Musicians Who Gave up Fame for Fame and Then Played El Paso
People start out heading in a certain direction in life yet and, quite often, find themselves somewhere else.
As we grow, we decide what we'd like our future's to be. Sometimes though, life throws a curve ball at 'ya and you take a different road entirely.
My original career choice was musician but I went with journalism and computer programming degree plans in college. Just in case Metallica never called me. (Which, 3 bass players later, they still haven't.)
I figured careers in those other fields were more stable so, with the odds of me ever headlining major rock festivals fading, I went where I thought the money was. It wasn't.
Enter radio. What once seemed a fun way to pay the bills through college, turned into a full on career and I've loved every minute of it. It happens...
Here are a few rock stars who switched career paths along the way and have shared their "plan B" lives with us here in El Chuco.
Jared Leto - While he's been in some pretty major motion pictures, rock n roll was ... and, it seems, IS ... his passion and his destiny.
As a singer/songwriter and front-man for 30 Seconds To Mars, he's written some great music and has visited El Paso to play it for us several times.
He even broke his nose here once. I saw them in the coliseum ... the night he did that ... and also at Club 101.
Chris Jericho - The wrestling star took his "garage band" to the public when he teamed up with members of Stuck Mojo for a spoof album. The success of that led them to do the band thing for real and Fozzy has since had several, charting hits.
They once rocked El Paso as part of a "mini-tour" in which they played 3 shows, in 3 time zones, in one day. A breakfast show in Florida, a lunch show in El Paso and a dinner show in Las Vegas.
I saw them at Speaking Rock Entertainment Center twice and once at the El Paso Downtown Street Festival.
Ronnie James Dio - The iconic singer left not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 bands before starting his own band. He was in Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell and Dio.
He performed in El Paso, at least once, with Sabbath and several times with Dio. Prior to that, he earned a degree in pharmacology.
I saw him, with both Sabbath and Dio, in the Coliseum.
Taylor Momsen - Taylor is another actor, turned rocker.
Before fronting the Pretty Reckless, she first appeared on camera when she was 3 or 4. The former Gossip Girl star has since come to epitomize the whole sex, drugs and rock 'n roll lifestyle.
She, and the Pretty Reckless rocked the KLAQ Haunted Warehouse once when it was located near Lee Trevino and I-10. They returned for the 2014 KLAQ Balloonfest.
Lemmy Kilmister - Talk about living up to the sex, drugs and rock 'n roll thing ... Motorhead frontman Lemmy was the OG.
The Motorhead frontman was also once in Hawkwind. (That's when he first wrote the song "Motorhead" by the way.).
He was also once a roadie .... the guitar tech for Jimi Hendrix, no less.
Another performer who rocked the Coliseum.