"Rock Star" is a song by American funk rock band N*E*R*D. It was released as the second single from their debut studio album In Search of... (2001). The song, the second single off the album, performed better in the United Kingdom than their previous single "Lapdance", peaking at number 15. It also became the group's first single to chart in Australia.
The song acted as a "second first single" of sorts, as it followed the group's debut "Lapdance", but was the first single to be released from the second, more streamlined version of In Search Of... rerecorded courtesy of Spymob rather than The Neptunes' trademark synths and electronic drum programming.
Music video
The video features the members of N.E.R.D. as High School students, in gym class, with their militant gym teacher, played by actor Randy Quaid. N.E.R.D., later starts performing "Rock Star", as the gym teacher, and other students dance along to the song. A Capuchin monkey then eventually runs into the gym, and starts havoc. [1]
An edited version of it was also used as the theme song for NFL's 2002 game NFL Fever, with Pharrell Williams' vocal part replaced with the title game words. The song also appears in the music video game Band Hero.
A portion of "Rock Star" also appears in an episode (season 3, episode 4: "Zoso") of the television series Californication, as well as an episode of Northern Irish comedy Pulling Moves.
It placed at number 46 in the Triple J Hottest 100, 2002 in Australia, which is the world's largest annual music poll.