Things you were surprised to learn about certain musicians

For example, I just learned that John Sebastian of The Lovin Spoonful wrote the Care Bears theme, as well as all the music for the Care Bears movies. I'm still trying to get past how baffled I am about that.

Ronnie James Dio was singing in a band in the early 60's, and they sounded like this.

Before he started the indie band Vampire Weekend, Ezra Koenig, was, um, rapping about pizza.

Related: Billy Joel fronted a heavy metal band that was so loud that they'd be kicked out of the places they were playing.

The drummer for the Scottish synth-pop group The Associates was a member of the noise group Whitehouse.

A lot of noise musicians are like that, actually. Gary Mundy of Ramleh moonlights as the guitarist for Breathless, Dominick Fernow plays keyboards for Cold Cave, Andrew WK was the touring bassist for Current 93...

Prior to joining Metal Church, David Wayne (R.I.P.) was a US army field medic.

Little Richard: By the end of the 1950s, he renounced his fame (supposedly throwing all his jewelry into a lake or river or something) and became an evangelical minister for a while.

Don Van Vliet (AKA Captain Beefheart) is basically what would happen if Charles Manson got his recording contract. Seriously, look up the production of his album Trout Mask Replica. The dude was basically a cult leader who would punish any dissident, his whole crew was starving (Though this was more monetary then willingly) to the point were they actually stole food, and they lived in a little cabin in the woods practicing the songs. It's a little creepy when you think about it...

Ronnie James Dio was singing in a band in the early 60's, and they sounded like this.

"I was so sure of my baby until she put me down."

He wrote a song about being hurt by a woman. I'm shocked I tell you. SHOCKED! (Well she's not outright evil. So maybe I'm a bit shocked.)

edited 16th Oct '12 4:41:02 PM by reub2000

Ice-T was in a Metal group.

Related: Vanilla Ice went on to do alternative rock music.

From what I've heard, more like Nu Metal. He did a Limp Bizkit-esque remake of "Ice Ice Baby" and this one local radio station used to play it - when I first heard it, I thought it was Limp Bizkit covering "Ice Ice Baby" (or some new band trying to imitate them):

edited 16th Oct '12 11:43:21 PM by MikeK

Mark "The Shark" Shelton used to play a bit of country music (on drums I think) before he started cult metal act Manilla Road in the late 70's.

I actually heard about Body Count before I heard about Ice-T.

NickiMinaj is a Juggalo

Yeah, that doesn't actually surprise me.

• Brad Paisley wrote a Top 10 country hit for someone else (David Kersh's "Another You") back in 1996. (Paisley's first single came out in 1999.)

• Gary LeVox and Joe Don Rooney of Rascal Flatts had both auditioned to be in Little Big Town.
  • Rascal Flatts' third member (Jay DeMarcus) used to be Chely Wright's bandleader, and is the brother-in-law of James Otto.

• An obscure 1990s group that I like (Sons of the Desert) got kicked off their label because they and the Dixie Chicks had a fight over who would get to release "Goodbye Earl".

• Before their debut single "Love Don't Live Here", Lady Antebellum sang on a Jim Brickman song.
  • Also, Hillary Scott of Lady Antebellum is the daughter of Linda Davis (best known as Reba Mc Entire's duet partner on "Does He Love You").

• Jason Aldean was almost signed to Capitol Records in the late 90s.

Kerry King played lead guitar on 'No Sleep Til Brooklyn' (and briefly shows up in the video) - knowing this, I swear he must have played on "Fight For Your Right" too, but I can't find any comfirmation on that. The main riffs to both are more Glam Metal-ish than Slayer ever got, but the solos are totally in Kerry King's style.

edited 17th Oct '12 12:23:30 PM by MikeK

Another one:

Keith Urban played on a 1991 album by INXS, Garth Brooks' Double Live, and an album by comedian Tim Wilson. He also wrote songs for Toby Keith and the Raybon Brothers ("Butterfly Kisses"), and got a cameo in the video for Alan Jackson's 1994 single "Summertime Blues".

I'm curious, that "Summertime Blues" song, is it a cover of the rock standard by Eddie Cochran (later famously covered by The Who in concerts)?

Learning that, of all people, Tom Araya from Slayer is a Catholic.

edited 18th Oct '12 4:47:36 PM by NEO

Yes, it's a cover of the Eddie Cochran song.

Until maybe the late 90s, I was always surprised whenever I found out that a song was a cover. My mom says that when I was 4, we saw a local singer in concert — he did a lot of cover songs and she says I kept asking her if he was asking the other artists if it was okay to sing their songs.

edited 18th Oct '12 6:13:34 PM by Twentington

Heh, that's kind of funny.

Just looked up that cover...I'm not too impressed. I don't think the music fits the lyrics, and they're singing it really gently. It's hardly "raising a holler." It sounds nice, but it just doesn't all fit too well to me.

There's also the matter that Alan was 36 at the time, and about 18 years too old to be singing that song. Still, nostalgia won't let me dislike any country song I grew up on, not even the dumb stuff like Tracy Byrd's "Watermelon Crawl".

Seriously though, Alan Jackson usually does much better. Just stay away from "Country Boy".

I'm trying to think of other Alan Jackson songs I've heard, because I know I may have heard one or two others and didn't think they were bad.

Most likely some of his bigger crossover hits, like "Don't Rock the Jukebox", "Chattahoochee", "Gone Country", "Little Bitty", "Where Were You", or "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere".

Getting back on topic, I was surprised to find that A.J. wrote some songs for other people, most notably Clay Walker's "If I Could Make a Living" and Faith Hill's "I Can't Do That Anymore".

Mike Oldfield has used Vocaloid in some of his music.