Gerald Gardner founded Wicca in the 1960s, though many claim the idea was originally thought up with assistance by Aleister Crowley. Regardless, the faith has become one of the most prominent neopagan belief systems in the world, and the pentacle symbol used by adherents is even approved for use in military cemeteries after lawsuits were filed on behalf of Patrick Stewart, a Wiccan soldier killed in Afghanistan in 2005.
Several pop and rock stars have "come out of the broom closet" as it were, and are open, practicing witches. They include...
5. Sully Erna, Godsmack: Godsmack did what they do best here in Houston last Saturday at Buzzfest. Singer Sully Erna has long been a very outspoken proponent of the Wiccan religion. He takes a very spiritual view of his faith, and is the first to remind interviewers that hard work is the key to musical success, not ritual magic.
"Wicca helped me a lot, in my personal life, but we recorded a good album and got signed," said Erna in an interview with NYRock.com. "We didn't brew a potion with adder tongues or threaten to cast a spell over a record-company exec."
4. Fiona Horne: Fiona Horne is famous for a lot of things. Musically, she's known for fronting the Austrailian band Def FX, which was kind of Pink Floyd-ian in nature. She's also been a Playboy model, writes books on witchcraft, and was one of the Alts in the short-lived but absolutely hilarious reality-TV show Mad Mad House.
The show also included a vampire, a modern primitive, a voodoo priestess and a nudist. Horne released a solo album in 2007, and even a cursory look through Google Image search will turn up pictures of her boobies. Just saying.
Sally Eaton: In compiling this list, Rocks Off has tried real hard to veer away from people who are primarily known for being Wiccan rather than being musicians. We skated around that rather closely with Ms. Horne above, but she is undeniably a legitimate recording artist in her native country.
Sally Eaton... sorry, but she's just kind of filler here. She does release blues albums, though, and sang a pretty famous rendition of the song "Air" from the Broadway musical Hair. Brief aside: Did you know Hair is also where Meat Loaf got his professional theatre start? It's true! He showed up to apply for a car-parking position and ended up in the cast.
2. Wendy Rule: Rule is another Aussie, and though she started out as a jazz person she's transitioned nicely into a more gothic-flavored sound. She is also easily the hottest person on this list. She's released 11 albums since the mid-'90s, and each one is an absolute mindfuck of pagan perfection.
The only thing we have ever heard that is in anyway comparable is Texas's own neo-folk sensation Awen. If you want something to accompany the credit sequence in an old Hammer flick, Rule is whom you should call.
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1. Stevie Nicks: Is not a fucking Wiccan, okay? The only reason she's on the list is to help clear up all the rumors. Every single person Rocks Off asked for help in compiling this article said Stevie Nicks.
Yes, Ms. Nicks is known as the White Witch. Yes, her music has a very pagan flavor. And yes, she wears the flowy black and Earth-tone dresses that seem to be the staple uniform whenever some channel does a Secret Lives of Witches program around Halloween. The fact remains that Nicks has never stated a single religion.
In a 1983 Entertainment Tonight interview, she said, "I spent thousands of dollars on beautiful black clothes and had to stop wearing them for a long time because a lot of people scared me. And that's really unfair to me, I think, for people - other people - to conjure up their ideas of what I am or what I believe in."
Jef With One F is the author of The Bible Spelled Backwards Does Not Change the Fact That You Cannot Kill David Arquette and Other Things I Learned In the Black Math Experiment, available now.
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