In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, there are countless dreamers silently crafting their destiny while toiling away at mundane jobs.
From janitors to gravediggers, these rock stars worked normal jobs to finance their careers, and boy was it worth it.
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Jack White: Upholsterer
As a teenager, Jack White apprenticed at an upholstery shop, and then got so good that he opened his own shop in Detroit, named Third Man with a slogan the slogan, “your furniture’s not dead.”
As the furniture business at Third Man Upholstery flourished, so did Jack White’s music career with The White Stripes. Eventually, he left the exciting world of upholstery and pursued the mundane job of a rock ‘n’ roll star. Jack later founded a record label named Third Man Records, with the motto “your turntable’s not dead.”
Image Credit: Wikipedia.
Art Garfunkel: Math Teacher
Before becoming one half of Simon & Garfunkel, Art Garfunkel was on a promising academic path. He earned a BA in art history and later pursued an MA in mathematics education from Teachers College, Columbia University in 1967. Garfunkel was working as a Maths teacher when the duo’s ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ went to Number One and sell over 3 million copies in the UK alone. When asked by Forbes’ Jim Clash whether he is happy with the career choice he made, he says “I would have been comfortable being a teacher. I supported myself in high school by tutoring kids and making decent money at it.”
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Rod Stewart: Grave digger
Rod Stewart had a short stint as a grave digger at the Highgate Cemetery in London. However, according to his autobiography, he was marking out plots rather than doing the actual digging. He also worked in a funeral parlor in North Finchley.
Image Credit: Allan Warren / Wikimedia Commons.
Freddie Mercury: Market stall owner
Freddie Mercury was selling his own artwork and second-hand clothes at a stall in Kensington Market in the summer of ’69. Queen’s drummer, Roger Taylor, helped him out at the stall. Despite Queen’s rise to fame after releasing their first album, Freddie continued to manage the stall for a while.
Image Credit: Carl Lender / Wiki Commons.
Mick Jagger: Mental hospital porter
Mick Jagger took up a part-time job as a porter at Bexley Psychiatric Hospital when he was just 18. He was paid four pounds, ten shillings a week. This unlikely workplace was also the palace where the rock legend would lose his virginity—in a cupboard—to a nurse.
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Kurt Cobain: Janitor
Kurt Cobain worked a series of jobs to finance Nirvana’s recording career. One of the oddest gigs he did was, working as a janitor at Aberdeen High School— his old school. During that time, Cobain leased a flat on N. Michigan Street, where numerous early hits of the band were composed. Reflecting on Cobain’s character, Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic remarked, “Here was a man who would never clean his kitchen or take out the garbage, or do those kinds of chores, but Kurt Cobain was not a lazy person.”
Image Credit: Julie Kramer / Wiki Commons.
Tom Waits: Pizza cook
In the 1960s, Tom Waits worked as a dishwasher at Napoleone Pizza House in San Diego and was swiftly promoted to pizzaiolo. His time at the pizza parlor inspired the song ‘The Ghosts of Saturday Night.’
Image Credit: Gut (Anna Wittenberg) / Wiki Commons.
David Bowie: Butcher’s delivery boy
In the ’60s, the 13-year-old “Starman” took up a job as a butcher’s delivery boy to fund his saxophone lessons with the legendary sax player Ronnie Ross. In a beautiful twist of fate, the two crossed paths again a decade later, with Ross playing the solo saxophone part on Lou Reed’s ‘Walk On the Wild Side,’ a track produced by none other than David Bowie himself.
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Kanye West: Gap sales assistant
During his teenage years, Kanye West found himself working at Gap, a job that later became the inspiration for his song ‘Spaceship.’ In the track, Kanye raps about his experience, reminiscing, “Let’s go back, back to the Gap, Look at my check, wasn’t no scratch… Oh now they love Kanye, let’s put him all in the front of the store, Saw him on break next to the ‘No Smoking’ sign with a blunt and a Mall… So I quit, y’all welcome.”
Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.
Patti Smith: Toy factory worker
Before Patti Smith became a music icon, she worked in a toy factory, fixing boxes and testing toys. However, her time at the factory was far from pleasant. Patti recalled facing unpleasant treatment from some of her female coworkers, as they would gang up on her and subject her to distressing experiences, such as sticking her head in a toilet filled with urine.
Image Credit: Klaus Hiltscher / Flickr.
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