Over the many years there has been Rock'n'Roll music, there have been Rock'n'Roll stars. They've come and gone, basking in the warmth of stardom for from anywhere to many years and some for a very short while. We seem to think they became so filthy rich that they've been lying in the lap of luxury since their last big hit, but over time, especially to those who've actually had to deal with paying bills, and after learning how the music industry has treated many a recording artists, realize that those royalties couldn't have lasted. Since they fell from the limelight many of them had to find something to do for a living.

I know this sounds like the suggestion for a plot to an interesting movie, and I think a few flicks have already used this plot. But I do wonder what's become of these "stars" of the record industry after their star had faded.

We do know that some have wandered into acting(Mark Wahlberg for example), producing, or found executive positions at their old label(Smokey Robinson). Others, like the members of the prototypical Psycadelic/punk band BLUES MAGOOS have found work in banking and real estate and stockbrokerages, ala political activist JERRY RUBIN, and even a few still kick it out at small clubs and the Indian casino circuit.

But what of many of the others? I thought about this while watching one of those fund raising "pledge drive" shows on PBS. You know, the ones where they dig up some of those old "Doo-Wop" performers from long days gone by to do their stuff onstage somewhere in front of a house band. Some of them look ready to drop any second. I wonder what they did with their lives and time between now and then. I also wonder if there's some kid somewhere watching those shows exclaiming, "DANG! Grandpa wasn't KIDDING about him once being a recording star!".

I suppose I could do a little "Wikifying" research on some of them, and actually have done some. For instance, LONNIE MACK, the talented guitarist who recorded an instrumental cover of Chuck Berry's "MEMPHIS" still plays and performs in the country circuit.

Many of you here in these forums might be better at this internet research thing, and might even have knowledge of this sort already. Any you'd care to share would be appreciated.
Whitefang

I won't name names- mainly because I can't recall them at the moment- but I know that one of the guys from Sha Na Na became a highly regarded forensic scientist (saw him on a true crime show), the lead guitarist from Faith No More is a farmer (he grows giant pumpkins, among other things), and the drummer for a one hit wonder in the late 1970s early 1980s went into the special forces (we're buddies on an online role-playing game board).

I recently found out that one of Hole's bass players works in the office of a Social Security judge I know.

I'm in industrial pump sales now...oh you mean REAL rock starz!! Well Keith and Mick and the boys are on tour for a bit.

Vito Bratta from White Lion went into computer programmingm, as did tne guy from Molly Hatchet who played the Flying V. One of other Molly Hachet guitarists, Dave Hlubek, plays with a band called the Southern Rock Allstars, along with several other former Southern Rock stars, or did the last I heard. Rickey Medlocke, guitarist from Blackfoot, plays with Lynyrd Skynyrd. Hughie Thomason, the Strat guy from The Outlaws, did play with Skynyrd till he died of a heart attack, couple of years ago. Billy jones, The Les Paul guy in their original line up, shot himself in the head back in '95, apparently depressed over persistant substance abuse problems. That's all I can think of right now.

Update; Duane Roland, the guy from Molly Hatchet that played the Flying V, died in 2006, at the age of 53.

They do the things the rest of us human beings do to pay the bills, if they need money to pay the bills and didn't amass a fortune...using other skills they have, or if rock and roll is the only skill they have they keep doing that on whatever level they can sustain, or work in music stores.

VH-1 used to do a "where are they now?" thing that tracked people down.

A little OT whitefang...but I wonder how those old do-whoppers on PBS have those young turds [in] the group? I mean you know they are like 50 years younger than the rest of the survivors in the group that's on stage?

LeftyBlues: Are you saying Mick and the Boys were one hit wonders? At least they are all the same age. I give them credit for never hiring a Bass replacement and sticking with the original group (kinda on the same OT as above)...

I once saw a late 50s band in ocean city fronted by one of thier original roadies . Was good show for all I know though they could have been anyone .

Lok

I heard one of the members of Iron Butterfly who is still alive is a taxi driver in Las Vegas. In a week and a half, I should be meeting with a friend in the music business who will have some more stories to share on this subject.

Thomas Dolby has been doing computer programming in CA-no surprise there I guess.

Denny Thompson, drummer for MC5, still gets together with whoever is left from that group for appearances somewhere every now and then. But for a while, he studied robotics and once was one of only five guys who went around the country maintaining and repairing/programming those robotic props at Chuck E. Cheese and places like that.

Found that out from his Mom one day years back when I took my daughters around my Mom's neighborhood to sell Girl Scout cookies. He grew up across the street from me in Lincoln Park, MI. I still recall hearing him practice his drums in the basement. We could hear him clear out to the street!
Whitefang

A friend and I were talking about Brownsville Station the other day, and I found this little excerpt in Wikipedia (minor editing for brevity)...

Brownsville Station disbanded in 1979. Cub Koda died of kidney disease on 1 July 2000 at the age of 51. Mike Lutz went on to produce many bands, including Ted Nugent's Spirit of the Wild album, and toured in the 1990s with Nugent. Henry Weck engineered and co-produced the Strikes album for Blackfoot, and then two more stateside, as well a live Blackfoot album with the Rolling Stone mobile in the UK. He continues to record and produce in Memphis and at Lutz's Tazmania Studios. Bruce Nazarian is the owner of Digital Media Consulting Group in Nevada, and runs a popular digital media website "TheDigitalGuy.com". T.J. Cronley spent a career in the U.S. Marine Corps as a Marine Aviator, and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1992. He is currently a pilot for FedEx

It sounds like these guys did pretty good outside of BVS. RIP Cub Koda...

I don't know what happens to them truth be told. Once the artistic fire burned down, I hope they put enough away to keep living well without starving.

Whenever I watch those shows you are talking about I think; What are these old goats and goatesses doing on stage don't they realize their day has come and gone. (Disclaimer I am also an old goat at 70 years old) And I would still play out, not because I want to relive my days of glory, (I never had many) but the music in still in me, and wants to come out.

And in some of those oldies I still see a spark of genuine musical artistry, but most of them "seem to be" trying to relive something that is long gone.

I've met a few people where I live - an hour away from New Orleans - that have been musicians who were part of bands who had decent profiles, and they were here because a smaller town right next door has a cottage industry in halfway houses for people who've gone through rehab elsewhere (and there's little chance of them connecting with people who will help them fall off the wagon there), this is the next step being a mid-sized city with places they can find jobs and have a harder time getting into trouble than most cities. Most of them don't want to get back into playing, though, because they don't want to fall into old habits.

The constant influx of recovering intravenous drug users from everywhere helps us top the list of new HIV cases every year, too, along with an underprivileged half of the city that is uneducated about anything like that...

but it's a relatively nice place... really.

Baton Rouge?

yep

Me and my whole family are from NOLA, except those from Covington.

(We escaped decades before Katrina.)

Ah... my dad was totally New Orleans, my mom's family stretches from Slidell to Lake Charles all along Southern Louisiana.

Salut!

For all the guys we lost along the road...

Highways and dancehalls, a good song takes you far
Your write about the moon and you dream about the stars
Blues in old motel rooms, girls in daddy’s car
You sing about the nights and you laugh about the scars
Coffee in the morning cocaine afternoons
You talk about the weather and you grin about the rooms
Phone calls long distance to tell how you’ve been
You forget about the losses, you exaggerate the wins
And when you stop to let ’em know you’ve got it down
It’s just another town along the road

The ladies come to see you If your name still rings a bell
They give you damn near nothin’ and they’ll say they knew you well
So you tell ’em you’ll remember, but they know it’s just a game
And along the way their faces all begin to look the same
And when you stop to let ’em know you got it down
It’s just another town along the road

Well it isn’t for the money And it’s only for a while
You stalk about the rooms And you roll away the miles
Gamblers in the neon, clinging to guitars
You’re right about the moon but you’re wrong about the stars
cause when you stop to let ’em know You got it down
It’s just another town along the road...
Danny O'Keefe

Truth be told, one of the seeds of this thread came from one of the worst movies I ever saw, the "Eddie and the Cruisers" sequel. Seems "Eddie", believed dead, had been living in obscurity for many years as a construction worker.

It did make me wonder where some of these "stars" wind up after that star has faded. DO their children and grandchildren know about their brief, glorious past? How many, not being able to deal with their ephemeral fame, dropped down the dark hole of alchohol and drug abuse? How many, able to treat that fleeting glory as just another phase in their life, lived (or are still living) their lives in happy or contented comfort doing whatever else for a living? How many never mention it to anyone, even close loved ones, because it was a painful experience?

On the other hand, I might just have too much time on my hands...
Whitefang

I think some of the guys on the PBS special are just normal business looking guys pulled from obscurity, dressed up in a tux and thrown on stage. They still sound great doing The Lion Sleeps Tonight! Nobody even mentions the back up stage band? I mean, those guys are great at getting the original sounds on all of those oldies IMHO. Their spirit will live on in their recordings long after they pass-on as do many on Youtube and in the old black and white movies.

Those "stage band" guys I imagine are professional studio guys. And YES, they do a remarkable job, don't they?
Whitefang

Tim Bogert showed up at a gig last year. I didn't ask him what he was doing nowadays but he looked good, healthy and prosperous.
Looked like a typical retiree in Florida. I would not have recognized him if my bass player hadn't introduced us.

That's great. I've wondered what became of Tim. He was in a band with my studio partner for a while, probably late 70s. We recorded a bunch of material, they were never signed, it all just petered out. Glad Tim is still around, seemingly doing OK.

It IS kind of a "mind slap" when you see the "Rock Star/Guitar Hero" from your teen years, the one with the waist-long, frizzy hair and Grizzly Adams beard, looking much like how your GRANDPA looked back in those days!

I channel surfed into the middle of an interview with HUEY LEWIS on the defunct BONNIE HUNT talk show a few years ago and didn't know it was him until she mentioned one of his tunes. His face had developed that "old man" sag and jowel that MY Grandpa used to have.
Whitefang

Just saw Soundgarden on Later with Jools Holland- bassist Ben Shepherd looked like the scruffy middle aged usher at my church...