Random Famous Musicians Who Once Had Terrible Day Jobs (22 items)

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  (#16) Pink: McDonald's Cashier

  When she was still Alecia Moore, pop singer Pink had a job at McDonald's in Doylestown, Pennsylvnia. Some people look back on their first job in a nostalgic manner, even if it was menial work. However, Pink seems a little haunted by her time spent at The Golden Arches: "Sometimes I dream I am back there, broke and working at McDonald's. It's like the worst nightmare because I would never want to be back there. I've worked hard to get where I am."
  
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  (#19) Boy George

  • New Wave, Disco, Pop music, Rock music, Indian classical music, Contemporary Christian music, House music, Reggae, Dance music, Soft rock, Soul music, Electronica

  The Culture Club frontman was a cultural icon in 1980s, but before he became Boy George, the Brit was just a grocery bagger named George Alan O'Dowd. It appears that Boy George was always about pushing boundaries and breaking rules. The "Karma Chameleon" singer was fired from his gig at the supermarket for wearing the store's grocery bags.

  
  
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  (#18) B.B. King

  • Blues-rock, Soul blues, Rock music, Memphis blues, Electric blues, Jazz blues, Rhythm and blues, Big band, Jazz, Soul music, Blues, Country blues

  Legendary blues musician B.B. King held several farm jobs in the Mississippi Delta region. He picked cotton and baled hay. But the job he loved the most was driving a tractor. After dropping out of high school to earn money, he discovered that he was a "superstar" when it came to riding tractors. "I learned - I was kind of into - today I guess you would say technology because I learned to drive tractors and I was pretty good. I had never heard the word 'superstar' but when I think about it today, I was a superstar tractor driver. I loved it."

  He added, "But as a tractor driver I was popular. Hey, the girls look at you. I made a lot of money. I've been crazy about girls all my life. That was my downfall, I guess. It still is. But I made a lot of money. My salary compared to everybody else was great. I made $22.50 a week. I have chopped cotton for 75 cents a day. I've picked cotton for 35 cents a 100. When you're driving a tractor, you're sitting up there, all you got to do is use your expertise to keep it straight and don't plow up the cotton, which I didn't do too often because Mr. Barrett wouldn't have put up with it. So you slept very well at night having to do that every day. My music and being a tractor driver seemed to make me popular with the people."
  
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  (#11) Patti Smith

  • Blues-rock, Rock music, Protopunk, Alternative rock, Art rock, Punk rock, Art punk

  Patti Smith, the Godmother of Punk, had an awful experience working an early job at a toy factory after graduating high school in 1964. "The stuff those women did to me in that factory was horrible. They’d gang up on me and stick my head in a toilet full of piss.” The silver lining to that experience is that it gave her the inspiration to write her first single, "Piss Factory," a tune that is often cited as the first true punk song.
  
  
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  (#8) Rod Stewart

  • New Wave, Rock music, Rhythm and blues, Hard rock, Blues-rock, Blue-eyed soul, Pop music, Folk rock, Traditional pop music, Pop rock, Soft rock, Soul music, Progressive rock

  Rod Stewart dropped out of high school at the age of 15. Afterwards, he held several odd jobs including screen printer and electrician's assistant. Stewart was never a gravedigger, which was a common myth about his pre-rock star life. But he did work at the Highgate Cemetery in London, where he learned an important lesson. The British singer-songwriter worked marking graves and measuring burial plots. He said of the experience, "You learn a lot about yourself, doing physical work. And what I learned about myself was that I didn’t like doing physical work."
  
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  (#7) Jon Bon Jovi

  • Glam metal, Classic rock, Rock music, Country rock, Heavy metal, Pop rock, Glam rock, Hard rock

  Jon Bon Jovi had his first hit single, "Run Away," at the age of 20. But even he had a couple brief day jobs before fronting one of the biggest rock bands in the world. His first job was making Christmas decorations. Next, he worked as a janitor at his cousin's recording studio, a very smart move considering he could record when the studio was vacant. His first professional recording came in 1980, blending elements of his daytime gigs with his apparent love for Star Wars. The track was called "R2-D2, We Wish You a Merry Christmas."

  
  
  

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