People with nothing to fall back on

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A lot of successful musicians claim to have "always known" they would be successful, and describe in interviews how their life pre-success involved completely disregarding the Career Guidance wisdom of having something else to fall back on should it all go wrong. Thus they spend years on the dole, get into debt, etc. Does anybody here know someone personally who faithfully assumed they would make it but never did? What happened to them? Do they illustrate the need to have something to fall back on? Or what?

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Wednesday, 2 October 2002 18:39 (twenty-three years ago)

I think most musicians think they're going to make it don't they?
Well anyone who's halfway good and working in a commercially viable genre of music. This was certainly true in the past but I suspect people now are a lot more sensible and have fewer illusions about the music industry. Like Coldplay holding off on their music careers until they'd all completed their degrees - that kind of thing. If it had been the '60s they'd have been off without a care.

― David (David), Wednesday, 2 October 2002 18:58 (twenty-three years ago)

I think the singer for the band that sings 'brand new thing' (their name starts with an O, but I just can't place it) took about a year off from music even after they had become popular to finish his doctorate in biology.

Also, I beleive Robert Pollard was still a teacher when his first couple of records came out, not that he's Master P now or anything, but I imagine he's making a living.

My favorite thing in Cribs is the guys with one hit song and a Bentley in the driveway. I never knew you could rent them by the day.

― Dave Beckhouse (Dave Beckhouse), Wednesday, 2 October 2002 23:09 (twenty-three years ago)

Look at all the 80's hair metal shredders who work in guitar stores these days. They all thought they were going to rule the world with sweep picked arpeggios, floyd rose bends, and double handed tapping... then Kurt Cobain showed up and knocked the blocks out from under their careers.

I used to know a lot of those guys when I was younger and wasted my parents money on music lessons. One of them started working with a talented local luthier and had a boutique guitar company. Another became a professional pilot, and another manages a local music shop.

I think one of the great American myths is that you will have to spend the rest of your life working at McDonalds if you do not get a masters degree at a university. If you have common sense and the work ethic it takes to become a good musician, you will land on your feet no matter what you do. The guys who had a good head on their shoulders did well, and the ones who were not as smart did not fare as well. YMMV

― mt, Wednesday, 2 October 2002 23:10 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah too right David, finishing a degree is so obviously only for squares who're incapable of writing a decent pop song. Drop out guys and gals, I mean, be ROCK'N'Fuckin'ROLL!

― justine kayes, Wednesday, 2 October 2002 23:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Mark E. Smith and Johnny Lydon would have just gone back to working on the docks. Elvis would have gone back to driving a truck.

Greg Norton (Husker Du) is a chef.

I read someplace that Kenny Larkin is now doing stand up comedy instead of techno.

Many of those U.S. punk bands are filled with grad students in waiting.

― earlnash, Wednesday, 2 October 2002 23:29 (twenty-three years ago)

call me crazy, but i would venture that almost EVERYBODY, at *some* point in their life, KNOWS they're going to be famous or KNOWS that they're destined to do something special, don't they?

― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 3 October 2002 00:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Case in point: Andy Groove Armada told me last night (sorry to drop the name...interviewed him...anyway) that in spite of their million-and-a-half album sales and huge worldwide radio presence, they make a pittance from their records cos their deal's so shit. They pay the rent by DJing, and cos they're now "famous" musicians their DJing fees have rocketed accordingly. Nice work if you can get it...does this count?

― Charlie (Charlie), Thursday, 3 October 2002 00:26 (twenty-three years ago)

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