By Rick Hynum
One famous pop star unapologetically splatters his pizza with ketchup. One rock legend co-founded a West Coast restaurant concept with pizza on the menu and even shared a few home-chef tips with PMQ. A former child star loves pizza so much, he started what is almost certainly one of the worst bands in modern history to celebrate it.
This is the stuff that silly quizzes like PMQ’s Pop Quiz for Pizza Nerds, posted two days ago on PMQ.com, are made of. We kept the answers to ourselves at the time—for no good reason, really, except that we want you to keep coming back to our website, where you can actually learn a thing or two that’s genuinely worthwhile, especially if you subscribe to our e-newsletter, Pizza Pulse. Yes, it was shameless clickbait, but it was also, I hope, fun.
Anyway, here, at last, are the answers you’ve been waiting for, with a little inane commentary thrown in for good measure.
(If you missed the quiz on Monday, take it here first, then come back and find out how you scored.)
Which singer/songwriter has the curious habit of topping a cheese pizza with McDonald’s French fries and dousing it with ketchup?
Jason Mraz
Fiona Apple
Ed Sheeran
John Mayer
Sheeran is reportedly a “superfan” of Heinz Ketchup. In 2019 he even appeared in a YouTube ad for the brand, in which he ordered a “super fancy” meal in a “super posh” restaurant, then smothered it in ketchup, to the horror of the waiter, fellow diners and a chihuahua.
For about five years, actor Macaulay Culkin played the sexiest of all instruments—the kazoo—for a band that performed pizza-themed songs exclusively. What was the band’s name?
Filthy Animals
The Pizza Underground
Death by Pizza
Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin
Let’s face it: Filthy Animals is a far better name. It’s just not the right answer. (Also, Culkin legally changed his name to Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin in 2019, so that, too, was a plausible, if incorrect, response.) The Pizza Underground mostly parodied songs by legendary 1960s band The Velvet Underground, turning “Femme Fatale” into “Pizza Gal.” They were so bad, they reportedly got booed off stage at England’s Dot to Dot Festival in 2014.
Which iconic hit-maker celebrated with Oxford, Mississippi locals and crowd-surfed at Funky’s Pizza & Daiquiri Bar after Ole Miss upset Alabama in a 2014 football classic?
Justin Timberlake
Rihanna
Dolly Parton
Katy Perry
Yes, that would be Katy Perry, who watched the game from the sidelines in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, clad in Ole Miss swag and cheering for the Rebels. She also appeared on ESPN’s College Gameday that morning and was the only “expert” to predict that Ole Miss would pull off an upset.
Which rock guitarist, whose band had a string of hits in the 70s and 80s, co-founded a New Haven-style shop, Piece Pizzeria and Brewery, in Chicago?
Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick
Nancy Wilson of Heart
Andy Summers of The Police
Elliott Easton of The Cars
Signature pies at Piece Pizzeria include the Classic Rockin’ Red 5150, a collaboration between Nielsen and Sammy Hagar. Nielsen also inspired Piece’s Chocolate Pizza, featuring a housemade chocolate hazelnut sauce and mascarpone cheese. “It’ll feed a lot of sweet lovin’ people,” Nielsen supposedly said.
Which rock-and-roll legend was a fanatic for BBQ pizza and a regular at the place where it was invented (Coletta’s Italian Restaurant)?
Jerry Lee Lewis
Chuck Berry
Elvis Presley
Johnny Cash
Elvis couldn’t help falling in love with the BBQ pizza, invented in the 1950s by the Memphis shop to make pizza—then considered an unusual dish—more palatable to southerners. Coletta’s current owner, Jerry Coletta, once told PMQ that Elvis and his entourage “would come in every week, bringing BBQ pizzas back to Graceland.” To this day, the king’s fans can sit at Elvis’s favorite table and admire Elvis memorabilia on the walls.
Members of which famous band co-founded a restaurant concept called Rock & Brews, featuring music-themed pizzas like the Supreme’s and the Margheritaville?
The Foo Fighters
KISS
Black Sabbath
Green Day
That would be Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons. PMQ featured them on the cover of the November 2013 issue. At the time, Stanley said he was a big fan of Nancy Silverton’s crust at Pizzeria Mozza, but Trader Joe’s would do in a pinch. You can click here to read more about Stanley’s pizza preferences.
Frank Sinatra reportedly liked his pizzas simple and traditional, with a preference for thin-crust. What was his favorite NYC pizza shop?
Patsy’s Pizzeria
Lombardi’s
John’s of Bleecker Street
Totonno’s
Patsy’s was reportedly Sinatra’s hands-down favorite. I guess they made pizza his way.
When Pizza Hut rolled out its heart-shaped pizza for Valentine’s Day 2026, which music-making pair did the brand recruit to promote it?
Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart of The Eurythmics
Nick Carter and Howie Dorough of the Backstreet Boys
Daryl Hall and John Oates of Hall & Oates
Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith of Tears for Fears
Look, I don’t know anything about the Backstreet Boys, so I have nothing to say here. Honestly, I just needed one more question to round out the quiz. Those other bands were pretty badass, though.
