Issue of the day: When the music fades...

REPORTS that Chancellor Rishi Sunak suggested musicians and artists impacted by the pandemic should “adapt or retrain” sparked outrage. He later said he had been misquoted, but the question of what rock stars could do when the music fades still managed to set social media alight.

Plenty of stars had normal jobs before they hit the big time?

Rod Stewart worked as a screen printer, printing wallpapers, while Madonna worked at Dunkin’ Donuts in New York. Mick Jagger was a porter at an asylum in London and Sting was a teacher.

But it’s all very well working 9-to-5 before fame strikes?

It doubtless would not be so easy to go from superstardom to regular jobs, but a host of stars have done just that.

Such as?

American songstress Cindy Birdsong, now 80, found fame as a member of The Supremes in the late 1960s. After leaving in 1976, she became a nurse at the UCLA Medical Center, working under her married name. She later went on to work as a secretary and an ordained minister.

From hard rock to paramedic?

David Lee Roth, lead singer of Van Halen, left the rock band in 1985. In the late 1990s, he trained as an

Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) in New York, going on over 200 ambulance rides, although he has since returned to music.

Let’s Stay Together?

Singer Al Green, whose hits include the 1971 song Tired of Being Alone and 1972’s Let’s Stay Together, is a soul music icon, but the now 74-year-old turned to religion at the height of his fame. In 1976, he opened the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church in Memphis and still preaches there.

Blur?

In the 1990s, it was all about Blur or Oasis, but Blur drummer Dave Rowntree took a music break after the band’s heady chart days and after working in computer animation, studied the law and is now a councillor for Norfolk County Council, representing the Labour Party.

The Goonies?

Steven Spielberg’s 1985 classic, The Goonies, starred Sean Astin and Josh Brolin, who are both still acting today, but it also featured child actor Jeff Cohen as Chunk. He has now turned his back on fame and is a lawyer in LA.

Any other unusual career changes?

Drummer Terry Chimes, a founding member of punk band The Clash, became a chiropractor in 1993, while guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter – a founding member of Steely Dan in the 1970s and a former member of The Doobie Brothers – has since worked as a consultant on missile defence systems with government agencies in the US.

As for the artists struggling today?

Mr Sunak was adamant he was referring to a general need to adapt in the face of the pandemic during the ITV interview, but stars expressed anger online, including Liam Gallagher who tweeted: “If anyone needs to retrain it’s them shower…”