First Name Basis

Reveal: There are 7 musicians hiding in the across answers- Chuck 1A, Harry 20A, Eddie 32A, Charley 35A, Keith 39A, Elvin 44A, Robert 61A. The first letters of the first names, in order, spell CHECKER. Apply the metanism one more time to get CHUBBY, the meta answer. There are a couple hints in the down answers- 5D & 41D.

Joey Bishop delayed me for a moment, but back-solving was straightforward. Googling Elvin Bishop led to some unexpectedly gruesome stuff I'd managed to miss the first time around. Well done!

Fun one! I only got the first five, but that was enough to get me through. I tried to Google the last two, but did find anything familiar. Thanks for adding the reveal. ;-)

Very nice- quick solve! Berry, Styles and Plant popped out at me pretty quickly- then I noticed Urban and Money, and that was more than enough to get me past the fact that I do not know Pride or Bishop!

The banner carried this for me, I wouldn't have known to look for musicians otherwise.