"and madonna can't perform"
Truer words were never spoken.
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison.
Oh, wait...
I'm going to have to think about this one. Couple of ideas, but my music tastes are so wide that it would be tough. A lot of stuff that just wouldn't fit together properly.
As long as there's a banjo, I'm cool with it.
Did you know that John Lennon was a banjo player? So was Jerry Garcia.
Just so you know.
It's very slightly cheating, but:
Lead vocals and keyboard: Steve Winwood
Lead guitar: Jimi Hendrix
Lead guitar: Duane Allman
Bass: John Entwistle
Drums: John Bonham
Can you tell I have a thing for late '60s/early '70s blues-based jazz-influenced jam bands?
(It's slightly cheating because Winwood played keyboards for Jimi fairly frequently, however, not on lead vocals that I'm aware of.)
Ken, did you know that I could care less for both John Lennon and Jerry Garcia? 
Dean, that's a very interesting pairing of Hendrix and Allman. I'm actually kind of bothered that we'll never hear them because I now want to know what that would sound like. With Allmans clean, precise chops and Hendrix's dirty, full-frontal assault.
A match today that might produce similar results could be Satriani on clean and Reeves Gabrel on dirty. That would be quite the pairing also.
Ok, here's one:
Lead Singer: Kid Rock
Lead Guitar: Hendrix
Guitar #2: BB King
Guitar #3: Jimmy Page
Bass: Jeff Ament
Drums: Dave Grohl
Piano: Paul McCartney
Back up Singers: Nadirah Shakoor, Sheryl Crow, Shakira
I also thought of having BB King as the lead singer and Slash as second guitar, but thought this line up would have a bit more range. I hate putting Grohl up there for his work in N****** but that was the one part of the sound that I actually liked.
OK...so you know I love the musical hypothetical. First off...you would have to differentiate the singer from the performer...Maynard is a pretty cool singer, but his performance is horrible. I saw Tool a few years ago (I was the only person there that actually went to see the opening act Tricky) and what amazed me was just how ridiculous Maynard was about performing. They had him off to the left in the back and he played with his back to the crowd THE ENTIRE SHOW...to me that is just pretentious...if you have stage fright then just record CDs and be done with it!
OK...now that I'm done with my Maynard rant, I will lock down on artists.
One question...I may redo this list if this is for any type of supergroup or if this is for Hard Rock specific supergroup. My tastes are VERY eclectic and tend to be very indie, but here is what I would have as a Hard Rock Supergroup, with people who are alive and one with dead rockers.
Current Supergroup (Hard Rock):
Drums: Neil Peart - Anyone who knows me, knows that this guy is and will forever be, my fave drummer. The guy is truly sick...I have sat and listened to "2112", ""Moving Pictures", etc... on headphones and just tried to decipher how he does what he does.
Guitar 1: Tom Morello - My big thing about musicians and singers are that they are distinctive and there is NO ONE like Morello...or should I say the Rage Against the Machine Morello...his work in Audioslave has really disappointed me, but the guy is flat out amazing!
Keyboards/Guitar 2: Eddie Van Halen - Yes...this is a joke, but hey...can you imagine Eddie Van Halen playing second fiddle to Tom Morello in the same band?
Keyboards: Richard Wright - Nobody does hypnotic keyboards like Wright...see Pink Floyd's "Animals", specifically "Dogs" and "Sheep" and you will understand where I am coming from!
Bassist: Tony Levin - I want my bass player to blow people away, but not try to take over the spotlight. Levin's work with King Crimson, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel and countless others shows that he is versatile and a team player...therefore he would be a PERFECT fit for this band!
Singer: Perry Farrell - Since Layne Staley is dead and since Maynard has zero personality on stage, I decided to go with Farrell here. I've seen Janes Addiction a couple of times and he really is an amazing performer and has an undeniably distinctive voice. Love him or hate him, the guy is awesome onstage!
Honorable Mentions: Danny Carey (Tool), Geddy Lee (Rush), Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots), Slash (the good version of Guns n Roses), Tony Banks (Genesis), Abraham Laboriell Jr. (whoever he feels like) and Trent Reznor.
I am positive I left someone out.
Nice list Uzz. I have never seen Tool live, so I'm sure that has something to do with my choice. But, as the recording is more important to me than the live performance, I would still go with Maynard.
And to answer your question, I'm asking about any supergroup -- whatever kind you'd like.
My first choice for drummer in any situation would be Mike Portnoy, but since I had the rule about only one band member from one band that ruled out both Portnoy (first choice) and Carey (second choice).
While I'm a huge fan of Pert, I think that Portnoy and Carey have taken his groundwork and gone places he never dreamed.
I'm with you on Morello. Fantastic guy, just not my cup of tea in a guitarist. I do have immense amount of respect for the guy.
Perry Farrell is a great choice for any reason.
Lead singer: Bob Seger
Lead Guitar: Ritchie Blackmore - Deep Purple/Rainbow
2nd Guitar: Michael Schenker - UFO/MSG
Bass/backup singer: Martin Turner - Wishbone Ash
Drums: Ian Paice - Deep Purple
This band would probably be good for one hyper-frenetic show and then the two guitar players would probably kill each other.
Sounds like a really interesting mix, Rob. I am a big fan of Michael Schenker, but you violate the "can't be/have been in the same band" with Blackmore and Paice. Replace Paice with Bill Ward from Sabbath and I you'd get similar results.
Nice picks, Cullen (although I don't know much about MacAlpine).
OK, here's one:
-- Unnamed 80s-rooted metal band --
Vocals and rhythm guitar #1: James Hetfield
Rhythm guitar #2: Jim Martin (ex-Faith No More)
Lead guitar: Zakk Wylde
Drummer: Vinnie Paul (ex-Pantera/Damageplan). I had a hard time choosing between him and
Dave McClain from Machine Head, but they're sorta from different styles and Vin would fit better into this band.
Bass: I could take the easy route and choose Les Claypool, but even though he's friendly with some of these guys he's not exactly right stylistically (same problem Cullen mentioned). Coincidentally, Cullen also used one of my candidates, Frank Bello. And Cliff Burton is out because I picked Hetfield. Hmmmm... Oh DUH, I should have thought of this a long time ago: Dave Ellefson, ex-Megadeth. Definitely can keep up with Vinnie, and sticks with a fairly straight style while still being audible.
-- Unnamed 90s/modern-metal band --
Vocals: LaJon Witherspoon (Sevendust)
Rhythm guitar: Robb Flynn, Machine Head. (I might have put Dimebag Darrell in here, but that's mixing up styles a little.)
Lead guitar: Brian Haner, Avenged Sevenfold. (GIT attendee, believe it or not...)
Drums: Dave McClain -- I would have rather picked Matt McDonough from Mudvayne but, well, see below.
Bass: Ryan Martinie, Mudvayne. (He stole my idea of playing funk bass in super-heavy music, but luckily he is far more talented and can actually pull it off).
Not sure how well this band would gel, but they'd be good if they did.
Nice picks there Steve.
Re: Funk bass in heavy metal
See Suicidal Tendencies.
Stick Blackmore in Rainbow.
Oops, ST didn't enter my mind since I was thinking about more hardcore metal (Machine Head, Fear Factory, Sepultura, Mudvayne), and not so much the punkier side of things.
Still, good point. So I stole Trujillo's idea and Martinie stole mine... :-p
Better yet, you brought up a memory of seeing ST open for Metallica in Milwaukee in the mid 90s and watching Mike Muir -- who had recently broken a leg or torn a ligament in his knee or something -- thrashing around on a couch through the whole set. God that was funny.
I gotta admit, I'm a little surprised that my supergroup didn't garner at least a "huh?"...
I'm sorry, KG, I thought I had replied to yours, I meant to.
I was taken back a bit. I would honestly have to hear that mix to have any idea of what they would sound like.
That is, with my mix and some of the others, I can imagine what their production might be. BB King, Slash, Jimmy Page, Paul McCartney: I don't know if you could even get these folks in the same room, but that's why it's fantasy. I would be interesting to say the least. 
OK, I had to bite. This shows my age a bit but....
Guitar: Steve Morse
2nd Guitar: Steve Howe
Bass: Jaco Pastorius
Drums: Lenny White
Tabla: Zakir Hussain
Sax: Jan Garbarek
Violin: Jerry Goodman(cheating a little because he played with Morse, but it's my band)
Keyboards: Brian Auger
A band equipped to blow your drawers off, yet capable of great nuance and subtlety.
I love the Dixie Dregs! Great band members and Jaco was on my short list list of bassists. His "voice" was just too prominent for what I was imagining.
The bassist would certainly have to be Jaco Pastorius. For the guiarists, Derek Trucks and Jimi Hendrix would be great. I agree with you on having Nick Menza on drums. For singing, Maynard is an great choice but I'd have to go with Thom Yorke from Radiohead. That'd be a pretty sick band.
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