Celebrities Who Can Play Multiple Instruments

Some celebrities are famous for one obvious skill.

They sing. They act. They perform. They entertain. But behind the main talent, some stars have a much deeper musical range than casual fans realize.

A few can move from guitar to piano. Others can play drums, bass, keyboards, or even full studio arrangements by themselves. In some cases, their ability to play multiple instruments shaped the sound of entire albums.

Prince

Prince is the first name many people think of when the topic is multi-instrumental talent.

His official discography notes that his debut album For You featured him working across 27 different instruments in the studio. That was not just a fun fact. It became part of his legend. Prince was not only a singer, songwriter, and performer. He was a one-person musical force who could build entire worlds from guitars, keyboards, bass, drums, percussion, and studio textures.

Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney is best known as the Beatles’ bassist, but his musical skill goes much further.

Britannica describes McCartney as a multi-instrumentalist who played drums on some Beatles tracks, played all the instruments on some solo albums, and also played lead guitar in concert.

Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder began playing instruments at a very young age, including piano, harmonica, and drums.

That early musical range became one of the reasons his records feel so rich. Wonder’s work combines keyboard grooves, harmonica lines, vocal phrasing, and rhythmic ideas in a way that few artists can match.

Lenny Kravitz

Lenny Kravitz has often been linked to the Prince and Stevie Wonder tradition of artists who can build a song from the ground up.

In a 2024 interview with Bass Magazine, Kravitz said he started with piano as a child, then moved to guitar, drums, and bass in junior high.

Dave Grohl

Dave Grohl became famous as the drummer for Nirvana, then became the singer, guitarist, and songwriter behind Foo Fighters.

His multi-instrumental ability became especially clear with Play, a 23-minute performance project in which Grohl played every instrument on a new song, including drums, guitar, bass, and keyboards.

Bruno Mars

Bruno Mars is known for vocals, dancing, and live showmanship, but he is also a serious instrumentalist.

His listed instruments include vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards, drums, bass, ukulele, and congas. Pitchfork’s credits for Silk Sonic’s An Evening With Silk Sonic also noted Mars on vocals, drums, and guitar solo for the project.

Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga is most closely associated with her voice and piano, but her instrument range goes beyond that.

Roland has highlighted her use of digital grand piano in television performances and also noted her performing “guitar-style” on an AX-Synth shoulder synthesizer during live shows.

Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift is often discussed as a songwriter first, but her instrumental ability is a major part of her stage and writing style.

Publicly listed performance instruments include guitar, piano, banjo, and ukulele, with guitar appearing in several forms across her live work.

H.E.R.

H.E.R. has built a reputation as one of the strongest musician-performers of her generation.

At the 2020 Grammy Awards, she performed “Sometimes” while playing grand piano, then added an electric guitar solo during the same performance.

Billie Eilish

Billie Eilish is best known for her voice, songwriting, and visual style, but instruments are part of how she creates.

She has said the ukulele was the first instrument she learned and that it helped shape the way she started writing songs. She has also spoken about how different instruments can lead to different kinds of writing.

Finneas

Finneas is known both as a solo artist and as Billie Eilish’s brother, producer, and collaborator.

His instrument range is central to his work. His listed instruments include vocals, guitar, bass, and piano, and he has said in an interview that he plays guitar and keys onstage with Billie while also naming bass as a favorite.

Robert Pattinson

Robert Pattinson is best known for acting, but music has been part of his life for years.

He has been described as playing guitar and piano from childhood, writing his own music, and contributing vocals to songs on the Twilight soundtrack.

Johnny Depp

Johnny Depp is famous as an actor, but music was part of his life before he became a movie star.

Depp is most closely tied to guitar, but he has also been credited with keyboards and vocals through his work with Hollywood Vampires.

Jared Leto

Jared Leto is known both as an actor and as the frontman of Thirty Seconds to Mars.

His musical background began early. He started playing music with his brother as a child, and his first instrument was a broken-down piano.

Trent Reznor

Trent Reznor may not fit the traditional celebrity mold, but his influence across music and film scoring makes him a major cultural figure.

As Nine Inch Nails, Reznor began by recording his own compositions and playing the instruments himself. His listed instrument base includes vocals, guitar, and keyboards, and his studio work has long depended on building sound from multiple parts.

Ryan Gosling

Ryan Gosling is best known as an actor, but music has appeared throughout his career.

He played piano for La La Land after training for the role, and he also performed with the band Dead Man’s Bones earlier in his career. That history gives him a more serious musical background than many casual fans expect.

Zooey Deschanel

Zooey Deschanel is widely known as an actor, especially for New Girl and Elf, but music has been a major part of her career too.

With M. Ward, she formed She & Him, where she provided lead vocals and wrote songs for the group’s debut album.

Donald Glover

Donald Glover has built a career across acting, comedy, writing, directing, and music under the name Childish Gambino.

His musical work is hard to place in one box. It moves through rap, funk, soul, pop, and experimental sounds. While he is best known vocally and creatively, his work also shows a strong understanding of arrangement, rhythm, and live-band texture.

Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran is most famous for guitar and loop-pedal performances, but his musical background includes more than one instrument.

Footage used in the “Photograph” video showed Sheeran playing piano, cello, bass, acoustic guitar, and drums as a young person.