The jobs rockers had BEFORE getting a guitar and starting to be famous

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Echo, Apr 16, 2018.

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  1. Echo

    Echo Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Inspired by this thread Get a haircut and get a real job : Rockers who got real jobs I would like to start an opposite thread:

    Which kind of jobs did some of those 'rockers' had BEFORE they got famous as musician?

    Here two examples:

    Ian Curtis of Joy Division was working as civil servant for the community of Manchester and Macclesfield

    Deborah Harry of Blondie used to be a bunny for Playboy
     
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  2. dead of night

    dead of night Senior Member

    Location:
    Northern Va, usa
    I've just learned from the HBO documentary that Elvis was an electrician's assistant.
     
  3. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    John Entwistle was a rust repairer, and a professional survivor (he survived all the major wars), at least until 2002.
     
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  4. Gibby Haynes of Butthole Surfers was an accountant.
     
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  5. Chance

    Chance Forum Resident

    Location:
    Morris County, NJ
    Chrissie Hynde and Sid Vicious both worked for a time in Malcolm McClaren's legendary SEX boutique.

    Cilla Black (not a rocker, but I think it's a cool little anecdote) was the coat check girl at the Cavern.
     
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  6. Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys was a pop music journalist writing for Smash Hits.

    Greg Ginn of Black Flag ran a small mail order electronic components business.
     
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  7. Mr Sam

    Mr Sam "...don't look so good no more"

    Location:
    France
    Annie Lennox did work in a fish-packing factory in Aberdeen
     
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  8. JozefK

    JozefK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dixie
    Elvis Costello was a computer programmer

    Graham Parker pumped gas/petrol

    Bryan Ferry was an arts & crafts instructor

    Dave Clark claims to have been a stuntman

    BB King, Waylon Jennings, and The Big Bopper were radio disc jockeys

    Kris Kristofferson taught English at West Point (US Military Academy)
     
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  9. weirdoc

    weirdoc Forum Resident

    Location:
    Berlin
    Johnny Ramone was a construction worker...
    while Joey sold plastic flowers on the street :)
     
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  10. Slackhurst Broadcasting

    Slackhurst Broadcasting Forum Resident

    Location:
    Liverpool
    Dee Dee Ramone was a male prostitute and apparently still turned occasional tricks in the group's early days.
     
  11. notesfrom

    notesfrom Forum Resident

    Location:
    NC USA
    Elvis Presley was a truck driver.
     
  12. AlienRendel

    AlienRendel Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, il
    Captain Sensible and Rat Scabies were both toilet cleaners in Croyden before starting the Damned. Dave Vanian worked as a grave digger.
     
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  13. Overthehillsandfaraway

    Overthehillsandfaraway Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    Noel Gallagher worked laying kitchen floors and for British Gas, before roadying for the Inspiral Carpets then forming Oasis.
     
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  14. vonwegen

    vonwegen Forum Resident

    Joe Strummer got hired and failed to pan out as a grave digger in Wales.

    Morrissey founded the New York Dolls Fan Club in the UK, or so I have read.
     
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  15. bleachershane

    bleachershane Forum Resident

    Location:
    Glasgow, Scotland
  16. Kris Kristofferson was also a janitor- at a Columbia music studio in Nashville.

    Before that- I just learned this on the Wikitubes- Kristofferson had a job as a 17-year-old that he called the hardest of his life: working for a dredging contractor on Wake Island. And after that, the US Army. Where he became not only an officer- a Captain- but a helicopter pilot.

    Interesting life, really. Kris Kristofferson - Wikipedia
     
  17. Overthehillsandfaraway

    Overthehillsandfaraway Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    One of the best known: Robert Plant worked for the firm now known as Tarmac as a road layer. According to the man himself, he tarmaced half of West Brom high street.

    Hence the in joke in his cameo here

     
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  18. Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead was a postman, driving an urban route in San Francisco.

    Jerry Garcia was a guitar teacher.
     
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  19. dmiller458

    dmiller458 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Midland, Michigan
    Kurt Cobain talked about how after dropping out, the only job he could find was as a janitor at the same high school he just quit.
     
  20. dartira

    dartira rise and shine like a far out superstar

    "Professional survivor"? "Major wars"? You mean addiction or something?
     
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  21. Other postal workers who became rock stars:

    Bon Scott of AC/DC
    Ace Frehley of Kiss
     
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  22. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    Sting was a schoolteacher.

    He insists that "Don't Stand So Close to Me" is not based on personal experience. ;)
     
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  23. Appropriately enough, Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh of the Human League (and later Heaven 17) were both computer programmers as well. League vocalist Phil Oakey was an orderly at a hospital.
     
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  24. Overthehillsandfaraway

    Overthehillsandfaraway Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    Ozzy Osbourne worked at a slaughterhouse & at British Leyland in Birmingham (as a car horn tester!) before Sabbath.
     
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  25. entropyfan

    entropyfan Forum Resident

    Sly Stone spun records for KSOL in the Bay.

    [​IMG]
     
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