13 Rock + Metal Artists Who Had Other Careers Before Music

Here are 13 rock and metal artists who had other careers before music.

The fairytale version of becoming a rockstar always starts with the person knowing their whole life that they wanted to be a musician, tour the world and sell millions of records. However, the reality is that that's not always how it goes.

In fact, it typically isn't.

You probably already know that Kurt Cobain was a janitor before he made it big with Nirvana. Or that Sebastian Bach was a landscaper. But did you know that Tom Araya was a respiratory therapist before he became the frontman of Slayer or that Serj Tankian owned a software company before System of a Down even formed?

It's interesting to look at the lives of some musicians and realize they almost went down completely different paths. If one thing had happened differently, we wouldn't have songs like "Freak on a Leash," "Raining Blood" or "The Beautiful People."

The odds of making it big as a professional musician are pretty low, so these artists pursued other endeavors first. Fortunately, the rock 'n' roll lifestyle ended up working for them too.

We compiled a list of 13 rock and metal musicians who had other established careers in different industries before they made it big as musicians. Scroll through below to read about what they did before they pursued music as a professional career.