Top 14+ pop stars who swapped their music careers for ‘normal’ jobs
Being a pop star can be a full-time job for the most successful, with chart-topping singles and sell-out tours keeping them busy for decades. But for others, the whole business of musical fame is a bit more short-lived - whether they fall victim to one-hit wonderdom, or the hits dry up after a couple of years, or they've just had enough of twanging a guitar onstage for the benefit of adoring fans every night. When that happens, the world of other career opportunities may well rear its head - and indeed the rocky road of stardom is littered with musicians, singers and band members who decided to pack it all in in favour of a normal 9 to 5 (or a 'proper job', as your nan might have suggested instead of dabbling in all this music malarkey). Read on to find a whole host of famous pop stars who found gainful employment away from their music careers... (Picture: Rex Shutterstock/Getty Images)
1. Vanilla Ice
Despite having spoken about making millions from 'doing nothing' after his iconic 90s chart-topper Ice Ice Baby, Vanilla Ice has been busier than you might think. While the hits may have dried up, the rapper is well-known to have bought several houses in his 20s. By the late 1990s, he was pursuing his passion to become a construction contractor and work in real estate. And although he does still perform, appearing onstage and in movies (including 2012's That's My Boy and 2015's The Ridiculous 6),he's best known these days as the star of home improvement TV show The Vanilla Ice Project, which ran from 2010-2019 on the DIY Network in the US. According to Celebrity Net Worth, he's also amassed a fortune of around $20million (£15million) from knowing his real estate, so clearly he's doing something right (Picture: Getty Images)
2. The Cheeky Girls
How could you possibly have forgotten about the Cheeky Girls, aka Romanian twins Gabriela and Monica Irimia, who caused a sensation when they auditioned for Popstars: The Rivals (the show which gave us Girls Aloud) back in 2002? They might not have made it into the band with their self-penned anthem The Cheeky Song (Touch My Bum), but their audition was enough to land them a record deal and a string of top three hits guaranteed to find themselves a place on any school disco playlist. But what happened next? Well, while they do still perform at festivals and make personal appearances, The Sun reported in 2021 that they had both taken up new careers in car dealerships - Gabriela in York and Monica in Lincolnshire. 'Me and Gaby need a solid business for our future and cars will always be good business,' the twins told the paper in 2021. 'Being an entertainer is fantastic, but like it was with Covid, if you don’t have a solid job or business how do you survive?' (Picture: Getty Images)
3. MC Hammer
Rapper MC Hammer was rarely out of the charts in the early 90s, best known for such catchy tracks as U Can't Touch This and Pray, as well as the theme song to the 1991 big screen adaptation of The Addams Family. But what's he up to these days? Well, like many of the people on this list, Hammer - real name Stanley Kirk Burrell - still performs, but he also became an ordained minister in the late 1990s, and is a pastor at a Christian centre in San Jose, California. 'There came a point where I wanted to just get back home. Get back to the place ... I once had in my relationship with Jesus,' he told the LA Times in 2000. The father of five is also a successful businessman who invested in a number of tech startups, including social media platform X. These days he appears in TV adverts as well as participating in social media and ministry/outreach functions (Picture: Getty Images)
4. JB Gill
JB Gill originally sprang to fame as a member of X Factor boybanders JLS, and along with fellow members Marvin Humes, Oritse Williams and Aston Merrygold notched up a stack of hits including Everybody In Love and This Club Is Alive. However, when the group split in 2013, JB embarked on a new career as a farmer, specialising in rearing turkeys - which makes him very popular around Christmas time. Speaking to the Mirror in 2014, he said: ‘I am a fully fledged farmer now. If this year is a success, I hope to breed turkeys for years to come.’ He hasn't forgotten his roots entirely, having reunited with JLS for their greatest hits tour in 2023, and younger viewers can still see him fronting the TV show Down On The Farm on CBeebies. Most recently, he's appeared on Channel 5 show coastal adventures (Picture: Catherine Ababio)
5. Kim Wilde
Kim Wilde was one of the queens of the charts in the 80s, racking up hits with the likes of Kids in America, Chequered Love and You Came - and she still tours and performs to this day. However, during her pregnancy with son Harry, when she took a break from music, her old interest in gardening reared its head, and she enrolled in Capel Manor College in Enfield, London, to study horticulture. Since then, she's had a successful career in gardening, appearing on the TV shows Better Gardens and Garden Invaders, and even winning an award at the 2005 Chelsea Flower Show for her courtyard garden. Now that's wild (Picture: Redferns)
6. Russell Senior (Pulp)
Although the name might not be immediately familiar, Russell Senior found fame as a guitarist and violinist in the band Pulp - so you'll have heard him playing on some of your favourite 90s Britpop hits. However, in 1997 he decided he'd prefer to live like Common People and quit the band, going on to become a novelist, publishing Freak Out The Squares: Life In A Band Called Pulp in 2015, as well as moving into a career in antiques, specialising in glassware. Speaking to The Guardian, he said of his departure: 'I think the band were relieved, to be honest, because the atmosphere had become so poisonous — although treating my departure as if they had lost a plectrum was a bit hurtful' (Picture: Michael Putland/Getty Images)
6. Brian Cox
No, not the Succession actor but the other one. You may have forgotten that Brian Cox was once the keyboard player in 90s dance act D:Ream, they of the Labour party's favoured chart-topper Things Can Only Get Better, as well as other hits including U R The Best Thing. Cox studied physics at university during his music career and completed his PhD in high energy particle physics in 1997, after the band split. These days he's a particle physicist at the University of Manchester and has written several books on physics, as well as being a regular face on TV and radio science programmes. He also performs music sporadically, and in recent years has appeared with the likes of OMD and New Order (Picture: Tayfun Salci/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock)
7. Mark Feehilly (Westlife)
He might have sprung to fame as a member of Westlife, selling millions of records and thrilling fans around the world, but in 2015 Mark Feehily revealed he had swapped performing at festivals for feeding the hungry masses at them. Speaking to Irish radio station Today FM in 2015, he explained he had started a catering business and was running a crepe van, saying: ‘People were flabbergasted at the fact that I was in the van making crepes ... They have this kind of thing “oh he was in Westlife a few years ago and now he’s making tea.' However, he pointed out: ‘It’s my business and I love it, anything I get involved in I get involved 110%.' Mark hasn't given up on music completely, mind, having released solo material in 2015 as well as rejoining Westlife when they reunited in 2018. And of course eagle-eyed viewers will have spotted him as Robobunny on the 2022 series of The Masked Singer (Picture: Tom Dymond/REX/Shutterstock for NTA)
8. Miki Berenyi (Lush)
The 90s had no shortage of brilliant British bands crowding the charts, among them Lush, who scored hits with the likes of Single Girl and Ladykilllers, and who were fronted by charismatic scarlet-haired singer and guitarist Miki Berenyi. However, after drummer Chris Acland tragically took his own life in 1996, the band went on a long hiatus before announcing their split in 1998 - with Miki moving into the world of magazines and taking on a role as production editor for two major publishers. She later told the website VW Music: 'I was never a proper guitarist—only in the context of Lush. I played the guitar to write songs on and to play live'. More recently, Miki returned to music with the band Piroshka, as well as publishing her memoir, Fingers Crossed, in 2022 (Picture: Redferns)
9. Dan Spitz (Anthrax)
The name Anthrax might not be instantly recognisable unless you're a bit of a metalhead, but the thrash metal band have been rocking stages since 1981. But their former guitarist Dan Spitz has taken a rather different direction with his career, after quitting the band in 1995 to pursue a career in watchmaking. After studying at the Swiss watchmaking school WOSTEP, he was awarded a Swiss degree in micro-mechanical engineering and went on to start his own luxury watch service, with specialist magazine Hodinkee calling him 'one of the best watchmakers in the world'. However, he hasn't abandoned music completely, returning to Anthrax for a reunion tour in 2005 as well as playing in a number of Christian rock bands (Picture: REX/Shutterstock)
10. Glenn Medeiros
Cast your mind back to 1987 and you might remember this chap, Glenn Medeiro, who soared all the way to the top of the UK charts aged just 17 with the heartfelt ballad Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You (it proved so popular it even found its way into a McDonald's ad a few years back). He went on to score a second hit, She Ain't Worth It - a duet with Bobby Brown - but when his music career peaked in the mid-90s he turned his attention to another profession: teaching. After studying at the University of Hawaii, West Oahu, and later the University of Phoenix, he received his master's degree in elementary education in 2003, and went on to take senior roles at schools and universities in Hawaii, before becoming the principal of Saint Louis School in Honolulu in 2015. He was promoted to the position of school president and CEO in 2017 (Picture: Getty Images)
11. Tiffany
Another singer who topped the charts at a tender age in the 80s, Tiffany Darwish was just 16 when her career took off, with her hit I Think We're Alone Now (which coincidentally was also used in a McDonald's advert) topped the US charts in 1987 and the UK charts just a few months later. Tiff, who originally found fame touring shopping malls in the US, performing to packed crowds, also notched up several other hits including Could've Been, I Saw Him Standing There and Radio Romance. But these days she's swapped performing outside shops for running one. Tiffany's Boutique opened in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2015, and even though the physical shop is no longer open, she now runs the online store Radical Redz, where, among other things, you can create a one-of-a-kind custom jacket with help from the lady herself. As for the music, Tiffany still records and performs, and has even done a spot of acting, with roles including starring opposite former chart rival Debbie Gibson in 2011's Mega Python vs Gatoroid. You might also have seen her recently as Eiffel Tower on The Masked Singer UK (Picture: Getty Images)
12. Bill Berry (REM)
REM was one of the biggest bands in the world in the 80s and the 90s, with the likes of Everybody Hurts, Nightswimming, Shiny Happy People and What's The Frequency Kenneth? keeping them gainfully employed in the charts. However, for drummer Bill Berry the journey came to an end in 1997 when he abruptly quit the group for a new career as a hay farmer. It came following his collapse onstage in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1995, from a ruptured brain aneurysm. He later told VH-1's Behind The Music: 'I didn't wake up one day and decide, "I just can't stand these guys anymore" or anything. I feel like I'm ready for a life change. I'm still young enough that I can do something else. I've been pounding the tubs since I was nine years old ... I'm ready to do something else.'He eventually returned to performing in 2022 with the band The Bad Ends. But as for REM, they continued as a three-piece in the wake of Berry's exit (Picture: Erik Pendzich/REX/Shutterstock)
13. Alannah Currie (Thompson Twins)
Another 80s stalwart, Alannah Currie was the female member of the Thompson Twins, who weren't really twins at all. They were in fact a trio, also featuring band members Tom Bailey and Joe Leeway, who named themselves after a character in The Adventures of Tin Tin. The band was rarely out of the charts during the 80s, with hits including Hold Me Now, Doctor Doctor, Love On Your Side and You Take Me Up. But New Zealand-born Currie decided in the mid-90s to give it all up to set up a glass-casting studio in her native Auckland. Having returned to London in 2004 to study traditional furniture production at London's Metropolitan University, she now works under the name Miss Pokeno and is, according to her website, an artist who works using 'luxurious veneers around uncomfortable and provocative narratives'. She also set up her own studio, Doyce Street Studios, in London, using it as her own workshop and an artist-led gallery space. Oh, and she's not the only Twin to have swapped music for something else - as fellow band-member Joe Leeway now lives in Los Angeles and works in the field of hypnotherapy (Picture: Getty Images)
14. Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)
Bruce Dickinson is a legend among metal fans, as the frontman of Iron Maiden, a role he's undertaken from 1981-1993 and from 1999 until this very day, meaning he's still very much active on the music front. That hasn't stopped him from dabbling in other professions, mind. Because Bruce is also a qualified pilot and for a while undertook a career as a senior pilot for British fliers Astraeus Airlines. This led to the band commissioning one of their planes to fly them during their 2008 world tour, dubbing it Ed Force One (after the band's mascot Eddie). Dickinson flew with the airline until it went into administration in 2011, and was in fact piloting their last ever flight, from Saudi Arabia to Manchester, when he learned of the airline's collapse. Since then, he has created his own aircraft maintenance and pilot training company, Cardiff Aviation. Oh, and if that's not enough, he's also created his own beer, Trooper, with Robinson's Brewery, and competed internationally at fencing. Truly, there seems to be nothing this rock legend hasn't done. A version of this article was first published in June 2024 (Picture: Getty Images)
