust in yourself, it's all that you can trust.
08:58Her career may have begun with shaping Jagger as an artist, but her legacy stands tall on its own.
09:03I really feel that my country, my people, have finally understood who I am and what I'm trying to do.
09:13That has been my dream all my life.
09:163.
09:17Yoko Ono
09:18It was through her collaboration with avant-garde composer John Cage that Yoko Ono met the biggest pop band in the world.
09:25Her marriage to John Lennon led to some of the Beatles' most unique songs, including
09:29Don't Let Me Down and I Want You, She's So Heavy.
09:32Ono was unfairly credited with breaking up the band when she merely pushed her husband to new heights as a musician and humanitarian when he went solo.
09:47Imagine all the people…
09:51He, in turn, was the key to her creative and commercial breakthrough after they formed the Plastic Ono Band.
09:56You were a Beatles fan before, or would you say you were a Lennon fan before?
10:01Uh, neither.
10:02But Ono shifted her focus to philanthropy after Lennon's murder in 1980.
10:06Though some feel the couple overstepped their experimentation, much of Lennon's unprecedented musical and political impact was thanks to Ono.
10:15You may say I'm a dreamer
10:18Number 2.
10:19Patti Boyd
10:20She inspired some of the most moving love songs in rock, and one of the most infamous love triangles.
10:26Model and fashion icon Patti Boyd was married to George Harrison for over a decade, inspiring Beatles' ballads like If I Needed Someone and Something.
10:34Something in the way, she woos me
10:39She also inspired Eric Clapton to write an entire Derrick and the Dominos album, Layla, and other assorted love songs.
10:46The eponymous anthem's declaration of the guitarist's affections destroyed his friendship with Harrison.
10:51Baby, you got me on my knees, baby!
10:57The two reconciled by the time Clapton and Boyd went, leading to a soft rock staple, Wonderful Tonight.
11:03I feel wonderful
11:06This marriage didn't last either, but Boyd's enchanting grace and style were distilled by two husbands' masterpieces.
11:14They, in turn, inspired her acclaimed photography work.
11:17I'm deeply, deeply honored that George wrote that seriously beautiful song.
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11:351.
11:36Bebe Buell
11:40It's hard to overstate Bebe Buell's impact on 70s rock for the public to mostly recognize her
11:45as a model.
11:46She gained the spotlight through an on-and-off relationship with Todd Rundgren that inspired
11:50his career to finding hits Can We Still Be Friends?
11:53Let's admit we made a mistake
11:58Buell was also romantically and artistically involved with the likes of Elvis Costello, Mick
12:03Jagger, Jimmy Page, and Rod Stewart.
12:05In addition to Aerosmith's crazy, she and Steven Tyler also gave us the actress Liv Tyler.
12:11Yeah, you drive me crazy, crazy.
12:18Buell has been called the quintessential groupie, partially influencing the character Penny Lane
12:23in the film Almost Famous.
12:24At this time, please extinguish all smoking materials.
12:28For the captain has turned on the no smoking sign.
12:32But she defied the stigma as an accomplished musician, personality, and writer.
12:37There's no telling how many more romantic souls can be called the true icons behind rock classics.
12:43I really think that the first step to knowing something's going to work is if you can tell
12:47somebody the truth completely.
12:49Whom else do you credit as the true vision behind your favorite songs?
12:53Give a tribute in the comments below.
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