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Marty Friedman says Rolling Stone’s ‘Greatest Singers’ list should be “taken with a grain of salt the size of Iceland”

The list was released at the start of the New Year.

Marty Friedman performing onstage

Image: Miikka Skaffari/Getty

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Marty Friedman has spoken out about Rolling Stone’s list of the 200 greatest singers of all time – opining that the picks making it up need to be “taken with a grain of salt the size of Iceland”.

Since its debut on Sunday (1 January), the Rolling Stone’s list deciding the ‘200 Greatest Singers Of All Time’ has polarised music lovers from all backgrounds – particularly with the omission of vocalists such as Celine Dion and Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington.

Now, former Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman has shared his views on the divisive list – adding that he is “not surprised” by the divisive response and urges people to take the list with a rather hefty “grain of salt”.

Friedman’s comments on were sparked in response to an ‘Elvis Presley News’ account on Twitter, which rebuked the publication for listing Bob Dylan higher on the list than Elvis Presley.

The guitarist responded to the original post, stating:

“Not surprised at all, consider the source. If a media outlet uses ‘sui generis’ to describe the most influential singer of all time, said media outlet’s assessment should be taken with a grain of salt the size of Iceland. Nothing to see here.”

In the list, Aretha Franklin was ultimately awarded the number one spot. In addition, names including Whitney Houston, Ray Charles and Otis Redding were all placed in the top ten.

The Beatles guitarist John Lennon was the most highly rated of all the rock musicians, ranking at number twelve. In addition, his bandmate Paul McCartney faired much lower, coming in at number twenty-six and The Rolling Stones’ frontman Mick Jagger ranked at number fifty-two.

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