By Zachary Swickey
Few musicians of today have reached the revered, iconic status of the Flaming Lips’ frontman Wayne Coyne – the zany, free-spirited entity who somehow slipped his way into the mainstream pop culture strata. His group has only one genuine hit to their name, yet they’re one of the most popular “underground” bands to ever exist. (Although, being on Warner Bros Records, they were never truly “underground” – more like out of place).
It’s rather surprising that the band hasn’t curated a music festival of their own considering the wealth of critical acclaim – and well, love – they receive from fellow musicians, which helps explains how they recruited so many friends for their new album. When I saw Coldplay perform in Coyne’s hometown of Oklahoma City back in ’03, Chris Martin donned a Lips shirt and they performed a cover of the Lips’ “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. I” before he verbally praised the group as a huge influence.
Even country-pop superstar Taylor Swift has love for the group as she had the lyrics to their song “Do You Realize?” written across her arm for a performance. Miley Cyrus too showed her devotion by posting the lyrics to “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. I” through a series of tweets.
DJ/producer Diplo never thought he’d find himself in a jungle with Coyne, which he told us about earlier this month, saying: “He’s just f**king crazy – he’s in the jungle with a f**king suit on all day.
With his Southern charm, Coyne has managed to meet an eclectic group of celebs, musicians and entertainers. So without further ado, here are six of our favorite Wayne Coyne celeb photo ops.
Justin Timberlake
Lips mega-fan Justin Timberlake got to meet one of his idols at a gig in Toronto back in 2003. Timberlake is such an avid fan that the group even got him to dress like a dolphin onstage and play bass for them during their appearance on Britain’s “Top of the Pops.”
Ryan Gosling
While in Austin, Texas, attending one of their many awesome festivals, Fun Fun Fun Fest, Wayne Coyne and Ryan Gosling ran into each other for this precious photo moment. Gosling was in town filming a top-secret Terrence Malick film and simply being a fan of music.
Elton John
Coyne posted this picture of himself with Elton John on the Flaming Lips' Twitter account. He noted that Elton was the “sweetest guy in the world” and “smells really good.”
Britney Spears
The moment he probably never dreamt of happened for Coyne last year when he and the Flaming Lips played the Milwaukee’s Summerfest music festival and took this photo with Spears, who was in town on her "Femme Fatale" tour.
Richard Dreyfuss
Coyne’s personal friend, photographer and lawyer Josh Welch, snapped this pic of the Flaming Lips’ frontman with Oscar winner Richard Dreyfuss, who they happened to run into while they were in route to a WWE match. Small world in Oklahoma City apparently!
Football coaches Bob Stoops and Barry Switzer
Showing his local support, Coyne was at a charity event in Oklahoma – auctioning off one of those insane Flaming Lips’ actual-human skulls for a good cause – when he captured some photo ops with a pair of iconic football coaches for the University of Oklahoma: current coach Bob Stoops and past legend Barry Switzer, who also coached the Dallas Cowboys to some SuperBowl rings.
