rock stars who went back work.

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.