Prince may not be on this mortal realm with us, but he left behind an immense archive of work that is still being released to the public, reminding us of the limitlessness of his creativity. Last week, his estate released the album Timeless, which has sparked some controversy with its album credits.
The post Prince’s Label Clarifies Controversial “Calabama” Credits appeared first on Stereogum.
Pyroclast – Fractured State (Furious Music)
Before the fame, sold-out arenas, private jets, and platinum records, many of rock’s biggest stars were working ordinary jobs just to pay the bills. Some cleaned floors, some worked in factories, and others took whatever jobs they could find while chasing a career in music.
Looking back, those early jobs make their later success even more interesting. In a few cases, the work even shaped their personalities, skills, or musical careers in unexpected ways. Here are 14 rock stars and the surprising jobs they had before becoming famous.
Before Oasis exploded onto the Britpop scene, Noel Gallagher was working as a roadie for Inspiral Carpets. Gallagher’s time as a roadie was marked by his distinctive fashion sense, claiming he was “the best-dressed roadie in the history of music.” This job kept him close to the music scene, laying the groundwork for his future success with Oasis.
Long before he became the Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne worked in an abattoir, a job that was as grim as some of his later musical themes. Osbourne’s task involved slicing open cow carcasses, a job that made him “vomit every day.” This early exposure to the macabre may have subtly influenced his dark, gothic image in Black Sabbath and his solo career.
Bloc Party’s frontman, Kele Okereke, worked at the Curzon cinema in Soho, selling popcorn and snacks. Despite Bloc Party’s ‘Silent Alarm’ being voted NME’s album of the year in 2005, Okereke needed this job to pay the bills. This humble beginning contrasts sharply with the critical acclaim and success Bloc Party would later achieve.
The Killers’ Brandon Flowers had a stint as a bellboy at the Gold Coast Casino in Las Vegas. A huge Morrissey fan, Flowers once rummaged through a bag belonging to Morrissey’s guitarist, Boz Boorer. This job, rooted in the service industry, was a far cry from the glitzy world of rock stardom Flowers would later inhabit.
Before the Rolling Stones became rock legends, Mick Jagger worked part-time as a porter at Bexley Psychiatric Hospital. This job saw him lose his virgi**** in an unlikely place, marking a stark contrast to the international s** symbol he would become.
Before she became the famous singer and actor that we know today, Love was an exotic dancer at places like Jumbo’s Clown Room and Seventh Veil. This was before she married Kurt Cobain in the 90’sSpeaking to LA Weekly, Love said that she used to earn $300 a day. With the money she earned from working, Love was able to create her band, Hole.
The Decemberists’ Colin Meloy is not only a musician but also a published author. Before his music career took off, Meloy inked a three-book deal for the Wildwood Chronicles. This creative outlet outside of music showcases the diverse talents many musicians possess.
In the early 70s, Debbie Harry worked as a Playboy bunny, a job that required her to deal with “dirty old men.” This experience, while challenging, didn’t deter Harry from pursuing her music career, eventually leading Blondie to international fame.
Before Queen’s meteoric rise, Freddie Mercury owned and ran a stall in Kensington Market, selling his artwork and second-hand clothes. Even after Queen released their first album, Mercury continued running the stall, showcasing his entrepreneurial spirit.
While many know him as the Co-founder of the pioneering heavy metal band Black Sabbath, Tony once worked as a sheet metal worker. When he was 17, the future Black Sabbath guitarist worked at a sheet metal factory in Birmingham. He lost the tips of the middle and ring fingers on his right hand thanks to a horrible accident on his very last day on the job. The prosthetic ‘thimble’ he had to wear helped him develop that unique doomy style we all know him for today.
Before Sting became the voice and bassist of The Police, he spent two years working as a schoolteacher in Cramlington, Northumberland. After qualifying as a teacher, he taught at St. Paul’s while continuing to perform with jazz groups during evenings and weekends. His official biography notes that he eventually left teaching and moved to London, where he formed The Police with Stewart Copeland.
It is an amusing career switch considering the rebellious image rock musicians would develop in the late 1970s. One day Sting was standing in front of a classroom; a few years later, he was singing “Roxanne” in front of packed audiences around the world. His pre-fame résumé was even broader than that, including spells as a bus conductor, construction laborer, and tax officer.
Long before Bon Jovi became one of the biggest arena-rock bands on the planet, Jon Bon Jovi landed a decidedly less glamorous job at New York’s legendary Power Station recording studio. After finishing high school in 1980, he contacted his cousin Tony Bongiovi, who worked at the studio, and was allowed to work there running errands as a gofer.
The job might have involved mundane tasks, but the surroundings were anything but ordinary. Bon Jovi found himself watching major artists pass through the studio while learning how professional records were made. More importantly, access to the Power Station allowed him to work on his own recordings during downtime, putting him in exactly the right environment to chase a music career.
It was essentially the rock-and-roll version of starting in the mailroom. Instead of remaining the guy fetching things for famous musicians, Jon eventually became one of the musicians everyone else wanted to meet backstage.
The post 12 Boring Day Jobs That Rock Musicians Had Before they Were Famous appeared first on Metal Shout.
British rock band Cats In Space will release their seventh studio album, Suit Of Armour, on 6 November 2026 through Cherry Red Records’ Esoteric Antenna label. The album will be available on CD, classic black vinyl and streaming platforms. It follows Time Machine, the band’s first album for the label, and arrives after more than 18 months of recording.
“Our last album, Time Machine, was our first for the label, so we were testing the water carefully,” guitarist Greg Hart says. “This time, however, the gloves are off. We have spent more than 18 months recording what we truly believe is our finest and most grandiose record yet.
“Emotionally charged and shaped by the many facets of the human condition, we guarantee this conceptual journey will blow everyone away. The fans want epic Cats In Space? Well, hold on to your hats, because this album is full of it. Time Machine was merely the starter. Suit Of Armour is the full banquet… a medieval banquet of epic rock, if you will.”
Suit Of Armour is the first Cats In Space album to feature Chris Childs of Thunder and Tyketto on bass, and Sam Wood of Black Star Riders and Uriah Heep on lead guitar. Julie ‘The Duchess’ Maguire contributes backing vocals, with Damien Edwards on lead vocals.
The record combines harmonies, orchestration, piano and powerful drums with influences including Queen, ELO and Styx. The band also points to a stronger Thin Lizzy flavour, carried by layers of harmony guitars. Three singles and accompanying videos will precede the album. Lead track Miracle is due in September, while a UK tour will follow in March and April 2027. More information is available from catsinspace.co.uk.
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Music artists have completely different lives than the rest of us mortals. They encounter outlandish situations almost every day. Among other things, metal artists have the money to try out various interesting hobbies.
Some of them fly planes, and others take care of bees and horses. So, no wonder most of us are fascinated and star-struck by these performers.
It’s hard to make any metal list without mentioning Metallica and its founding members. In this particular instance, we want to talk about the group’s vocal and rhythm guitarist, James Hetfield. While guesting on Joe Rogan’s podcast in 2016, he shared with the fans that he’s enamored with bees.
Hetfield has a large range in California where he keeps these adorable insects, a hobby he picked up from his father. According to him, this sometimes relaxes him and isolates him from all the outside noise. It gives him time to reflect and prepare new albums.
Anders Friden, a long-lasting lead vocal of In Flames, is known as a major DVD collector. Having one of the biggest collections of movies and series in Sweden, he’s the guy to visit if you’re looking for new digital content. To make things even funnier, Anders said on several occasions, “The one with most DVDs when he dies is the winner.”
But Friden’s passion doesn’t stop there. Like many metalheads, he is completely crazy about alcohol and, specifically, whiskey. Although he has a massive collection of premium blands, he consumes the liquid in moderation.
With a bald head and braided beard, Kerry King is someone who you can’t miss in a crowd. The Slayer’s lead guitarist and songwriter is synonymous with thrash metal and everything dark and gloomy. So, it doesn’t come as a big surprise that he’s a major snake lover.
As a professional breeder, he specializes in carpet pythons. Kerry runs a herpetology nursery and reptile house called Psychotic Exotics, where you can find all sorts of frogs and snakes. So, if you’re looking for a heavy metal pet, you might as well give Mr. King a call.
Since she was a little girl, Floor had a major crush on horses. She was lucky enough to practice riding from early age and became quite proficient over the years. On several occasions, her uncle even promised to buy her a horse when she grows up a bit.
Unfortunately, when Jansen reached adulthood, her parents and uncle backed up on their promise. Luckily, this didn’t budge her and she would continue with lessons as if nothing has happened. When she finally had her Nightwish breakthrough, Floor had enough money to buy herself a haflinger mare.
Bruce Dickinson is a man of many talents. At one point, he was considered one of the best fencers in the world, winning two silver medals at World Championships in 1998 and 1999. He even had the opportunity to compete in the Olympics in Sidney (2000), finishing 5th.
However, the thing that struck us the most was the fact he is fully capable of flying big commercial airplanes. Since 1990s, Dickinson holds a commercial license and would drive around fans and band members on several occasions. Bruce usually flies Boeings 747s and 757s.
Interestingly enough, metal wasn’t Steve Harris’ first love. Instead, he was completely captivated by football and was dreaming of playing for local West Ham United. Steve even attended tryouts for his favorite club but couldn’t make the cut. At 17 years of age, he turned to music, and the rest is history.
Nowadays, Harris still visits the pitch. He plays in a local rec league and has a lot of fun doing so. While not as accomplished an athlete as his fellow band member Bruce, he can still break ankles.
Henkka was a former bass player for Children of Bodom, now a member of Moon Shot. As a well-versed, eloquent person, he handles most of the PR activities for Moon Shot. The fact he speaks Finish, English, Swedish, Russian, French, and Spanish definitely helps with this task.
However, his interests and hobbies don’t stop there. Seppala is also into sports, being a recreational swimmer and football player. It’s also worth mentioning that he studied political sciences at Helsinki University, where he received his Master’s Degree in 2012.
Heavy metal teeters on the edge of morbidity. Whether we’re talking about nudity or gore, there is always something for general public to criticize. One of these themes were clowns who are often associated with horror movies.
Brann Dailor from Mastodon doesn’t have this type of issue. In fact, he embraces the clown stuff, having one of the largest collections in the US. Dailor’s entire home pays homage to these circus professionals, and, as you can presume, he also loves dressing up as a clown in his spare time.
Bassist for System of a Down, Shavarsh “Shavo” Odadjian is a man who loves art, music, and acting. Besides being a part of the heavy metal group, he also DJs under stage names DJ Tactic and DJ DecompozeR. You might’ve even seen Shavo in a few movies and series, including the documentary “Screamers.”
The cool thing about this hobby is that Odadjian found a way to implement his artistic skills into System of a Down content. He’s the one creating backgrounds for concerts and videos, using abstract motifs instead of the usual violent mental imagery.
Similar to Floor Jansen, Dave Mustaine is big on horses. Not only does he ride them, he also breeds them. If you’re keeping track of his social media, you might’ve seen a few beautiful colts Mustaine grew on his ranch. In fact, Dave even rescued a few horses over the years, providing them with a safe home and excellent living conditions.
Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett has always had a fascination with the darker side of pop culture, so his favorite hobby fits him almost too perfectly. Away from the stage, Hammett is an obsessive collector of classic horror and science-fiction memorabilia, particularly vintage movie posters and artwork.
This is much more than a few Frankenstein figures sitting on a shelf. Hammett’s collection became substantial enough to form the museum exhibition It’s Alive! Classic Horror and Sci-Fi Art from the Kirk Hammett Collection. He has spoken about how horror imagery influenced him both personally and creatively, making the hobby another extension of the atmosphere he brings to Metallica.
Considering how much of metal’s visual language comes from monsters, skeletons, and horror movies, Hammett basically found the perfect pastime. When he isn’t playing one of metal’s most famous guitars, there is a decent chance he’s thinking about something that would have terrified moviegoers in the 1930s.
Given Alice Cooper’s stage shows, you might assume his free time involves collecting guillotines or raising boa constrictors. Instead, one of shock rock’s most theatrical performers is absolutely obsessed with golf.
Cooper became serious about the sport after getting sober in the early 1980s. He threw himself into it so completely that he says he played 36 holes a day during his year away from music and worked with two PGA professionals. By the end of that year, he had already become a nine-handicap golfer. Decades later, he has said he still plays around six times per week while touring.
The contrast is what makes the hobby so entertaining. At night, Cooper can appear onstage covered in makeup surrounded by snakes and horror props. A few hours earlier, he might have been calmly working on his short game. Apparently, even the godfather of shock rock worries about three-putting.
The post 14 Metal Artists With The Weirdest Hobbies Ever appeared first on Metal Shout.
There’s something powerful about running into a superstar at the mall. The pre-internet shopping, pre-social media, mundane phenomenon doesn’t exist anymore. But it’s surreal to think about that time, say a time before Beyoncé was Beyoncé, but a Texas teenager who encountered Tejano icon Selena at the Galleria Mall in Houston. Bey has talked about the Mexican-American singer’s influence, and that scene has been immortalized in a Netflix series. With a special extended release of 2006’s B’Day, we’re once again reminded of Selena’s impact on pop music.
The post Beyoncé Shares <em>B’Day</em> Selena Mashup Amid Escalating Dispute Between Late Singer’s Siblings appeared first on Stereogum.
As the lead guitarist of iconic rock band Queen, Brian May’s legacy speaks for itself. You’ve heard the triumphant solos in songs like “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “We Are the Champions,” and “Hammer to Fall,” and you’ve basked in the glory of classic records like Sheer Heart Attack (19740, News of the World (1977), and The Game (1980). And surely, you’ve seen all sorts of footage of May and his bandmates in Queen dominating stages worldwide. But over the years, May has also found himself in several guest spots. Collabs with Eddie Van Halen for Star Fleet in 1983 and Feedback 86
The post Brian May of Queen: The ClassicRockHistory.com Interview appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.
A few days ago, the great Mary J. Blige appeared in a Suno advertisement, and the internet did not react well. The ad circulated in various edited forms, each seemingly stripping away context from a video designed to look like a candid studio session, in which Blige was shown all the wild things you could do with Suno. The video’s circulation coincided with the release of Suno Studio 2.0. Now, the ad has been taken down after Suno said that Blige had never officially authorized the campaign.
The post Suno Pulls Reviled Mary J. Blige Ad, Claims They Were Misled About Her Approval appeared first on Stereogum.
Roger Waters has responded to Sharon Osbourne for the first time since their feud began thirteen months ago, and he did it in five words. Speaking exclusively to Far Out Magazine on September 3, the Pink Floyd co-founder said: “Sharon Osbourne is best ignored. R.” The response came after Osbourne left a comment on one of the outlet’s Instagram posts telling Waters to jump in the water with a brick tied around his neck. It is the first thing Waters has said about her directly in a dispute that has now produced a podcast tirade, a diss T-shirt, and a box of faeces she decided against posting.
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On August 31, Far Out Magazine posted on Instagram about Waters becoming an executive producer on an upcoming documentary called Freedom Theater.
Osbourne liked the post. Then she commented on it.
Her comment, per Far Out: “Jump in the water please with a brick tied around your neck.”
Far Out contacted Waters and his representatives, and on September 3 received a reply directly from the musician:
“Sharon Osbourne is best ignored. R.”
That’s the whole statement. Five words and an initial.
Both quotes are Far Out’s exclusive reporting — the comment appeared on their own post, and Waters responded to them directly. Neither has been independently corroborated at the time of writing.
Neither party has said anything further.
LIVE & LOUD: Stream the World’s Hardest Radio Station 24/7Worth pausing on, because the brevity is the point.
Waters is not a man historically known for restraint. He is one of the most argumentative figures in rock — a man who has spent five decades feuding with his own bandmates, in public, at length, in interviews that run for hours. If he wanted to escalate this, he has the appetite and the vocabulary.
He gave it five words instead.
“Best ignored” does something a longer statement couldn’t: it declines the fight while making clear he considers himself above it. Which will infuriate the other side considerably more than a paragraph would have.
And the lowercase “R” sign-off is very Roger Waters. It’s the kind of thing you write when you want the response to look like it cost you nothing.
The feud is thirteen months old and it began with Waters, not Osbourne.
August 2025. Weeks after Ozzy Osbourne’s death on July 22 at the age of 76, Waters appeared on the YouTube channel The Independent Ink. During a broader conversation about how pop-culture figures can distract from political issues, he brought Ozzy up unprompted.
He said Ozzy had been all over television for hundreds of years with his idiocy and nonsense. He said he had no idea about the music and couldn’t give a damn. He said he didn’t care about Black Sabbath, never did, and had no interest in biting the heads off chickens or whatever they do.
For context: Ozzy had died three weeks earlier, after a farewell show in Birmingham that reunited the original Black Sabbath lineup in front of a global audience.
The response was immediate. Jack Osbourne posted publicly, telling Waters exactly where to go and adding that his father had always thought Waters was a certain word — thanks for proving him right.
On The Osbournes podcast, Sharon called Waters a sad, irrelevant, old, miserable, ugly human being. In a separate episode she said he has no charisma, looks like Frankenstein, is sick in the head, isn’t relevant, is boring, has no stage presence, is envious, and is just a bad seed.
December 2025. Ozzy’s official merch store released a limited-edition T-shirt, available for 48 hours at $41. The front read “OZZY RULES” spray-painted over Waters’ name. The back showed Ozzy urinating on the artwork from Waters’ The Wall: Live In Berlin, with the words “Another Prick in the Wall.”
Also December 2025. On Piers Morgan Uncensored, Sharon revealed she had seriously considered mailing Waters a box of her own faeces. She decided against it — her reasoning being that it would be a waste, because he’s insignificant.
January 2026. Waters was asked about the whole thing and said he had no regrets about any of it.
August 31, 2026. The Instagram comment.
September 3, 2026. Five words.
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There’s a detail that makes this less of a celebrity spat than it looks, and it’s the thing worth holding onto.
Sharon Osbourne was married to Ozzy for over four decades and managed his career for most of them. He died in July 2025. Three weeks later, a man who had never worked with him, never toured with him and by his own admission never listened to his music went on a podcast and called his life’s work idiocy and nonsense.
Everything since — the podcast, the T-shirt, the box she didn’t send, the comment on Instagram — comes from that.
None of which makes the comment defensible. Telling someone to drown themselves is not a thing you can file under grief, and Waters is under no obligation to absorb it.
But it does explain why a woman who has spent fifty years in the music industry, and who is not remotely a stranger to saying exactly what she thinks, has spent thirteen months unable to let this one go.
She was also publicly defending Marilyn Manson earlier this week, which suggests the current mode is broadly unfiltered.
Check Out – Ranking the 13 Ozzy Osbourne Solo Songs That Built a Heavy Metal Throne
The strangest thing about this feud is that there was never any overlap to fall out over.
Waters and Ozzy occupied opposite ends of British rock. Pink Floyd built cerebral, politically conscious concept albums for people who read the sleeve notes. Black Sabbath invented heavy metal in a Birmingham factory town and built a career on volume, riffs and theatre.
They never toured together. They never collaborated. They barely shared an audience.
Ozzy went on to a solo career that ran nearly five decades, outlasting every guitarist who passed through it and turning him into one of the most recognisable figures the genre ever produced. Waters built The Wall and has spent the years since on political activism and increasingly acrimonious relations with his former bandmates.
Two enormous careers, no intersection — until one man decided to say something about the other, three weeks after he died.
Responding to Far Out Magazine on September 3, 2026, he said: “Sharon Osbourne is best ignored. R.” It was his first direct comment about her since their public feud began in August 2025.
On August 31, 2026 she commented on a Far Out Magazine Instagram post about Waters, writing: “Jump in the water please with a brick tied around your neck.” She has previously called him “a sad, irrelevant, old, miserable, ugly human being” on The Osbournes podcast and said she considered mailing him a box of faeces.
It began in August 2025, weeks after Ozzy Osbourne’s death, when Waters said on The Independent Ink podcast that Ozzy had been “all over the TV for hundreds of years with his idiocy and nonsense” and that he had never cared about Black Sabbath’s music. The Osbourne family responded publicly and the dispute has continued since.
A limited-edition T-shirt released via Ozzy Osbourne’s official merch store in December 2025, available for 48 hours at $41. The front featured “OZZY RULES” over Roger Waters’ name; the back showed Ozzy urinating on the artwork from Waters’ The Wall: Live In Berlin, captioned “Another Prick in the Wall.”
No. In a January 2026 interview he said he had no regrets about the remarks.
Thirteen months, a diss shirt, a box of faeces that never got posted, and a five-word reply. Keep it locked on the Loaded Radio stream — follow Loaded Radio for daily rock and metal news.
The post Roger Waters Breaks His Silence On Sharon Osbourne With Five Words appeared first on Loaded Radio.