Photos of Rock Stars Wearing Their Own Band’s Merch

It used to be debated whether it was socially acceptable to wear a band's shirt to their concert (spoiler alert, it is — wear whatever you want). But what about musicians wearing their own merch?

There really is no right or wrong answer to the question because it's all subjective. A band that's first starting out could probably benefit from wearing their own merch as a way of promoting themselves and getting their name out there, so that's one argument in support of it. However, Gene Simmons probably never needed to wear a KISS shirt, as almost everyone on the planet knows what band he's in and KISS certainly didn't need any help marketing themselves by time their career took off.

It seems that it was more common to wear your own band's T-shirt in the 1970s and '80s, whereas many of the '90s bands wore each others' shirts (Soundgarden's Chris Cornell was photographed in a sleeveless Nirvana tee, for example). In the 21st century, though, it seemed to become the norm again to wear your own merch. Shinedown and Five Finger Death Punch are two groups whose singers, Brent Smith and Ivan Moody, sometimes donned their logo onstage.

What do music fans think of this?

"If you're the artist, you're already the face of the brand. A T-shirt with your artist name on it is just like a, 'Hi, my name is ______' sticker," someone wrote on a Reddit post discussing the topic.

READ MORE: 40 Most Offensive Band Shirts [Very NSFW]

Others, however, agreed that bands should promote themselves in any way they can, and don't see someone wearing their own shirt as tacky. And hey, maybe they just didn't have any clean shirts and had to grab one from the merch pile.

Regardless of which side of the fence you stand, you can scroll through the gallery below to see photos of rock stars wearing their own band's merch.