rock stars who went back work.

Presumably he learned from his mistakes.

See her song "Spam Again"

Didn't David Lee Roth go into paramedic training recently?

Kurt Wagner kept up the fllooring business.

And didn't Sterling Morrison become a tourist boat captain while waiting for the Velvets reunion?

Why, surely he could. But I think that he actually takes pleasure in working as a building contractor.

You won't WITHER when you get the BILL!

ihttp://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~bgwaters/ed1.jpg

Bill "Zoot Horn Rollo" Harkleroad apparently works in a little music / record shop and sometimes teaches guitar.

Sterling Morrison was a teacher .. College I think ...

Benny Spellman, the great New Orleans singer (of "Lipstick Traces") was a beer salesman.

Alex Chilton was a tree-trimmer and dishwasher in New Orleans in the early '80s.

I think Alberta Hunter became a nurse...

I'm pretty sure Moe Tucker worked at a Wal-Mart down in Georgia.

here in glasgow, steven pastel of the pastels runs a record shop (although the pastels are still going too). one of uresei yatsura works in a record shop, alan rankine of the associates teaches music technology and bobby bluebell of the bluebells is a dj.

Where?

More Chicago musicians:

Janet Bean of Eleventh Dream Day and Freakwater works at a law firm. Tim Kinsella of Joan of Arc and Johnny Herndon of Tortoise have both bartended at the Rainbo Club in Wicker Park. John Navin of the Aluminum Group is a public school teacher; his brother Frank waits tables at the restaurant in the Hancock Building.

I remember Steven working in the music department of John Smith' before they sold up to Starbucks. Alan Rankine helped get Belle and Sebastians career off the ground.

on the pylon website, there's information about all the current occupations of its members.

i almost never hear of musicians / artists in general existing without some sort of dayjob.

Mark Perry (Alternative TV) worked in WH Smiths for a while
Vic Godard (Subway Sect) is a postman
Manic Esso (Lurkers) was last seen working as a drayman
Viv Albertine (Slits) works (vaguely) in television
Topper Headon (Clash) is apparently a taxi driver
Gaye Advert (Adverts) works (vaguely) in personnel / admin
Pauline Murray (Penetration) I believe works in Social Services
Jayne Casey (Big In Japan / Pink Industry / Pink Military) works for Liverpool Council
Howard Devoto (Buzzcocks / Magazine) works / worked for a picture archive library
Paul Jones (drummer with Killing Joke protegees Red Beat) works for High Wycombe council; as, I believe does Howard (also form High Wycombe but no relation afaik) Jones' mime-artist chum Jed Hoile.

If you follow the link in my first post....

dave allen from gang of four and shriekback is in the digital/computer/music/whatever biz in some capacity.

john s. hall from king missile is an entertainment lawyer.

as for M4rk 1bold of Pavement -- hell, he was working as the mersh guy for other bands even when pavement was at the height of their success. i'm not sure he ever went back to work inasmuch as i'm not sure he ever didn't work.

You worked at sonicnet, fcc? Was that what used to be Addicted to Noise?

sonicnet and addicted to noise were two separate companies that merged in the late '90s and continued using both identities; i started not long after the merger and essentially worked for both.

must ... fact-check ... self. for the historical record: sonicnet was on broadway. damn close to bleecker, though.

in the late 1980s or early 1990s, i no longer remember, i visited friends who lived in a squatted flat in brixton. I was introduced to a couple that was temporarily staying in one of my friends rooms. they guy looked like a heroin addict. he was introduced to me as topper headon, the clash drummer. i had no idea of his or the clash's fame and had certainly not heard their music before. topper told me he works as a cab driver. not sure if he still would be as some of their songs were successfully rereleased.

re: mid-level indie bands -- lots of them work temp jobs in between tours. this also explains why bands like that tour a lot: its one of their few sources of income.

That would be Tim Quirk: He went on to become editorial director of Listen.com, now a part of Real.com. Great, great guy. TMJ unfortunately didn't make him much money due to the ol' demon RECOUPMENT.

But as for others: Bobby Sherman became a California EMT; and of course Pete Best made donuts at a bakery after becoming an ex-Beatle.

Does becoming a preacher count as "going back to work"? If so, we can add Vanity, Little Richard, Ma$e, and a ton of others.

That's awesome.

actually, i was talking about sandy smallens. tim was tmj's singer and might have had a desk awfully close to the sonicnet office in san francisco, but never inside it. sandy was the tmj's bassist and his desk was inside the sonicnet office in new york. apparently, being in tmj was an excellent background for getting back to work in the digital music biz! (and tmj, of course, had a song back in the day that celebrated noted getting-back-to-worker hugo burnham of gang of four.) ((and if you spend your time in music tv/video circles, you're likely to run into a third member of too much joy.))

Somebody once told me they had met a lawyer at a business meeting who told them he had been in Looking Glass, if not the lead singer
himself.

And what about the bass player in Huey Lewis's old (and for one album, Elvis Costello's) band Clover, who has been known to play with Lucinda Williams but also got a day job as a chiropractor, Dr. John Ciambotti?

Paging Al Green.

guess those stock options never quite paid off, huh? ;-)

Last I heard (a couple of years ago) he was living somewhere down near (Dover?) and still driving a taxi.

Anton Fier was working as a counterman at a local sandwich shop in downtown Brooklyn until recently.

Buzzcocks have been back together (only Pete and Steve Diggle from the origonal line-ups) since 1989....

xpost:
Baby's got back work.

Greg Demos, former GBV.....wasn't he another lawyer type?

I saw Debbie (guitar player) from Curve/Echobelly working at a used disc store in London right across from the Notting Hill tube stop in 2000.

Jack Natz (Undead/Virus/BlackSnakes/Cop Shoot Cop/Lubricated Goat/CrimeWave/Crux) is now a bike messenger.

Supposedly Wild Bill Carter of the Screaming Blue Messiahs is now a scooter messenger in London...with a tenuous grasp on sanity.

an old co-worker used to get her taxes done by (i think) the drummer from the circle jerks.

I've heard that too, only it's not the drummer, it's their bass player circa Golden Showe of Hits (whose name escapes me).

And didn't Sterling Morrison become a tourist boat captain while waiting for the Velvets reunion?

he was a tugboat captain. also, a medieval scholar.

M4rk Ibold is also a "food designer" for photo shoots. Meaning, he makes sure photographed food looks good.

if it's a medallion, and not a license, there would be incredible financial incentive to keep renewing it.

he actually worked at Rocketdyne in Simi Valley. i tried to talk to him about it once but that guy is difficult to talk to. he's always in his own world.

also check this out about my favo heavy metal singer:

Bruce Dickinson juggles life as singer for the band Iron Maiden with flying a Boeing

A ROCK star whose band is famed for long hair and wild on-stage antics has taken off in a new career: as an airline pilot.

Bruce Dickinson, lead singer of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden, has passed rigorous flight exams to qualify to fly twin-engine passenger jets with a new charter airline based at Gatwick.

He now works as a pounds 35,000-a-year first officer, flying 148-seat Boeing 737s to holiday destinations ranging from Portugal to Egypt.

These days, Dickinson, 44, who once had waist-length, ginger hair and leapt around stage in leathers and skin-hugging tights ...

I read somewhere that he'd been a freelance journalist while in Cobra Verde--is he a staff writer or a stringer now?

Julia Cafritz reportedly is teaching in NYC, and I once heard about Juliana Hatfield working at one of the Newbury Comics stores.

-- Jay-Kid (jizzleki...) (webmail), February 1st, 2005 3:54 PM. (Jay-Kid) (link)

I'd have thought he could live off of the royalties from "Lean on Me" alone.

-- Hurting (Hurtingchie...) (webmail), February 1st, 2005 3:54 PM. (Hurting) (link)

i read an interview with him recently; he says he just likes to be busy. sounds good to me. i wonder if the showcase homes he builds have a big "built by BILL 'LEAN ON ME' WITHERS" sign out front.

His career reads:

Rock Star
Fighter Pilot
Doctor

bastard!

It's John Maher. In one of the recent Manchester documentaries on BBC, he's interviewed in his garage.

J. Geils of the J. Geils Band is a car restorer in rural NY or MA.

Peter Tork taught social studies, math, and music at a high school for a while after his career with the Monkees.

David Schelzel of The Ocean Blue was a year behind me in law school. We had a class together, and he seemed pretty bookish. I believe he is a corporate attorney somewhere in MN.

ah she ain't gotta work, isn't her dad some big-deal london real estate tycoon?

Once he delivered my mail for a week or two. It's true!

**I saw Debbie (guitar player) from Curve/Echobelly working at a used disc store in London right across from the Notting Hill tube stop in 2000.**

She still does, Alex. It's the big Record and Tape Exchange (or Music and Video exchange as it's now called.) She's usually in the rock rareties section upstairs, where Epic Soundtracks also used to work.

James Williamson of the Stooges does something w/computers in Silicon Valley.

ihttp://www.electroharmonix.co.jp/tubeworks/img/911.jpg

"Once he delivered my mail for a week or two. It's true!"

It can't be all that frequent for a customer to ask a postman to sign something he hasn't even delivered....

Last year my old mate N* (who's a delivery driver) was asked to deliver a package to an address somewhere in Surrey.

So he turned up at the door of this cottage and knocked - and it was answered by none other than Bruce Foxton of The Jam / Stiff Little Fingers.

The ensuing converstaion apparently went something like this:

N*: "Bruce Foxton?"
BF: "Yes?"
N*: "Bruce...? Foxton...?"
BF: "Errrr.... yes?"
N*: "Bruce Foxton!"
BF: "Can I help you?"
N*: "But you're.... you're.... Bruce Foxton!"
BF: "Ummm.... yes, I know!"

On his return to the depot, N* was apparently asked to explain why he hadn't obtained a signature for the delivery and the only explanation he was able to offer was "He was Bruce Foxton.... Bruce Foxton? Oh, you know: Bruce Foxton!"

I believe N* got a bit of a bollocking for leaving the package without getting a signature but he still insists that his biggest regret was failing to ask Mr. Foxton to teach him how to play the bass line to "Precious".

His body (and the wreckage of his minivan) was later found at the bottom of a ravine off of Highway 23 in the Santa Monica Mountains.

-- noizem duke (dan...), February 2nd, 2005.

We all gotta work; it's part of God's plan.

(she was a drummer in an all girl band)

Don Van Vliet paints too, but I don't know what his stuff sells for.

He probably does this for bragging rights.

Big Paul Ferguson of Killing Joke is now an art restorer, specializing in pre-Islamic Afghan scupture (Ghandaran?)

Doesn't Jim Martin, ex Faith No More, now raise genetically enhanced super-sized vegetables (ala Woody Allen's "Sleeper")? I seem to remember reading that somewhere.

She's at Cal State Chico and spends time in her trailer out in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

xpost: Milo is a chemistry chair (?) at the University of Delaware. I went to the same college that Milo originally went to while he was still there doing his PhD candidacy and my friend BB and I would go into his office and antagonize him to no end... hehe.

Wasn't/Isn't Greg Graffin of Bad Religion a professor at UC Berkeley?

http://www.jonathanlevinegallery.com/

Amazing, if true. Just like that Bruce Dickinson story. Wow.

On the contrary, I find it inspiring, especially the many examples of those for whom a music career was just one chapter in an interesting and varied life.

And I think we can all agree that piloting an airplane is the more inspiring of *those* two choices.

And Pat DiNizio as an elementary Music teacher somehow strikes me as insanely cool. I'll bet the songwriters-turned-teachers list is quite long, given the number that come to mind immediately.

todd trainer (shellac) has been selling hair products for like 15 years or something.

brian mcmahan (slint) is now an electrician.

matt talbot (hum)owns his own recording studio and is a high school football coach near champaign, il.

wayne coyne (flaming lips) worked at a long john silvers for over 10 years.

adam pfahler (jawbreaker) owns his own video store.

OH MAN, you gotta tell some stories.

Also, Deniz Tek not only became a doctor, but an emergency room surgeon in Montana. He & his wife returned to Aussie Land a coupla years ago since she missed it. He's always talked about musicians needing to keep a day job, just to maintain some connection to real life.

Mike Lutz from Brownsville Station(co-wrote "Smokin' in the Boys Room" with Cub Koda) taught me bass guitar for a coupla years. Cub Koda became a rock writer, and wrote for AMG right up until his death in 2000.

so freakee when that happens. oddly i now live bang opposite the house that john mcgeogh (mentioned upthread) used to live in, in whalley range. small world etc.

You won't WITHER when you get the BILL!

-- Hurting (Hurtingchie...), February 1st, 2005.

I had a good chuckle readint this again ...

and still does, for kicks! its the smile on the kids' faces when he sells them popcorn shrimp that brings him back at least once a year.

You're laughing at your own jokes, Josh?

There's a lot of wisdom in this comment. I think a lot of people would have a hard time doing *nothing* after becoming famous, especially if (as most of the folks above) they never hit the A-List anyway.

I always think about Andy Kaufman, who at the height of his fame worked at Cantor's Deli and was apparently a good, conscientious worker.

There was a quote from Cliff Richard in the Times a while ago, in an article about (and whole-heartedly in favour of) extending copyright, in which he bemoaned the fact that some poor old musicians who'd had a single hit many decades ago could no longer earn a living off the royalties. Get a job!

this thread is depressing... dreams have been shattered

-- firstworldman ( ), February 3rd, 2005 4:45 AM.

again.

yeah, he was a busboy. he talked about doing it to prove (to himself, probably) that "i'm no better than them."

Can anyone substantiate this? (That he owns a subway, not that he is a chef...) Maybe if Kanye's around he'll know...

Perhaps he doesn't need the money but simply enjoys the work. I don't share the assumption that s.o. would be daft to have a day-job (however 'humble') if they didn't need the money. Work *can* be healthy. Unemployment (in my experience) usually isn't, + not only for financial reasons.

Inspiral Carpets singer ?? worked in Tele-marketing a while ago.

Jim Marcus, one of the guys from Die Warzau (early 90's industrial/dance band) was doing programming (Y2k/COBOL stuff) last I heard in 1997.

Legendary bassist Henry Grimes stopped playing music completely for many years and worked in construction and as a janitor. He's playing bass again though now...

My friend Alan claims to have played sax with Pop Group but I've never seen his name connected with the band. I adore him too much to prove him wrong.

-- eric (ericfetterman200...), September 21st, 2005.

Last I heard (earlier this year), he's working with a friend of mine at a noatable record shop on Haight in SF

# Pete: Lead Singer in Polak (worked in a second hand book shop in Brighton as well)
# Robert: Getting into computer networks.
# Kevin: Math Teacher in Bodmin Community College, but I hear that he's going to Truro(?).
# Wil: Teacher

-- eric (ericfetterman200...), September 21st, 2005.

now he works at the Amoeba in San Francisco

stuck on yooooooooou till the end of tiiiiiiime

Fact is, almost all of them. If you're in a band and you're not the songwriter, and you decide you're not going to tour endlessly as a hasbeen, you're going back to work. Songwriters get royalties, and may be able to live off them if they had a big enough hit. The other musicians only get paid as long as they're playing - when they stop, that's it. That TV show Hit Me Baby One More Time was great - showing the likes of Loverboy at their day jobs. Some musicians transition to sidemen/session musician/teaching or music industry careers, but the rest are on the payroll.

Rob Van Winkle (AKA Vanilla Ice) - mananger of a convenience store
Tim Cronin (Monster Magnet) - longtime fixture at Jack's Music Shop in Red Bank NJ
Tod A (Cop Shoot Cop, Firewater) - graphic designer at Rolling Stone
Lyle Preslar (Minor Threat) - A&R rep
Kira (Black Flag) - computer programmer

the singer from the band failure pumps my gas.
Self-fulfilling prophecy?

Ron Sexsmith used to be a messenger in Toronto, on foot. (He doesn't drive). He told me he was delivering a package to a business there that had a return address in Lebanon, TN, which gave him the idea for that song on his first record.

He left Beatnik a few years ago to start some cellphone ringtone company.

Nope. Hugo Burnham teaches at the Brookline Art Institute here in Boston.

Until very recently, Marty Crandall from the Shins worked at Bow Wow Records in Albuquerque. I bought many an album from him over the years.

Which is probably every band member's dream.

kinda hot, actually.

they used to say that if you drive a jaguar, you need a mechanic riding in the boot.

british computers must have been similar, that's a lot of operators.

This sounds almost too Aki Kaurismaki!

It's true, though I'm not sure whether he took the rollercoaster job for financial reasons or for something else. I guess you're right about the Kaurismäki thing, except that Kaurismäki would never make a film with mobile phones in it. Valtonen recently did a comeback tour with his first band, Sleepy Sleepers, but that was just one-shot, I'm not sure what he's doing now.

I should add that working at the record store was nothing to be 'shamed of; I just figured that because of Atlantic, the guy wouldn't have to work retail any mo'.

Why not? Aesthetic or ideological reasons?

I love that he didn't come to the last NY Film Festival out of solidarity with Abbas Kiarostami, who, being Iranian, didn't get a visa.

John Curley of the Afghan Whigs owns a recording studio in Cincinnati (Ultrasuede), and also does web design, with his wife.

-- mikef (mflemin...), September 23rd, 2005.

totally confirmed. a friend of mine here in SF works for a ringtone company called Moderati, and they deal with Thomas all the time.

in Pittsburgh, they were the shit - but i don't know just how big they really got elsewhere.

but i bought a couple of CD's off of him. nice enough guy.

Nope. Hugo Burnham teaches at the Brookline Art Institute here in Boston.

But before that he did A&R for Imago Records. In fact, he was my friend's band's A&R guy. When he got fired, they got dropped.

I've heard that too, only it's not the drummer, it's their bass player circa Golden Showe of Hits (whose name escapes me).

If your co-worker got her taxes done by Roger Rogerson, she's got serious problems because a) he's been dead for 10 years and, b) before that, he was a raving drunk. Keith Clark, the drummer from the Circle Jerks is the accountant. The Circle Jerks' original drummer, Lucky Lehrer, took over his family's optical supply business and is now a gazillionaire. His brother Chett, of Wasted Youth fame, is company VP.

John Kezdy of The Effigies is a prosecutor in Illinois.

This is true, but it`s actually a commercial music production house; I used to work for the same company. `A musician`s dream` it was not.

Also...
David William Sims (Scratch Acid/Rapeman/Jesus Lizard) is an accountant.
From Lungfish, Daniel Higgs works as a tattoo artist and the drummer is an administrator at a hospital.
During his self-imposed isolation, Kevin Shields made ends meet by selling backstock vinyl of My Bloody Valentine`s pre-Creation albums directly to stores.
Greg Dulli owns a bar in Hollywood.
Tim Harrington (Les Savy Fav) makes handmade housewares with his wife.
Yes, Jim Martin (Faith No More) grows giant mutant pumpkins.

all of a sudden, several things make sense

Scott Miller is a computer programmer.

Alison Faith Levy manages a Barnes & Noble.

Gil Ray works for a record distributor.

Not sure what Kenny Kessel is up to; maybe programming as well.

Well, this is about the least-surprising news that I've heard all day.

David Lee Roth is taking over Howard Stern's slot on K-Rock in NYC when Howard moves to Sirius.

I've stayed at Kate Pierson's motel. Fun and Kitschy. It's in the Catskills.

I heard one of the guys from Flowered Up was selling records in a stall in the Camden Lock.

Larry Graham (Graham Central Station) goes door to door with Prince as an evangelizing Jehovah's Witness.

Adam Sultan of Poi Dog Pondering works as help desk operator at Apple Computer.

From the Reivers, John Croslin works at the University of Texas, Kim Longacre teaches at a Montessori school, and Cindy Toth works at a used bookstore.

Michael Hall of the Wild Seeds (and his own solo career) is a staff writer at Texas Monthly magazine. His longtime guitarist Randy Franklin (Standing Waves, F-Systems, Loose Diamonds) runs a folk-art gallery called Yard Dog.

FYI (those who care): Biscuit of the Big Boys died a couple of weeks ago.

Roy Montgomery is a English professor in NZ.

yeah, i have his business card, even.

Ed Sanders of The Fugs taught for awhile at B@rd College in the early 80s. His flagship course was "Cultural Reportage."

oh wow, didn't know that. i took that course, but in the mid-90s, long after sanders was gone.

http://www.thedevoeteam.com/engine/home/standard/500/en/6631/

--Bill Simmon
www.candleboy.com/candleblog/

Jawbox guitarist Bill Bardot is part owner of DC design studio, Threespot.

Wife Kim Colleta was getting her Library Science degree from Catholic U.

D-Plan drummer Joe Easley was last heard going back to school to finish his Aerospace Engineering degree.

Frodus drummer Jason Hammacher is a part-time massage therapist, freelance photographer, & writer.

Keith Alexander from Carnivore was working in piercings/body modifications before becoming a software guru. Sadly he died this summer in a bicycling accident.

Now he is a photographer http://www.williamhenshall.com

Then he was the same Jim Spellman cruising around New Orleans last month giving street details. Hopefully the spark for a flood-themed reunion album.

Poised for a big deal with Capitol Records the band's deal was thwarted by the myopic Kerry's side gig desires for war hero, senator and presidential canidate.

This is an interesting thread overall. Speaking as one who had a few minutes in the spot light in the early 90s, I have found that life after being in a band is great. You have to sacrifice so much of your own life and friend and family relationships to get a real career going that keeping a balance of real life and chasing the music dream becomes inpossible to keep. I got no regrets...but I am glad I don't live out of a suitcase anymore. Here's some more stuff about my work www.rockstarphoto.us

I did help run some 'cool' record companies, like Caroline. I walked away as the industry fell off the cliff -- hell, they didn't want me anyway.

Now I'm a 2nd year law student, hoping to one day help out some artists and others in the new world we live in.

todd
________________________
www.homestudiotips.com

I too have heard Jim Spellman is at CNN and Archie's at a DC studio.

Kelly and Brian of V-girl are at the Washington City Paper I think....

Still waiting on the V-girl reunion album....It's hard to believe with the myspace explosion and internet adv. that the V-girl fans out there wouldn't unite to pay some $ for it... :)

-- Lyle Preslar (lyle.presla...), November 10th, 2005.

Sorry, my bad.

This thread just got ten times cooler, though.

http://travel.u.nu/pic/nl/overblaak.jpg

From the Loud Family: Scott Miller is a computer programmer.

...and working on a new album, I hear, despite swearing off the biz a few years back.

Ed's Redeeming Qualities: Dan Leone became a food critic. Carrie Bradley started working for a graphic design company after her tenure in the Breeders.

Vudi from American Music Club also did the taxi-driver gig, I believe.

To follow-up far upthread, Don Van Vliet's paintings go for a rather large stack of nickels, yes.

Laurie Anderson claims to have worked at a McDonald's in NYC recently, but it was undoubtedly for more of a conceptual/storytelling purpose as usual. I would have paid large sums of money to sit in on that job interview, though.

Larry "Mr . Fingers" Heard quit music to go into computer programming...(I hear he's back, though)...

and somebody mentioned Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart...yeah, his music wasn't selling so he had to go into visual art to make ends meet...

yessir, empire records on...cicero, i think it was. met rick rizzo there in 1992. had the exact same reaction.

Hoch-le-roi.

Boz Skaggs had a restaurant on Union St. in San Francisco and I walked past a lot...one time he was there changing light bulbs over the entrance...

awesome
http://www.thedevoeteam.com/

A+

can someone clever but 'to' in the title between 'back' and 'work'?

Victor Krummenacher of Camper Van Beethoven:
Welcome to my day job.

For the last 15 years, I've been heavily involved in graphic design, when music doesn't pay the mortgage, this does. I've worked as the Art Director for the San Francisco Bay Guardian, as a page designer for Wired Magazine and as a freelance graphic designer for dozens of clients doing everything from CD design to advertisements to publication redesign.

Eric Bachmann of Archers of Loaf sells Cuban sandwiches in Denver

A few years back I remember seeing one of the members of ...and you will know us by the trail of dead working at a record store in Austin, specifically 33 degrees.

Also, Cuban sandwiches kick major ass and as such selling them is an honorable and praiseworthy trade.

I've been listening to Joe Escalante of the Vandals on Indie 103 in LA for a couple years now, it seems. Also Steve Jones (the Steve Jones) has a one-hour daily stint there.

Also, Joe was an entertainment biz lawyer for a while. He does a legal advice call-in once a week.

"When I was in college in the late eighties, I remember seeing one of the members of Eleventh Dream Day working in a Chicago record store. It was right then and there I saw the light that recording for a major label didn't give you a license to quit your day job. Even at 20-21 years old, I knew that the indie-level bands had some other source of income besides music, but 11DD were on Atlantic Records at the time - home of Phil Collins and Debbie Gibson! But, they weren't making Phil or Debbie's $$$, so..."

"yessir, empire records on...cicero, i think it was. met rick rizzo there in 1992. had the exact same reaction."

The store I was implying was actually the long-defunct-and-much-missed Round Records on Sheridan, and 11DD's Baird Figi worked there in the late eighties and early nineties. Only now finding out that Rizzo worked at Empire.

holy crap! i used to live around the corner from round records in '90-'91. went there all the time. had i recognized baird figi i'm sure my mind would have been similarly blown (as it was, it was another year until i ran into rizzo at empire for the mindblowing).

Janet Bean of EDD was working at Blackout Records on Southport (near the Music Box, was Pravda store at one point) in 1993. She accused me of stealing magazines, but I had just walked out with a Reader, which is free.
Rizzo was bartending at the Rainbo a few years ago, and maybe he still does. I don't go to too many bars any more.

Eric Bachmann of Archers of Loaf sells Cuban sandwiches in Denver

-- Jake Brown, Thursday, September 27, 2007 1:13 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

Slicer of Loaf

Mr Jeff Dimpsey, bassist for '90s feedback-y rockers Hum who had the catchy song "Stars" among others, has a tech-y computer related job here at the University of Texas, where I go to class.

also, can't believe this hasn't been mentioned here:

Pitchfork: Learn Guitar From Mission Of Burma's Roger Miller!
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/44102-learn-guitar-from-mission-of-burmas-roger-miller

This is a good thread.

Tim Quirk of Too Much Joy is now a Rhapsody executive.

... and I too find Cuban sandwiches tasty and Archers of Loaf rocking.

Here I found some discount furniture:
nebraska furniture mart
broyhill furniture
jordans furniture
ethan allen furniture
levitz furniture
wickes furniture
bobs discount furniture
sauder furniture
wick furniture
harlem furniture

Tim Kerr of the Big Boys, producer and many other long-named bands works in a library at the University of Texas.

Here I found some discount furniture:
nebraska furniture mart
broyhill furniture
jordans furniture
ethan allen furniture
levitz furniture
wickes furniture
bobs discount furniture
sauder furniture
wick furniture
harlem furniture

dammit, xpost.

kurt cobain *in between BLEACH and NEVERMIND* tried to start up a cleaning business called PINE STREET CLEANING. i just learned this on THE LAST 48 HOURS OF... bbc tv show. there's that weird sub-section of rock stars who went back to work; those who went back to work after recording a record or records but *just before they went huge*. this has got to be the best example i've heard of. even edges out lou reed working in his dad's company in between the end of the velvets and TRANSFORMER.

When Turbonegro broke up in 1998, singer Hank von Helvete went to work as a caretaker in a whaling museum in Norway.

He spent (wasted) a large part of those four years on the street as a drug addict though.

john strohm of blake babies/lemonheads is now a lawyer in the entertainment industreee

ha ha genuine lols at forks

can someone clever but 'to' in the title between 'back' and 'work'?

― pisces, Sunday, 3 June 2007 01:07 (2 years ago)

:(

Mr Jeff Dimpsey, bassist for '90s feedback-y rockers Hum who had the catchy song "Stars" among others, has a tech-y computer related job here at the University of Texas, where I go to class.

I'll stand by this one that I posted a few years ago.

Christina Carter (1/2 of Charalambides) has a record store gig at Waterloo Records in Austin. See her there almost every week. Once she complimented my buying a Jack Rose album about a year back, which made me happy.

Margaret Fiedler out of Laika makes and sells eco-friendly candles.

the singer of Codeine is a school teacher

Tom Carter is a busy, busy man: http://www.linkedin.com/in/artercay

Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab works as a Shiatsu Massage Therapist in London.

"Sadier has played in Stereolab since it formed in the early '90s. What would she do if she had to give up music?

Shiatsu massage, maybe? She's been trained for it. But that too, Sadier explains, can make for a less than steady paycheck.

"It's difficult to build a clientele," she says. "Hopefully, we're not there yet."

I suspect half this message board with be calling her about their stiff muscles.

will not with.

Born: A baby girl, Mary Margaret Inouye, the very first grandchild for Sen. Daniel Inouye. "I've been waiting for this moment for many years," said the Hawaii Democrat, 85. Maggie (she's taking her late grandmother's nickname) was born at Sibley Memorial Hospital in D.C. on Tuesday morning; parents are Jessica Carroll Inouye, a graphic designer, and Ken Inouye, a lobbyist (whom fans may also remember as the guitarist of D.C. hardcore pioneers Marginal Man).

bit of a shocker for any Gene fans, two up from the bottom
http://www.talentmark.com/people/

i mean good luck to him and everything but :/

I like to think voluntarily working with Martin Rossiter in any capacity would eventually drive someone to the relative sanity of business recruiting.

I have this feeling there's more money in it than there ever was in Gene.

xp was he a bit of a pain to work for/with? i can kinda see that. i know he had his issues over the years.

Bruce Springsteen is my dustman

Guy Chadwick = a plasterer now in London, according to a guy calling in on the Danny Baker radio show.

Post 60s hits and pre-Rounder Records comeback, Irma Thomas worked in Montgomery Ward's lingerie and automotive departments to support her four children while singing in San Francisco clubs on weekends.

already mentioned, but the story of Dave Gregory and Colin Moulding renting out cars for $$$ after Oranges and Lemons is really weird

I also heard that Jim Smith (bassist of Cardiacs) works regularly as a refrigerator repairman. And that (the former) Sarah Smith now has an office job somewhere

Stretching the bounds of "Rock Star" here but noticed this story about Helen Reddy who left music to pursue a degree in hypnotherapy.

Guy Garvey is also a DJ which helps get his band A-listed on 6Music

Nasty Suicide, the original guitarist from Hanoi Rocks, got a degree and now works as a pharmacist.

Under his real name, obviously.

with a name like that, why would he want to change it?

Drummer from Lemonheads is a lawyer

Luke Wood who used to play in Sammy is the boss of Spotify now

What's David Berman been up to lately?

somewhat relevant

http://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/blog/our-favourite-bands-and-their-day-jobs?utm_source=vicefbuk

however, 'loads of huge uk rock bands' is stretching it ..

I came on to post that article!

But yeah, I hadn't actually heard of any of those bands before I read it.

most of them have played near my house in the last 6 months.

mind you, i'm struggling to think of any huge uk rock bands right now.

xp

Google says that rather than being CEO of Spotify, Luke Wood from Sammy is the President of Beats (by Dre etc). Also apparently "While Wood was at Geffen in 1994, the company posted the first commercial MP3 file".

I used to love Tales of Great Neck Glory but if you told a teenage me that one of the guys would be in charge of a multi-billion dollar company I'd have called you mad. They only just sound like they are in charge of their instruments on that album.

with the exception of Deaf Havana, who I assume no-one here gives a fuck about but play 1500-cap venues in the UK, the examples in that article are pretty badly chosen as I doubt most of them would have scraped a living from their band even in, idk, 1997

The Scrape A Living Years

mind you, i'm struggling to think of any huge uk rock bands right now.

― joni mitchell jarre (dog latin)

Oh come on now.

you know though, these are bands playing a very competent brand of popular rock. I mean, stuff like Gnarwolves, God Damn, Wytches have all been featured highly on 6Music. Heart of a Coward are from my neck of the woods. Not my cup of cha, necessarily, but they do the post-hardcore/metalcore thing extremely well, and that's a very very popular style of music.

xpost Biffy Clyro. That's the only one I can think of.

Muse?

Coldplay. Radiohead.

Mumford and Sons?

those aren't rock bands, don't be silly.

/jks

Rolling Stones are still around, are they not?

srsly though, do people still listen to muse?

can anyone name a successful ROCK band (and i mean rock, not Mumfords) band from the UK who materialised after, say, 2010?

I taught a class of teenaged Italians over the summer and they were all absolutely nuts about Muse.

can anyone name a successful ROCK band (and i mean rock, not Mumfords) band from the UK who materialised after, say, 2010?

― joni mitchell jarre (dog latin)

Well four years isn't that much time to achieve the kind of mega-success I assume you're talking about.

Royal Blood?

they were mentioned in the article.

i've never heard them? i hear they're big though.

Runhild Gammelsæter is a biologist and has a phd in cell physiology.

srsly though, do people still listen to muse?

I can understand nobody with functioning ears is particularly excited about bands like Bring Me The Horizon and Asking Alexandria, but they do make album chart topping records.

Robbie Crane of Ratt worked in a really nice Cajun/Creole restaurant in West Chester, PA.

why is Morrissey so concerned about whether Robbie Crane knows his face or not? Always confused me.

dave smythe, former bassist of the rezillos, is an anti-fracking activist recently accused of falsely claiming to be a chartered geologist

James Endeacott of Loop has been an A&R guy for Rough Trade for awhile now. Think he's responsible for signing The Libertines.

Nigel Twist of The Alarm works in the SF public defender's office.

Julie Ritter of Mary's Danish is a real estate agent.

Wonder what Nash Kato does all day.

what the hell is evan dando doing

Dando still tours as The Lemonheads--he was just in town opening for The Psychedelic Furs.

It looks like Amelia Fletcher (lead singer of Talula Gosh / Heavenly / Marine Research) has left her job as Chief Economist at the Office of Fair Trading to be Professor of Competition Policy at the University of East Anglia - http://www.uea.ac.uk/mac/comm/media/press/2013/January/amelia-fletcher-competition-policy-oft

Excellent!

http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/music-theatre/2016/06/when-im-not-cleaning-windows-joy-being-part-time-band

Fred Neil, writer of "Everybody's Talkin'", sang "I've been searching for the dolphins in the sea", then set up the Dolphin Research Project and more or less retired from music.

One thing I always wonder -- how do those mid-level indie bands survive? They're big enough that they tour frequently, hence they probably don't have a full-time job. But they also can't be making much from music.
― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, February 1, 2005 11:56 AM (thirteen years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Friend who's a frequently touring indie/noise dude mostly works in call centres. Sometimes stuff like being a reader for audiobooks. Occasionally gets a grant. I think the temp/gig economy is fairly conducive to this lifestyle, actually.

not exactly a "rock star" but the recent shirley collins doc has a bit about her day job drudgery after she lost her voice in the late 1970s. lame!
also was surprised to learn in a recent podcast that sleater kinney's corin tucker does web development on the side ...

I know people who were in Soul Asylum & the Jayhawks who eventually had to return to bar tending for cash flow during lean post-fame yrs

Neither of these people were the front men btw

yeah, i can only imagine being the bass player in a somewhat successful band is a losing game in the end.

They were both bass players!

RIP Karl Mueller, the sweetest man in rock.

yeah even in a good year, if you aren't writing songs, you probably only make like a decent middle class wage (but receive all the adulation that a bass player gets)

OTM

i had a conversation with an aging musician recently and he was like "so i hear you can make pretty good money with ... computers?"

The guy from Creeper Lagoon started a rental company renting vans to...touring musicians.

He was recently in the local press because of an escapade recovering a stolen van:

https://m.sfgate.com/news/article/Twitter-tale-of-SF-van-theft-gets-elected-12620936.php?t=91b84c280c

Perhacs returned to dentistry for many years before making another record

Vito Bratta of White Lion, though it's not entirely clear what he does other than having obtained a real estate brokerage license at some point

depressing thread

how do those mid-level indie bands survive? They're big enough that they tour frequently, hence they probably don't have a full-time job. But they also can't be making much from music.

mostly the service industry. much like how actors have jobs waiting tables (steady/reliable cash, flexible schedule, easy to find another job if you lose it) there are a lot of musicians waiting tables or working as bartenders or running sound at clubs.

Was gonna say the thing about Joe Easley what was already posted. Wonder how he's doing now.

J0hn Dug@n from Chisel was a co-worker of mine in a graphics department for a while.

I don't think it's depressing, I'd love to read a thread about how musicians are getting by without day jobs/side gigs.

Almost all of the professional musicians I know either have a lot of music-related side hustles (teaching, etc) or special circumstances, like a spouse with a good job.

Heard on a podcast the other day that Corin Tucker still has a job doing web development/media.

Probably not as many duplicate character as it's felt like, but you could argue that the 1990s Chapel Hill indie rock scene morphed into the 00's farm-to-table Carolina restaurant scene.

Mary Weiss of the Shangri-Las went into the field of architecture and "commercial interiors" before coming back with a solo album and shows in 2007

Laetitia Sadier teaches singing on the side

Jason Everman, briefly in Nirvana & Soundgarden, joined the army and has had a pretty interesting life

Pavement:

"Gary Young currently markets recording studio products"
"Currently Mark Ibold is a bartender at "Great Jones Cafe" in New York City."
Bob Nastanovich: "After Pavement's split, he served as jockey agent for Greta Kuntzweiler and Joe Johnson"

Linda Scott pursued teaching instead of doo wop

Linda Scott pursued teaching instead of doo wop

I was going to mention Bob Nastanovich, he actually does horse racing analysis for a local racetrack here. Occasionally does a little dj gig here and there.

"Currently Mark Ibold is a bartender at "Great Jones Cafe" in New York City."

Not sure when that was the case or whether still true. They shut down for a few weeks over the summer, seemingly permanently, but then reopened.

How Shed Seven's Alan Leach built a business controlling pub quizzes across the globe

"Laetitia Sadier teaches singing on the side"

I read somewhere the she was working as a shiatsu practitioner

that is mentioned upthread

Joey Shithead from DOA is a city councillor for the Greens now.

That pub quiz thingy looks pretty spiffy in demonstration videos. Nice one, Shed Seven's Alan Leach!

Terry Callier was a computer programmer for years, I think.

Sammy Hagar made a packet developing and selling off his Cabo Wabo tequila brand.

DJ Crystl (of “Warpdrive” fame) is now a personal trainer.

Sammy Hagar also owns a few classy bistros in the San Francisco area.

Mat Osman: ‘I went from being a rock star to driving a van'

https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/books-art-and-culture/mat-osman-i-went-from-being-a-rock-star-to-driving-a-van/?fbclid=IwAR0zM5osbkPf965nsSwDW8uo4iYXHKYaIsiCTXKJ1_4DfrjApk5H1E4zVdE

Fred Neil, writer of "Everybody's Talkin'", sang "I've been searching for the dolphins in the sea", then set up the Dolphin Research Project and more or less retired from music.

― lana del boy (ledge)

I thought this was a joke, googled his wikipedia page to find out what he’s been up to and lo and behold, it’s true.

What he’s been up to? He died of cancer years ago.

Sorry for my bad english, I meant “what he had been up to after retiring from music”

Mick Pointer of Marillion returned to his career as a kitchen designer after being fired from the band he formed.

I wish this article wasn't paywalled because the lede is a masterpiece:

Life on the road as the leader of an indie-rock band wasn’t such a far cry from clocking in as a corporate lawyer for Darren Richard. He was welcomed into Dinsmore & Shohl LLP’s Columbus office as an associate in September 2009 following a career in which he owned a record label, mainly supporting his band, Chicago-based Pinetop Seven, where he was songwriter, instrumentalist and singer.

https://web.archive.org/web/20110415193240/https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2010/10/11/focus3.html

Richard was surprised at the similarities between professions. Both involve problem solving, whether it’s working through the logistics associated with shipping six band mates overseas for a European tour or helping a client negotiate a commercial lease agreement.

“Playing music professionally is a collaborative endeavor,” Richard said.

A musician works with band mates on song arrangements, recording sessions and shows, as well as with label representatives and promoters to generate album sales and to fill seats at venues.

“Similarly, transactional legal work is collaborative,” Richard said.

An attorney advocates his client’s position, he said, but ultimately all sides want to close the deal, whether it’s an asset purchase or a recording contract.

The similarities end with the lifestyle. Richard said a typical day on the road started early and ended with dinner at 9 p.m. “Now, I’m in the office generally from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m,” he said.

Meeting with clients and opposing counsel with a speciality in entertainment law has replaced driving between venues and loading equipment. Writing and reviewing documents takes precedent over penning lyrics and arranging songs.

Imagine, two different professions that involve “problem solving”... what are the chances

Btw, here’s another lawyer who runs a record label.

tbf environmental law is pretty noize

I got lots of friends who had low- and mid-tier music careers who've moved on... some of them at a certain point felt impossibly famous, like they were part of ad campaigns, were working as models for certain designers, etc. etc.

Of all the secondary career moves that these people have taken, "therapist" seems to be the most prevalent. I can think of six musicians who're now working as therapists. All six of them, too, I'm like, "that sounds like a perfect job for you, you'd be a great therapist". All of them are so, so much happier!

James Corden's drummer is off awaiting the birth of his child, so one of the show's producers is sitting in.

Their name?

Kate Shellenbach of Beastie Boys & Luscious Jackson fame.

Mudhoney's current bassist is also a nurse

https://crosscut.com/culture/2021/10/mosh-pit-er-mudhoney-bassist-being-nurse-during-covid

(current = for over two decades)

The shadow of Matt Lukin looms large (Also: before initially clicking on the link I thought it would be about Lukin having an interesting second chapter outside music ala Jason Everman).

PW Long of the old Touch and Go band Mule works doing TV news and documentary work.

I really loved PW Long's Reelfoot, more than Mule actually

Never saw that band live, but Mule rocked some serious mullet. I saw Long on some feature watching a news program on Vice and thought it was him, looked it up and it was.

xxxpost Lukin worked as a carpenter after quitting music

From a Guardian article based on a new book by Nick Duerden about what happened to music stars after their fame had faded, here's a curious update on Dennis Seaton of Musical Youth.

Child reggae stars Musical Youth were a ray of early-80s sunshine when their single 'Pass the Dutchie' sold 5m copies around the world. Once their fame elapsed, and it did so with breathtaking speed, one member, Patrick Waite, developed drug problems, turned to crime, and died of heart failure at 24. Another, Kelvin Grant, became a recluse; singer Dennis Seaton a born-again Christian. “It saved me,” he tells me. Now in his mid-50s and a father of four, Seaton is the chairman of the Ladder Association training committee, alerting builders to the dangers of working at altitude without sufficient protection.

Hmm....

Hey just sent you DM about pretending to interview me! 👍

— Róisín Murphy (@roisinmurphy) April 17, 2022

After Mr. Siebel walked away from the music business, he became a bread baker for a restaurant and a county park worker in Maryland.

He leaves no immediate survivors.

Asked in 1996 how he thought he would be remembered, Mr. Siebel said: “He was a guy who wrote a couple of pretty good songs. What ever happened to him?”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/16/arts/music/paul-siebel-dead.html

Maybe he was called Max Decharme that time

.. or maybe I've got the wrong bloke (opps)

From that Guardian piece:

When 10,000 Maniacs’ Natalie Merchant grew tired of being a marketable commodity, she quit for the quieter life of a solo artist, and was then duly horrified when her debut album, 1995’s Tigerlily, sold 5m copies, because “then came the treadmill again”.

Kira (Black Flag) - computer programmer

Actually she went into the film/TV business - currently a dialogue editor with two Emmy Awards.

Also, it was mentioned in another thread, but when Jonathan Richman isn't doing music, he makes a steady living building and installing pizza ovens.

Best story I've heard is Philip Glass - from The Guardian:

...Glass supported himself as a New York cabbie and as a plumber, occupations that often led to unusual encounters. “I had gone to install a dishwasher in a loft in SoHo,” he says. “While working, I suddenly heard a noise and looked up to find Robert Hughes, the art critic of Time magazine, staring at me in disbelief. ‘But you’re Philip Glass! What are you doing here?’ It was obvious that I was installing his dishwasher and I told him I would soon be finished. ‘But you are an artist,’ he protested. I explained that I was an artist but that I was sometimes a plumber as well and that he should go away and let me finish.”

Forgot, I looked into the Gang of Four after catching their reunion. Turns out Hugo Burnham went into academia to teach art, Jon King became the chief executive of World Television, which produced news reports, webcasts and corporate video for clients from Greenpeace to Nestlé, and for awhile Dave Allen went into advertising and brand marketing, first with a division of Overland Agency and then co-founding the digital strategy firm Fight.

when I read that Guardian piece I did think that his was not an accurate take on Róisín Murphy's recent career:

After singer Róisín Murphy had navigated the end of her pop duo, Moloko, and then attempted to steer an idiosyncratic solo career with a determination Orson Welles might have admired, she moved to Ibiza to focus on two things: motherhood and the Mediterranean. “Sometimes it’s nice to just relax, you know,” she says.

I saw something about how after her solo album tanked, Jemina Pearl from Be Your Own Pet was overseeing open mics and karaoke nights in Nashville.

Forgot, I looked into the Gang of Four after catching their reunion. Turns out Hugo Burnham went into academia to teach art🕸, Jon King became the chief executive of World Television, which produced news reports, webcasts and corporate video for clients from Greenpeace to Nestlé, and for awhile Dave Allen went into advertising and brand marketing, first with a division of Overland Agency and then co-founding the digital strategy firm Fight.

Kira (Black Flag) - computer programmer

Actually she went into the film/TV business - currently a dialogue editor with two Emmy Awards.

Update yr info. Kira won an Oscar for sound editing on Mad Max Fury Road.

When I last checked on him, in the 90s, Arthur Brown was doing this:

In the 1980s, Brown moved to Austin, Texas, where his wife came from, and obtained a master's degree in counselling.[28]...Together with former Mothers of Invention drummer Jimmy Carl Black, he also became a painter and carpenter for some years,[10] and released an album with him, Brown, Black & Blue (1988). In 1992, Brown and fellow counsellor Jim Maxwell founded Healing Songs Therapy, a service that culminated in Brown creating a song for each client about their emotional issues.[30]

Update yr info. Kira won an Oscar for sound editing on Mad Max Fury Road.

Hah, even better! I just pulled everything from the opening paragraph on Wikipedia - I was surprised it's not in there. (It actually is, but buried towards the bottom.)

Bit of a niche interest this, but Michael McGuire, from 80s' conceptualists/ pranksters Sudden Sway, is now Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Surrey.

https://www.surrey.ac.uk/people/michael-mcguire

And if you doubt it's the same guy then about one seconds worth of hearing him talking about cybercrime on YouTube will convince you it's definitely him!

my brother-in-law is in advertising, used to live in portland, and would run into dave allen at things regularly. It took him a few times before he realized it was the guy from GoF and not just some random advertising guy

Xpost I have a home made box off all the "sing song" bits, so "Yes, yes, I did know that actually..."

Inspired by that latest Dandy Warhols thread, I fell into a clickhole and discovered Zia McCabe is/was a realtor.

Nice interview from 2017: https://www.wweek.com/music/2017/12/26/when-zia-mccabe-got-tired-of-touring-with-the-dandy-warhols-she-became-a-licensed-real-estate-agent/

Mojo piece this month reveals that Scott Walker became a painter and decorator in the post Climate of Hunter period.

'Though Walker began work on an album produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois in March 1985, the project was rapidly aborted. Later, the singer made one of his infrequent visits to his manager. “I said, What have you been up to?” recalls Bicknell. “And he said, ‘I’ve been painting.’ I said, Oh, oils or watercolours? He said, ‘No, man, walls.’ He’d been working as a decorator. He could, at any point, have put The Walker Brothers back together and done the nostalgia circuit, but he would rather, literally, get up a ladder with a pot of Dulux and paint somebody’s flat and get a few quid."'

pretty sure that was widely reported in the 90s during his critical comeback

yeah. it's definitely not the first time i heard that story too

Figured him for an electrician

stretching the term "rock star" here, maybe, but Hailu Mergia deserves a mention.

I saw Tommy Tutone on one of those "Where are they now?" VH1 things and he's just a regular office worker whose coworkers apparently razz all the time

gotta say though he's got one hell of a "fun fact" whenever they make him introduce himself

This is the guitarist from Tommy Tutone:

Jim Keller went on to become the director of Philip Glass's publishing company, Dunvagen Music Publishers.

Nice gig