Thursday 6 September 2018

Musicians Before They Were Famous

Not shy to blow his own trumpet, Kanye West once said that he is the No 1 living and breathing rock star but whether he was the No1 T-shirt folder when he worked at GAP is strangely not something he boasts about. 
Musicians may be effortlessly cool now but they all had to start somewhere and while Kanye may have been working on his raps while selling brand new brightly coloured trousers, Freddie Mercury was selling second hand ones on a market stall before him and his band made it big.
Before Beyonce sang about putting a ring on it she was putting a rinse on it as a hairdresser and Kurt Cobain was smelling less like teen spirit and more like floor polish at his janitors job before Nirvana came knocking.
Less fragrant was Chris Cornell and Jarvis Cocker who both had jobs cleaning up the fish guts at the local fish markets and Cyndi Lauper's sense of smell would have been equally as assaulted as her first job as a dog kennel cleaner.
If you were after fast food in the 80s and 90s you could have been served by Madonna in Dunkin' Donuts, Pink at McDonald's or even Eminem who was a cook in a greasy spoon cafe. 
Eddie Vedder was a Security Guard and Kelis and her bitter shandies bought all the guys to the bar in her job as a barmaid while David Bowie was a butcher and Elvis got his blue suede shoes all over the brake pedal in the delivery truck he drove.
Teaching turned out to be a first career choice for Gene Simmons, Sting and Art Garfunkel before choosing music over text books and Jack White decided that as a furniture upholsterer he made a decent musician and Elvis Costello wasn't pumping it up at the bank so bought some Buddy Holly style spectacles and tried song writing instead.
Mick Jagger worked as a porter at a mental Hospital, Rod Stewart wasn't asking anybody if he was sexy when he was a gravedigger and Jon Bon Jovi worked in a factory assembling Christmas Decorations but you wouldn't expect Ozzy Osbourne to have just have any boring old job, the Prince of Darkness worked in a Factory tuning car horns and it doesn't get much more rock n Roll than that!

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