4 Surprising Day Jobs Rock Stars Had Before Fame

Not every rock star started out with a guitar in hand and a sold-out stadium. Many famous musicians had regular jobs before they broke into the music scene. These early roles often had nothing to do with music but helped shape their work ethic, creativity, or even their outlook on life. Some jobs were unusual, others were demanding, and a few were downright unpleasant. Here are four classic rock stars who held surprising day jobs before they found fame.

Serj Tankian – Software Company Owner

Before Serj Tankian became the frontman of System of a Down, he was working in the tech world. In his early 20s, long before the band gained national attention, Tankian started his own small software company. He didn’t write code himself but managed the business and marketing side of things.

Tankian later said he wasn’t passionate about the job. In interviews, he admitted that he only got into it because he didn’t know what else to do at the time. Eventually, music took over his life, and he followed his creative instincts instead. The software job faded into the background as SOAD exploded in the late 1990s.

Ozzy Osbourne – Slaughterhouse Worker

Long before becoming the “Prince of Darkness,” Ozzy Osbourne worked at a slaughterhouse in Birmingham, England. As a teenager, he took a job at an abattoir, where he helped process animals for meat. It was tough and messy work, but the pay was decent, and he liked that the hours were shorter than office jobs.

Osbourne has spoken openly about how harsh the job was, describing it as physically and emotionally draining. Still, it gave him a sense of discipline and grit that may have later helped him survive the chaos of rock fame and touring with Black Sabbath in the early days.

Rod Stewart – Cemetery Plot Marker

Rod Stewart didn’t dig graves, but he did work in a cemetery. As a teenager, he held a part-time job at Highgate Cemetery in London. His job was to measure burial plots and mark them off with string. This helped cemetery staff prepare the site for actual digging later on.

In interviews, Stewart has cleared up the rumor that he was a gravedigger, saying he never actually handled a shovel. Still, he found the work boring and admitted that he wasn’t very interested in manual labor. It wasn’t long before he left that job behind and started focusing more seriously on music.

Moby – Teenage Golf Caddy

Before Moby became known for blending electronic music with rock and pop influences, he was a 13-year-old working as a golf caddy in Connecticut. The job was physically demanding, especially for someone his size, and he later said he wasn’t very good at it.

He mainly took the job to earn money so he could start buying records, especially from his musical hero, David Bowie. Moby once joked that he was a “terrible caddy” but that it didn’t matter much—he was more focused on building his record collection than building a career in golf.