From Drug Dealers To A Butcher's Delivery Man! The Weirdest Jobs of Musicians Before They Were Famous!

These musicians must have glamourous lives now but before *shudders*

Musicians today are possibly the few lucky ones who live ultra lavish lives but that’s not necessarily how it all started from them. Yes, a few had it good but reading this list of their previous not-so-luxurious jobs, you’ll understand why they’re as humble as they come. read on for a few surprising facts:

1. Rod Stewart – Grave Digger

Honestly, nothing can be worse than digging a hole in the ground for a dead person to be buried in but seems like Rod Stewart had the stomach for it since he worked at the Highgate Cemetery close to his house in London. He also worked in a funeral parlour in North Finchley.

2. David Bowie – Delivery Boy For A Butcher

Bowie famously confessed to working as a butcher’s delivery boy at age 13 in order to collect enough cash to pay for saxophone lessons by the famous sax player Ronnie Ross. As destiny would have it, the two did eventually end up working together on Lou Reed’s track “Walk On The Wild Side”, eleven years later!

3. Jay Z – Drug Dealer

Jay started selling cocaine on the streets of New York City way back in the 80’s and he mentioned that it helped him to succeed in life. He was quoted saying, “I was a drug dealer. To be in a drug deal, you need to know what you can spend, what you need to re-up. It helped me with budgets.” His hustling influences have had their benefits though with private jets, a clothing line, night clubs and more (he’s married to Queen Bey ya’ll!)

4. Gotye – Library Assistant

The hitmaker started off as a regular customer service helper at a local library where he would also work on book-processing activities and hear all the various available books and music vinyls. He worked there for almost two years and he was so good at the job that the people always referred to him as their favourite employee! Guess now he’s just somebody that they used to know (see what I did there!)

5. Noel Gallagher – Roadie For Inspiral’s Carpet

Possibly the coolest thing one could do when they’re young is go on tour with a rock band and that’s exactly what Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher did. In the Oasis documentary, Oasis: Supersonic, you can see clips of Noel jamming out while the band played their tracks. And he was proud of it too by saying , “I was the best-dressed roadie in the history of music. I used to wear white jeans and never got them dirty. I was too quick for the dirt.”

6. Ozzy Osbourne – Abattoir

An abattoir sounds really fancy before you Google the word and find out that it’s a job at a slaughterhouse. Ozzy himself gave the description of his early job as follows, “I had to slice open the cow carcasses and get all the gunk out of their stomachs. I used to vomit every day.” Maybe that’s what led him to bite into that bat all those years ago?

7. Mick Jagger – Mental Hospital Porter

Jagger does have his quirks but nothing tops the fact that at 18 years of age, he worked as a part time porter at the Bexley Psychiatric Hospital, wheeling patients around in their wheelchairs and more. And also notoriously lost his virginity in the hospital to a nurse in a cupboard. Casanova AF.

8. Calvin Harris – Shelf Stacker

The gorgeous DJ spent his youth working in Marks & Spencers as a stacking boy for the multinational retailer in Dumfries, Scotland. Majority of his debut album, “I Created Disco,” was written and produced between his shifts at the store back in 2007! And now, he models for Emporio Armani.

9. Kevin Parker – Law Office Clerk

Tame Impala’s lead singer had a boring life running around and collecting legal documents for his job at a legal firm in Australia. He wrote some of his initial music material while he was out and about delivering documents and when he was threatened with a chance of being fired for his lack of commitment, he quit and we should be thankful that he did!

10. Jack White – Upholsterer

Rock’s dark prince actually opened his own upholstery store in Detriot after being trained as an apprentice in the furniture business. The shop, Third Man Upholstery’s slogan was “Your furniture’s not dead” which might sound familiar since White’s self-owned record label, Third Man Records’ slogan is ‘Your turntable’s not dead.”

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