Get a haircut and get a real job : Rockers who got real jobs

Get A Job: Musicians and non-Music Careers

 

Being rich is not synonymous with being an a-hole. There are a lot of wealthy people who have great personalities.

Here are some who at one point went into other professions that may or may not have been mentioned, as I haven't read the whole thread:

David Lee Roth became an EMT
Herb Fame (of Peaches & Herb) became a police officer
Dr. Dre became a businessman
Alice Cooper owns a resteraunt
Boz Scaggs owns a restaurant

 

Didn't Moody Blues' Clint Warwick become a carpenter? Colin Blunstone worked in insurance (don't know when, though... Solo records from 1971 onward... Must have been circa 1968/69/70?)

I can come up with tons from more obscure progressive outfits but not off the top of my head. Reading some of my old Repertoire booklets you get some interesting stories.

 

As is Dave Fenton, frontman of the Vapors ("Turning Japanese"). He actually qualified before the band started but didn't practice until they broke up, and today he's the lead solicitor for the Musicians Union in the UK.

 

Phil Alvin, singer with The Blasters was a maths teacher when he wasn't being a Blaster.
Howard Devoto, singer with Magazine, worked in a picture library for a while.
John Starling, member of The Seldom Scene and solo artist is a qualified doctor.

 

Philip Taylor Kramer, onetime bassist for Iron Butterfly, became a computer engineering executive and worked in multimedia, developing data processing techniques for CD-ROM.
He disappeared in mysterious circumstances in February 1995, prompting numerous conspiracy theories. His remains were found in May 1999.

 

Elvis Presley became a bartender on this small carrabean island, selling drinks to Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix - but it's not confirmed 100%, might be a rumour...

 

Chris Groothuizen, bassist with The House of Love, became an architect.

 

Ken Hensley of Uriah Heep worked at a music store in St Louis for many years in the 90s.

 

Alan Leach, drummer of Shed Seven, developed an app based pub quiz system called speed quizzing, and runs the company.

 

Two members of Glasgow punk band the Dreamboys went on to careers as a talk show host and a Doctor... Craig Ferguson and Peter Capaldi.

 

What's an ahole?

 

Todd Barry played drums on the 1985 debut album by the Chant, a Florida-Georgia rock band.

You may have come across him in his second career.

 

Alan Gratzer of REO Speedwagon became a restauranteur.

Richard Coles of The Communards became a vicar

Greg Giuffria ran a company that designed gaming machines for casinos.

Bob Egan of Blue Rodeo is now a public servant working at a library.

 

Dean Torrence of Jan & Dean - graphics artist

 

Starcastle's Herb Schildt became a programmer and wrote many books on programming languages.

 

For more than 35 years Deniz Tek has flawlessly combined being a founding member and lead guitarist of Australian garage rock legends Radio Birdman - and subsequent bands The Visitors and New Race - with working as a doctor. In between, he also served time in the US Navy as a flight surgeon.

These days the 63-year-old works 20 hours a week at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in between living out his rock’n’roll dream touring with Radio Birdman and producing solo albums.

 

Blessed are the cheesemakers

 

Peter Garrett - Midnight Oil was a member of Parliament from 2004 to 2013

 

Didn't he also work as a telemarketer during this time? I heard that and wondered if anyone he ever called knew who he was.

 

Jethro Tull Ian Anderson runs fish farm - May 5, 1998

 

Overend Watts of Mott The Hoople also went in to the antiques business... opening a shop, Dinosaw Market, in Hereford.

It became a pilgramage of sorts for fans... he had his guitars and MTH stage clothing on display... not for sale, of course.

 

Leon Meya of Northern Uproar (mid 90s Britpop band who were kind of a teen version of Oasis) became a hairdresser.

 

Eds Chesters of the Bluetones became an osteopath during the band's initial split. As far as I know, he's still practicing even during the band's reformation and sporadic gigging of the last few years.