Susan Tedeschi has a bachelor’s degree in musical composition and performance from the rather prestigious Berklee College of Music…earned at age 20. Of course, she’s more of a blues performer than rock star, and came from a moneyed family. I think it shows…the professionalism and overall quality of her performances is superior to a lot of performers.
The purpose of schooling is to prepare one for a career. Musicians already have a viable one. Most of the NFL have graduated college but I wouldn’t trust many of them to do my taxes. Some rock stars may not be proficient in areas that you think they should be but you only think they should be because that’s the limit of your knowledge. Some of you may have an advanced degree in physics but you’d make a lousy stonemason.
You’re thinking of rappers. 
I take umbrage with this statement. My semi-professional drummer husband has two college degrees and pulls down six figures a year. And I am very, very average looking.
Most people in the world are minimally educated. That is true but it is a point that should be self-evident without devoting paper to. I don’t see any reason to single musicians out unless people have a problem separating out different talents in their mind (and that may be the case) . Have you ever watched celebrity Jeopardy for a laugh for instance? I could say something feel good about negative stereotyping but that isn’t my thing. I just wonder what the the real point is. “Successful musicians are minimally educated in general except when they aren’t just like everyone else except they have at least one provable skill?” It just doesn’t have story line you can use in a fable for the ages.
Here’s another thought: some rock musicians are idiots, some are geniuses, most are (like the rest of us) somewhere in between. The OP cites a music business insider who gripes that rock musicians tend to have an inflated sense of their own importance, And that’s probably true- if you or I were surrounded by people who were constantly telling us how briliant we are, and who are dying to pander to our every need, WE’D probably get swelled heads too.
But you know, Peter Criss “demanding” a bowl of Ruffles in the dressing room doesn’t bother me a bit. If Brittny Spears wants Diet Mountain Dew, if Willie Nelson wants" a bowl of extra hot chili, if Jon Bon Jovi wants the air conditioning set at 65 degrees, well… rank has its privileges, and what’s the point of being a rock star if you can’t get a few perks? Nothing wrong with that.
It doesn’t bother me at all if a high school dropout or a guy who graduated from a podunk high scool with a C minus average starts a successful band and enjoys being treated like royalty. It bothers me more when that C minus student decides he has important things to say about religion, politics and the state of the world.
Bruce Springsteen, John Lennon and Bono? Great songwriters, nice enough guys, but NOT rocket scientists, to put it kindly. I’m HAPPY to let them demand whatever backstage perks they want. But I refuse to take them seriously when they’re not singing.
Sadly,guys like that get used to the Marty DiBergi treatment; that is, they’re accustomed to worshipful audiences and interviewers nodding as if their every banal thought was sheer genius. There’s no danger in giving a dumb rock star his favorite kind of candy. There IS some danger in letting him talk like an expert on subject s he knows nothing about.
Give Peter Criss his Ruffles- it’s only when he starts lecturing you about global warning that you should tell him to shut up.
Radiohead is known for asking for no more than “extra towels.” Buncha commies.
My point was people jumping in with the very few individual musicians who have degrees is pointless. Anecdotes not equaling data and all. Someone saying “most musicians in general…” and then someone else saying “Oh yeah, well what about that guy from 40 years ago?” or “Oh yeah, what about my brother?” is the exact opposite of “in general, most”.
Kinda silly thread. Two points:
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While the OP cites a quote from Doc McGhee where states that rock stars get power mad and he refers to their education - think about that. Really, what does becoming “power mad” have to do with education? Folks get power mad based on how much…power they have (strangely enough). Peter Criss got a lot of power and demanded ruffles. Stalin got a lot of power and killed millions. Guess Stalin didn’t have Doc McGhee telling him No. Beyond that, I fail to see the correlation.
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Draw a 2 x 2 grid.
Label the X-axis “type of smarts” and label one column “analytical/science smarts” and the other “artistic/expressive smarts”
Label the Y axis “how smarts acquired” and label one row “book smarts” and the other “street smarts”
Do most rock musicians end up in the “artistic-street” smarts quadrant? Probably. Are they any dumber or smarter than someone who has achieved a similar level of success in a “science-book” smarts field? Who the hell knows? And again, what does that have to do with becoming power mad? Any person in any of those quadrants has the potential to become power mad.
When it comes to power, we should listen to Lord Acton not Doc McGhee.
Personal experience – I’m not claiming that it’s true all or even most [ahem]guitar players[/ahem] can’t name chords correctly, just that it seems pretty standard for most groups and musicians who play in them. Just my observation, is all.
If you audition for a rock group, and they have charts for their songs – I’m talking just a list of chords that are correct, and not just riddled with confusions over triads in various inversions – it’s a sure bet the keys player or maybe the bassist made them. It’s an even surer bet you’ll have to just pick it up after a few choruses and lay in yourself – which is fine, for anyone with any skills whatsoever, and that’s the only way to really learn any tune, even a jazz tune or a cover, but IME not that optimal if you want the quickest results in a rehearsal. At least if the tune is at all complicated in structure.
I say this partly in jest – it’s a time-honored jokingly feuding relationship in rock between keys and guitars, starting with volume wars – because, if I had to pick one instrument to bring along with me to a job, it’d be a top-drawer guitar player.
I’m not a top-drawer player (in the parlance of being session-good, like trained, gigging pianists are more likely to be), but given the pianists you mention as inspirations over in the “How did you acquire your taste in music” thread, I’d love to jam - we could lock into some boogie woogie and Stones something fierce. 
I misread this as “trained, giggLing pianists” – even Jelly Roll Morton was afraid people would think he had the “taint” of a woman in him because of his piano playing.
Me, I’m just waiting for the right girl, like my man Liberace.
Let’s see, you can either read about the Romans or you can tour Italy with your band. Which gives you the better education?
No question, being part of a touring band COULD be a phenomenal opportunity to broaden your horizons, learn about history, and experience the glories of other cultures.
It can also mean dashing from hotel to limo to gig to limo to airport/depot to next town to hotel to limo…
Many a rocker has travelled from one end of this country to the other in a bus, and not learned a thing.
This is true, but the only way to provide a good answer to the OP’s actual question is to select a representative sample of rock musicians (including those who weren’t particularly successful), check up on their level of education, and compare that to the general population. I am not surprised that no one has taken the time to do this.
Many a student has graduated with a PhD without having learned much. At least a rocker has a marketable skill.
Linda Ronstadt did not graduate from high school
Well, that’s still a somewhat sketchy education. But she already had The Voice. And Ambition. So she moved to LA & became a star. She’s had a long & varied career–& has earned a ton of money.
Still waiting for somebody to produce some real data. I’ve known some dropout musicians & others with excellent educations; not just rock & roll but folk, blues, jazz & what’s now called “Americana.” Some still play music for a living; more have gone on to other careers & occasionally play for fun. (Of course, some are no longer with us.)
Kris Kristofferson was a Rhodes Scholar and graduated with BPhil in English Literature from Oxford. He was a Captain in the army and offered a position as a professor of English Literature at West Point.