11 Times Successful Bands Gave Other Big Bands Their Big Break

Everyone has to start somewhere, but it certainly helps if you’ve got a big band in your corner giving you your big break. That’s the focus here, showcasing some of name bands that got their start with a little assist from already established superstars.

For instance, Limp Bizkit take up two entries on this list, helping to launch the careers of both Staind and Puddle of Mudd just a few years apart. In both cases, Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst helped both acts get signed to one of his label imprints, then proceeded to direct several of both bands breakout videos.

While you could easily make a case for the Ozzy Osbourne-branded Ozzfest helping to launch the careers of many rock and metal bands in the late ’90s and 2000s, Ozzy was twice part of the origin story for a pair of iconic rock bands.

The first came when Black Sabbath gave red hot upstarts Van Halen their first big worldwide platform, taking them on shows in Europe and the U.S. in 1978. Then, a few years later when he was a solo artist, Ozzy provided the much needed runway to put Motley Crue in front of heavy music fans and take their career to the next level.

They say game recognizes game, and in some of these cases you have these veteran bands really going to bat to give the young acts a helping hand before the talent did the rest of the work.

Let’s take a closer look at the beginnings of some of rock’s biggest bands and the assists provided by already established acts that helped to put them on the map.