Hobbies of the rich and famous rockers
Superstars dig trains, golf — even stamp collecting — in spare time
Imagine Bono, David Bowie, Brian Eno and Kylie Minogue backstage at an event. And what was this quorum of superstars doing? Consuming narcotics and indulging in orgiastic sex? Discussing the role of art as a force for revolutionary change in disco music while hangerson spoon-fed them caviar? Well, sorry to disappoint, but they were cooing over snapshots of Bowie’s baby Lexi, with the proud father beaming about the joys of diaper-changing domesticity while his fellow celebrities purred about how lovely she looked.
Despite every effort of publicists to persuade us otherwise, rock stars are people, too.
An interview with Ronnie Wood’s wife, Sally, notes the couple like to stay and enjoy an evening doing jigsaw puzzles and watching TV box sets. Wood might have pulled out his stamp collection. The former crack-, smack- and booze-crazed guitar-slinger is a noted philatelist, a hobby enjoyed by Freddie Mercury and John Lennon.
The Rolling Stones seem unabashed about gathering moss offstage. Former bassist Bill Wyman potters about the countryside with a metal detector looking for objects even older than the band. Mick Jagger enjoys a game of cricket, where he is sometimes joined on the village green for an inning by drummer Charlie Watts, who prefers listening to classical music at home. Keith Richards is a history buff who professes to like nothing better than getting his nose into a good Second World War tome, although the hard-living hedonist makes even reading sound like a dangerous pursuit. The Stones had to postpone a tour in 1998 after Richards fell off a ladder in his library.
Every rock star has a boring side. No one can keep up an unrelenting diet of sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll, at least if they make it past the phase of “live fast, die young and leave a beautiful corpse”. Life is long, recording and touring are filled with tedious stretches where nothing much is done, and surely even hellraisers need a hobby. So what do you do to take your mind off things if your job is the kind of leisure pursuit other men fantasize about?
Building model railways is very popular among rockers of a certain vintage. Rod Stewart, Neil Young, Phil Collins and Roger Daltrey all have elaborate train sets, with Stewart stating in his autobiography that making the December 2010 cover of Model Railroader was “a major career milestone … getting on the front of Rolling Stone had nothing on this.” Elton John collects porcelain. Kylie plays Scrabble. Grandmaster Flash collects souvenir mugs. And there is an awful lot of golf being played by people who would never be seen in public wearing checked trousers. When not dismembering live chickens on stage, Alice Cooper has a handicap of 5.3. He could put in a round with Meatloaf, Eddie Van Halen, Justin Timberlake, Roger Waters, Mick Fleetwood, Snoop Dogg and maybe even Bob Dylan, although he has a terrible handicap of 17.
Perhaps rock stars, who act out a teenage fantasy existence, long for the lives they once rebelled against. Hobbies are an opportunity to play at being grownups, without having to do any of the tedious stuff. But while glimpses into domesticity once seemed strange and tantalizing, their paradoxical allure lessens with each revelation of homebody dullness.
With the 24/7 access demanded by fans in the era of social networking, stars are going to have to find some more interesting hobbies, like Jack White’s taxidermy and Dylan’s sheet metal work. How many selfies do you want to see of an outlaw hero tending begonias?