Great musicians who should have been famous except....


I'm throwing this out there as an example. My 16 yr old aspiring drummer son asked me if I had anything in the vinyl collection tonight... apparently the U Tube video tutorials finally got boring. He is really good and practices non stop but it was refreshing when he asked about ideas for sound. In a moment of 30 years past clarity I put on the B side of Van Halen 1984… Is Alex Van Halen the most under rated rock drummer of all time? And is there a better lead in to ANY rock vinyl side than that???
telemarcer
My nomination for an underappreciated non-drummer is Greg Leisz, the extraordinary lap steel & pedal steel player. 
It's a well kept secret that George Gobel played all the studio drums for The Beatles, The Stones and The Who.

My vote is for George Gobel.

DeKay
All great drummers in the suggestions. My 2 cents are as follows. Brian Downey ( Thin Lizzy) Bill Buford (Yes) +1 Chester Thompson (also played with Early Frank Zappa) Glenn Kotche (Wilco) Tre Cool (Green day) for rock. Don’t get me started on Jazz and blues.  Almost and not sure how but who could forget Keith Moon. ( Who ) if my son was a drummer with a rock inclination these drummers have the discipline to add punctuation to music. Which is a drummers role in music. 
Keith Moon...mega famous and not an underrated drummer.

Isn't this what the thread is about?

IMO the greatest unknown (by the vast majority of even hardcore music lovers, including all y'all ;-) is guitarist Danny Gatton. He's well known amongst good musicians, such as Vince Gill, who nicknamed Danny The Humbler. If you like Bill Frisell (as you "should"), you will love Danny Gatton.

When David Sanborn had NRBQ on his TV show, he introduced them as "The best Rock 'n' Roll band in the world". How many here have heard them? One of the coupla best live bands I've ever seen & heard, and that list included The Who with Keith Moon, whom I saw twice.