# A most un-Rock-n-Roll retirement **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 26, 2011, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-most-un-rock-n-roll-retirement/594239 "2011-08-26T23:06:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-most-un-rock-n-roll-retirement/594239/21 "2011-08-27T17:53:43Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Some Mark McGrath respect - when he was on Rock & Roll Jeopardy (hosted by Jeff Probst, no less), he showed himself to be the ultimate student of rock and roll music - the dude knew EVERYTHING. I remember this. McGrath went Rain Man on the show and pwned his fellow contestants. Had to give him some respect for that. I thought about this for a while, and really, it’s probably more uncommon for star musicians to do hardcore rawk 'n roll type stuff (join a biker gang, open an S&M store) than it is for them to do mellow stuff like farming and gardening. When I watch VH-1 and they track down all of these artists from the 80s, I’m surprised at how many end up being computer programmers. I do have one submission: Peter Garrett, frontman for Midnight Oil, is the Australian Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth. But it really isn’t that surprising, considering the Oils’ political stance in their music. I’m pretty sure if you fell asleep in the 70s and woke up in the 90s to find out that Sonny Bono was a US Congressman, you’d be pretty shocked. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-most-un-rock-n-roll-retirement/594239/22 "2011-08-27T18:04:58Z")
> [@](#): > > When I watch VH-1 and they track down all of these artists from the 80s, I’m surprised at how many end up being computer programmers. Roger Powell, sometime-keyboardist for Todd Rundgren, was a programmer/designer and product demonstrator for MOOG and ARP systems (he introduced Pete Townshend to their synthesizers). He has since worked for Apple and Electronic Arts. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-most-un-rock-n-roll-retirement/594239/23 "2011-08-27T18:07:33Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > Grace Slick is a painter and promotes veganism. Also, ironically for someone most famous for singing a song extolling the wonders of LSD, she is a admitted longtime member of A.A. Granted, she did have one very dramatic relapse in the early 90s, but the wild party hippie girl of the 60s is now a grandma. Grace has said in interviews that she thinks it’s silly when people over a certain age are still rocking out. She said that (IIRC) women over 50 don’t belong on stage as they just don’t typically have what it takes anymore (kind of in a ‘let the younger ones have their turn’ kind of way). For some reason, I think she may have been directing her comments at Stevie Nicks, but I could be wrong. It made sense for her to fade out of the limelight. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-most-un-rock-n-roll-retirement/594239/24 "2011-08-27T18:08:41Z")
> [@Mach Tuck](#): > > [Bruce Dickinson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Dickinson) of Iron Maiden (yes, THAT Bruce Dickinson) flies airliners. Uh, no. He _was_ a pilot. For the last 12 years he’s been singing with Iron Maiden, tho. He re-joined the band in 1999. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-most-un-rock-n-roll-retirement/594239/25 "2011-08-27T18:12:53Z")
[Thomas Dolby is responsible for most of the cel ringtones you’ve ever heard](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Dolby#Headspace_and_Beatnik). ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-most-un-rock-n-roll-retirement/594239/26 "2011-08-27T18:18:15Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Ian Anderson is raising salmon! > [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > For at least 15 years now, I think. More like 30. But he hasn’t retired; he’s still touring regularly both with Jethro Tull and as a solo act. Mothers of Invention/Captain Beefheart percussionist Art Tripp (ooh, I need to go mention him in the non-pseudonym thread) left the music business to sell insurance before becoming a chiropractor. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-most-un-rock-n-roll-retirement/594239/27 "2011-08-27T18:28:15Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Uh, no. He _was_ a pilot. For the last 12 years he’s been singing with Iron Maiden, tho. He re-joined the band in 1999. Did you even read the Wiki article? The Aviation section describes specific flights made by Dickinson up to and including the year 2010, and less than a year ago he was named [marketing director](http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/1028941/Iron-Maiden-rocker-becomes-marketing-director/%7Ctitle=Iron%20Maiden%20rocker%20becomes%20marketing%20director) of Astraeus Airlines. [This article](http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/sep/16/iron-maiden-singer-airline-job) is also less than a year old. It’s possible to have more than one job you know. ---
**Author:** ![Brad\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8dc957/32.png) [@Brad\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brad_the_Impaler)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-most-un-rock-n-roll-retirement/594239/28 "2011-08-27T18:31:04Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Uh, no. He _was_ a pilot. For the last 12 years he’s been singing with Iron Maiden, tho. He re-joined the band in 1999. He is still a pilot when not rocking out. Not a full time commercial pilot, but he still is a private pilot for big jets. ETA: Or what mhendo said. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-most-un-rock-n-roll-retirement/594239/29 "2011-08-27T18:42:17Z")
She’s not retired yet - she’s still touring on occasion! - but I have always loved loved loved Pat Benetar for leading the good life, in- it- for- the- money, being a strong, real woman in music, and not wallowing in the standard rock n roll HORSE SHIT. I’m sure when she does retire she will live long and happily with her family. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-most-un-rock-n-roll-retirement/594239/30 "2011-08-27T18:58:47Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > Did you even read the Wiki article? > > The Aviation section describes specific flights made by Dickinson up to and including the year 2010, and less than a year ago he was named [marketing director](http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/1028941/Iron-Maiden-rocker-becomes-marketing-director/%7Ctitle=Iron%20Maiden%20rocker%20becomes%20marketing%20director) of Astraeus Airlines. [This article](http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/sep/16/iron-maiden-singer-airline-job) is also less than a year old. > > It’s possible to have more than one job you know. Okay, he _is_ a pilot. My point is that he isn’t a retired Rock-n-Roller; he’s still with Iron Maiden and he never actually left the music biz. From your second link: > [@](#): > > And Dickinson, 52, shows no sign of quitting his other gig. “I could never contemplate giving up music,” he told CNN last year. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-most-un-rock-n-roll-retirement/594239/31 "2011-08-27T20:17:23Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > Roger Powell, sometime-keyboardist for Todd Rundgren, was a programmer/designer and product demonstrator for MOOG and ARP systems (he introduced Pete Townshend to their synthesizers). He has since worked for Apple and Electronic Arts. That’s who I was going to mention. Not a dilettante, but a serious programmer who created Texture, one of the very first MIDI sequencers, and designed the Probe, the first polyphonic keytar, which predated MIDI. The last tour with Todd was after 10 years at Apple and before his current job as a producer at EA. The synth train at the beginning of Bowie’s [Station to Station](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IWEVNDlMTg&feature=related) was a demo Powell used to do for ARP. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-most-un-rock-n-roll-retirement/594239/32 "2011-08-27T21:13:17Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > Alice Cooper can now be found more often on a golf course than on a stage scaring the snot out of America’s parents. Very un-Rock-n-Roll. I dunno, Alice Cooper is a rock and roll DJ, that’s kinda, ya know, rock and roll ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-most-un-rock-n-roll-retirement/594239/33 "2011-08-27T21:28:00Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Grace has said in interviews that she thinks it’s silly when people over a certain age are still rocking out. She said that (IIRC) women over 50 don’t belong on stage as they just don’t typically have what it takes anymore (kind of in a ‘let the younger ones have their turn’ kind of way). For some reason, I think she may have been directing her comments at Stevie Nicks, but I could be wrong. It made sense for her to fade out of the limelight. Has she _heard_ of Tina Turner? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-most-un-rock-n-roll-retirement/594239/34 "2011-08-27T21:41:55Z")
I just looked it up and I’m surprised I actually had the quote more or less right. “[I don’t like old people on a rock stage. I think they look silly.](http://www.billdeyoung.com/slick.htm) You can do jazz till you’re 150, you can do opera, blues, country-western … rap and rock ‘n’ roll seem, to me, to be a young person’s medium. For them to scream and yell and get all that anger out.” But I’d swear, when I saw the interview on VH1, probably 15 years ago, I thought she was directing it at Stevie, but I couldn’t find it on YouTube in a quick two minute search. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-most-un-rock-n-roll-retirement/594239/35 "2011-08-27T22:55:15Z")
Janet Gardner, former lead singer of hair-band [Vixen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vixen_(band)), is now a dental hygienist. ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-most-un-rock-n-roll-retirement/594239/36 "2011-08-27T23:10:17Z")
For a while, Kip Winger was a ballet dancer. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-most-un-rock-n-roll-retirement/594239/37 "2011-08-27T23:44:55Z")
Brian May (Queen guitarist) received his PhD in astrophysics in 2008, and is the chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University, although he is also still active with Queen. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-most-un-rock-n-roll-retirement/594239/38 "2011-08-27T23:55:01Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > She’s not retired yet - she’s still touring on occasion! - but I have always loved loved loved Pat Benetar for leading the good life, in- it- for- the- money, being a strong, real woman in music, and not wallowing in the standard rock n roll HORSE SHIT. I’m sure when she does retire she will live long and happily with her family. OK, I have to admit that I don’t understand what any of this means (or how it relates to this thread for that matter, if she is not retired). Define your terms, please. ---
**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-most-un-rock-n-roll-retirement/594239/39 "2011-08-28T00:01:43Z")
Bill Wyman (from the Rolling Stones) sells a “signature” metal detector. > **[\*\*\* Bill Wyman Signature Metal Detector \*\*\*](https://billwymandetector.com/)** > [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > Ice Cube-- the n\*gga with attitude who was straight outta Compton with his chrome to the side of your White Sox cap-- now stars in and produces family-friendly movies and TV shows. Very un-gangsta. For awhile [this](http://zanypickle.com/wp-content/gallery//2009/10/ice-cube-gangsta-550x763.jpg) picture of Ice Cube was making the rounds on the Internet. The top half of the picture shows a young Ice Cube scowling and holding up an AK-47; the bottom shows an older Ice Cube smiling ear-to-ear while holding a fishing rod in a similar position. > [@Leaffan](#): > > Frank Zappa is pushing daisies. Ouch! I’m sure Zappa would approve, though. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-most-un-rock-n-roll-retirement/594239/40 "2011-08-28T02:37:21Z")
David Lee Roth was an EMT for a while. (Not sure if he’s still doing it.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-most-un-rock-n-roll-retirement/594239.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-most-un-rock-n-roll-retirement/594239.md?page=3)