Game of Thrones has a history of cameos from some rather illustrious musical guests. While showrunners tend not to make a big thing out of the artists appearing on the series (at least most of the time), they’re a much-loved quirk of the HBO drama and fans take great pleasure in trying to spot them.
The first music guest on Game of Thrones was Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody, who appeared as a Bolton soldier in season 1 singing a track written by The Hold Steady especially for the show. Following in the growing tradition were musicians including Coldplay‘s Will Champion, Sigur Ros, Bastille, Mastodon and an ill-conceived spot for Ed Sheeran.
Some cameos involved the artists using their musical skills and performing live on set – others got to appear as wildlings, soldiers or White Walkers.
Here are the best Game of Thrones music cameos, ranked worst to best:
Mastodon scored their cameo when frontman Brent Hinds went back to the band’s hotel during a tour and was approached by some fans, who turned out to be writer Dan Weiss and other members of the GoT crew.
“Brent freaked out because we’re all huge fans of the show,” drummer Brann Dailor tells The Independent.
The pair exchanged emails and kept in touch, until their next European tour coincided with a date in Belfast where GoT was being filmed. Mastodon flew in a few days early where they “checked out the sets and sat on the pointy chair” before dressing up as wildlings and shooting scenes from “Hardhome”.
“It was pretty incredible being on set. One of my favourite moments was sitting in a small tent with the three White Walkers in full makeup, and one of the guys was asking for a straw for his hot chocolate because he couldn’t drink it through the prosthetics in this really polite British accent. And they didn’t seem so scary after that. Also I was stabbed in the stomach and had my throat slit by a nice Hungarian boy, so that was fun.”
Dailor isn’t convinced that anyone will end up on the Iron Throne by the end of season 8: “I think it’s just gonna be tumbleweeds rolling around at the very end, and everything is completely destroyed by the White Walkers. Because they don’t give a s**t about being on the Iron Throne. I think they’re nihilists.”
Game of Thrones season 8 begins on 14 April on HBO. Seasons 1-7 are available to watch on NowTV.
