Best Rock & Roll Music Bands Inspired By All Kinds Of Cats
Rock bands inspired by cats are plentiful. There are cat band names like Hepcat, Cheetah Girls, Def Leppard, Stray Cats, Faster Pussycat, and many more. All rock bands are inspired by feline grace.
Band names inspired by cats and feline creatures are edgy and interesting. You won’t know what to expect from them just from the name. Let’s take the Hell Cats and the Black Cat Bones for instance. Hardcore and raw rock & roll!
Here’s a list of Kat Kult’s favorite kick-ass Rock & Roll bands whose names pay tribute to pussycats of all kinds.
Stray Cats
Sporting bodacious pompadours, tattoos, and leather jackets, the Stray Cats looked like a rockabilly band straight out of central casting. For a few years in the early 1980s, the Stray Cats were one of the hottest bands in rock & roll, racking up Top Ten hits — “Rock This Town,” “Stray Cat Strut,” “(She’s) Sexy + 17” with the aid of the newly founded MTV, which found their retro fashion visually kinetic. The group’s fall was nearly as swift as their ascendency. By the end of the ’80s, they had fallen apart. Still, the Stray Cats made an indelible impact, sending the rockabilly revival into the mainstream and setting the pace for the music’s continuation over the ensuing decades.
The Black Cat Bones
Formed in Silverton, Pretoria in 2007, The Black Cat Bones is considered to be one of the current top-performing rock acts in South Africa. Soulful, funky, Bluesy, rootsy there’s something in their songs for everyone. Their album “Book Of Miriam” gained raving reviews from online Australian-based rock, metal and blues music publication Pockpit, who claimed their music to be “unashamedly raw” and their live performance “full throttle energy.” The Black Cat Bones describe themselves as a multi-genre conglomerate of like minded music makers from Gauteng in South Africa.
Hepcat
A term that saw the birth of the word Hipster and the subculture it sprung from, Hepcat was among the most celebrated bands to emerge from the Southern California ska revival scene of the 1990s, winning fans with their infectious Caribbean melodies, soulful harmonies and swinging rhythms, all informed by elements of Reggae, Ska, Rocksteady, R&B and Jazz. Hepcat band members would be the first to tell you that the greatest reward has been being able to play with the very people who initially inspired them to play music as a group, from the Skatalites to Toot’s and the Maytals, whom they have enjoyed as fans. Hepcat has shared audiences and stages with the likes of The Allman Brothers, Taj Mahal, Ben Harper, Public Enemy, and many, many more. Best part? The reggae-ska rockers made headlines in 2026 with a high-profile Hepcat reunion run. The band completed a well-received East Coast tour and continues to play select festivals and at underground venues in Los Angeles.
Hellcats
Not to be confused with the American cheerleading comedy-drama tv-series sporting the same name, Hellcats is a two-piece, stripped-down, bare-knuckle rock ‘n’ roll band from South Africa. The duo started the band in August 2014 and played their first gig as Hellcats at the famed Arcade Empire in Pretoria. They had one song when they were asked to play that gig, so they wrote 8 tracks in two weeks leading up to it and came out the gates swinging. That’s kind of how things have rolled ever since. Hard and fast. Their sound is exactly the same, driving riffs and wailing vocals, with a clear 70’s rock influence. Filthy. Uninhibited. Turns out the Hellcats even had their own feline-inspired beer label at a stage. Hellcats’ beer was been done in conjunction with RedRock Brewing Company and while it was not available to buy, the band ran giveaways on social media, occasionally, or served it as a purr-furred beverage at their gigs.
The Cats
A Dutch rock band formed in Volendam in 1964, The Cats were active on the rock scene for roughly six years. Of the many hits the band had at home and abroad, the biggest one is “One Way Wind”, which was released in 38 countries and a top ten number in several of them, of which it was No.1 in Switzerland. In Germany, it sold more than a million copies. The song has been covered by some 150 other artists. The number was written by Arnold Muhren, bass player and chief composer.
For more cat-inspired music listen to the Kat Kult Playlist.