Music artist table schema: first/middle/last name vs. band name?

[champ]

I want to create a mini artist bio database, but I'm wondering how best to construct the artist table schema.

method #1: stick everything in one artist name column...

CREATE TABLE artist (
  id INT(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  band_name VARCHAR(50),
  PRIMARY KEY(id)
)

...the above obviously doesn't take first/middle/last name into account, which just seems wrong.

method #2: split up the fields...

CREATE TABLE artist_alternative (
  id INT(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  first_name VARCHAR(50),
  last_name VARCHAR(50),
  middle_name VARCHAR(50),
  band_name VARCHAR(50),
  PRIMARY KEY(id)
)

...the above would result in a lot of null values because a band_name (eg, Rolling Stones) would have no need for the first/last/middle name fields.

How should this be properly handled?