Today, a clip of Justin Bieber’s high-anticipated guest spot on CSI: Miami leaked to the delight of tweens everywhere. But he’s not the first musical star to grace the blood-spattered sets of the CSI franchise; the various spin-offs of the crime drama have a bizarre and extensive track record of stunt casting popular musicians to help drive up ratings. From John Mayer as lounge performer to Travis Barker as sinister rapper, we count down the best (and by that, in most cases we mean the funniest) musical guests, after the jump.
Travis Barker
Barker played the street gang leader “Poppin’ Tags” on Season 6. He’s pretty good, actually — maybe CSI allowed him to act out his alter-ego. Note that the lady accompanying him is his real-life love interest (and Paris Hilton nemesis) Shanna Moakler.
Method Man
The ever-illustrious Method Man is no stranger to television and movies, and his CSI performance shows that he’s pretty comfortable with the camera. In this clip, he weighs in on the most pressing identity question of out time: boxers or briefs? Method Man appeared in three episodes of the show as “Drops.”
Kevin Federline
Season 7 featured the former Mr. Britney Spears as a street thug named “Pig.” Brilliantly, the episode is titled “Fannysmackin,” and K-Fed’s major role is to get jacked up by the po-lice. Same as it ever was.
Roger Daltrey
The Who frontman played a Las Vegas mob leader in season 7’s “Living Legend,” working on his accent with speech coach Joel Goldes so he could nail that ever-so-elusive 1970s sleazebag accent.
Taylor Swift
The queen of teenage country played Haley Jones in Season 9’s “Turn, turn, turn.” Swift gets the most coveted CSI role of all: murder victim with mysterious past. The above clip is a montage of Swift’s scenes from a self-proclaimed “super-fan.” Suffice to say, Swift shouldn’t quit her day job — or um, other night job.
Honorable Mention: John Mayer
Unfortunately for us all, John Mayer does not get a death scene in his episode of CSI. Instead, he croons in the background in one of those awkward why-are-these-characters-at-a-concert-and-not-a-murder-scene moments that happen on CSI. And Mayer flips his hair around and stares at you with his limpid eyes and plucks the guitar. Note that he is the only musical guest to actually play music on the show — unless you count Travis Barker’s fictional rap career. Next up: (we hope) Meatloaf and Lady Gaga as a serial-killing brother and sister band.