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Jobs Musicians Had Before They Were Famous
Even our favourite singers and actors had to earn a living before fame and fortune arrived - find out what the likes of Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart and Sting all did to earn a crust.
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1. David Bowie - Butcher Boy
When the singer was 13, he took a job as a butcher's boy to help pay for saxophone lessons with legend Ronnie Ross.
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2. Freddie Mercury - Market Trader
Freddie Mercury had his own stall at Kensington market where he sold artworks and second hand clothes! He even kept it going after Queen formed.
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3. Debbie Harry - Playboy Bunny
Before she had fame with Blondie, Debbie was a waitress at the Playboy Club in New York during the 1970s. No doubt it taught her how to deal with an eager crowd!
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4. Rod Stewart - Gravedigger
Not a job for the faint-hearted! Rod Stewart revealed a while ago that he once earned his keep as a gravedigger. He did so to "get over his fear of death." Could have gone either way really, couldn’t it?
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5. Gene Simmons - Primary School Teacher
Long before Mr Simmons of Kiss used his tongue for fame and fortune, he was a primary school teacher. In the past he’s claimed he was fired for "replacing the works of Shakespeare with Spider-Man comics," which he thought the students were more likely to actually read. But we’ve yet to have that confirmed.
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6. Mick Jagger - Hospital Porter
Jagger worked at Bexley Mental Hospital in London, earning 4 pounds, 10 shillings per week. Drinks were on him then!
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7. Keith Richards - Ball Boy
Does anybody else think that Richards probably wasn’t totally committed to his job as a ball boy at a tennis club?
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8. Ozzy Osbourne - Slaughterhouse Worker
This probably helped him with his bat-shaped run-ins to come.
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9. Madonna - Fast Food Server
According to past interviews, Madonna did any job she could to keep afloat when she moved to New York. We like the story of her time at Dunkin' Donuts in Times Square - apparently she was fired for squirting jelly filling all over customers. To be fair, we’d have fired her too!
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10. Sting - Teacher
It’s the one everybody knows - former singer for the Police qualified as a teacher and stuck it out for two years. Probably two years longer than we would have done.
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11. Patti Smith - Factory Worker
The rocker worked in a toy factory testing out the products and packing them in boxes. Apparently she hated her time there.
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12. Art Garfunkel - Teacher
Another teacher! Art was still a maths teacher when the album 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' went to number one. Those maths skills must have come in handy when counting all that money he made!
