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.
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.
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.
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.
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 of Astraeus Airlines. This article is also less than a year old.
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.
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 was a demo Powell used to do for ARP.
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. 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.
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.
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.
Bill Wyman (from the Rolling Stones) sells a “signature” metal detector.
For awhile this 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.
