10 rockstars who ran away from fame
Most artists tend to run towards fame like an Olympic sprinter. Even though the idea of playing music amongst friends for a living may be intriguing, the biggest stars on the planet also take pride in having millions of fans screaming their names whenever they step up to the microphone. Although many artists might relish in the celebrity status, artists from George Harrison to Kurt Cobain have tried to run as far away from it as possible.
Throughout rock history, the rigorous schedule of someone in the public eye was more than what these artists had signed up for. Rather than touring for years, the constant press exposure and surveillance of their lives wasn’t something any musician was prepared for, causing many to dive headfirst into drama or opt out of any interviews until the end.
For a good portion of private rock stars, though, this kind of attention eventually had a drastic effect on their musical lives as well. Instead of cowering to what the critics and press wanted, many musicians figured it best to toy with what the press expected of them, either going in opposite directions of the rest of the world or making songs out of spite for their constant attention.
Even though many artists didn’t take kindly to the constant criticism thrown their way, they always left their most personal thoughts for their music, delivering timeless works of art on record that no one has come close to. It might not have been easy fending off the paparazzi, but it’s better to stay true to oneself rather than what the public’s view is supposed to be.
10 musicians who ran away from fame:
10. Lee Mavers – The La’s
For a brief moment, The La’s seemed poised to become the next huge trend in rock music. Before grunge had taken over, the work of Lee Mavers had become the stuff of legend in the British indie scene, with songs like ‘There She Goes’ becoming massive hits. Even though Mavers may have liked to play to anyone who would hear, the first years of the alternative revolution saw him exploring his mind.
Because The La’s was never an album that was supposed to come out. Even though every band member played on it, Mavers had the idea to make an album as ramshackle as possible so the label would give them more time to work on it. Once it was put out and heralded as a masterpiece, Mavers thought that it would be best to spend more time in the studio, spending hours trying to get just the right sound and never settling on something that worked.
The constant time in the studio often became so strenuous that John Power eventually left the band to form Cast, taking the songs he had been working on for the band to his next act. Although The La’s have popped up on various tours to play some of their fan favourites, Mavers has remained one of the most reclusive characters in 1990s rock, only making music for himself in an undisclosed studio somewhere.
9. Rivers Cuomo – Weezer
When growing up, Rivers Cuomo always loved the idea of being in a rock band. As the hair metal movement began, Cuomo’s love of acts like Quiet Riot and Whitesnake had a significant impact on what his musical taste would become. Although he eventually decided to be himself when forming Weezer, he realised that the lifestyle of a rock and roll legend wasn’t what it was supposed to be.
After becoming famous, Cuomo had the same problems that he had in the beginning…only magnified by 1000. With various interviewers asking him about the meaning behind the songs, the pressure of being the next rock frontman after Kurt Cobain began to weigh on Cuomo’s introverted personality, leading to him taking time off from the band after their first tour to study at Harvard University.
Once studies wrapped up, Cuomo eventually returned with a more open-hearted album with Pinkerton, which became the laughingstock of the rock scene upon release. The band would eventually go on hiatus before reuniting, after which Cuomo’s writing style had drastically changed back to the radio-friendly pop hooks. Cuomo may have liked the idea of making huge rock anthems, but the negative reaction of Pinkerton most likely shook him to his core.
8. Thom Yorke – Radiohead
If Radiohead had never made it past their first album, there’s a good chance that Thom Yorke wouldn’t have been spoken about in such glowing terms. While the band’s debut release featured their monster hit ‘Creep’, Yorke wasn’t content with being a second-rate Nirvana, instead going into atmospheric art-rock territory across albums like OK Computer. As Yorke was following his muse, the rest of the world saw the new rock god taking shape.
While Yorke may have been thankful for the massive success of OK Computer, he was never conditioned to be one of the titans of rock and roll. Throughout the tour for the album, Yorke would find himself doing everything he could to avoid the crowds at his shows, including one infamous gig where he mistakenly got on a train back to the venue filled with Radiohead fans coming to see him.
With the help of Michael Stipe, Yorke created a reaction to fame with the song ‘How To Disappear Completely’ taken from Kid A, the chorus of which was taken from a line Stipe had given Yorke when dealing with fame. Whereas most artists may go through massive promotional tours for an album, Yorke has reversed the process to the point where the press come to him for Radiohead’s most recent output.
7. Eddie Vedder – Pearl Jam
There’s a good chance that no one in the Seattle music scene was looking to become the biggest band in the world. Coming out of the rainy Northwest side of America, most of the local acts knew that there was no way they could give the MTV starlets a run for their money, so they may as well make music for themselves more than anyone else. Once the public started paying attention, Eddie Vedder had the hardest time adjusting to the camera.
Granted, Vedder was already an introverted frontman, thinking that he was a bit of a loner in the early days after replacing Mother Love Bone singer Andy Wood. When the crowds began getting bigger, though, Vedder thought that he should do everything he could to minimise the potential for success that the band had.
In the years following the release of Ten, Vedder would shy away from the spotlight at every opportunity, declining to do any music videos and refusing any interviews unless Cameron Crowe did them. The music also began to take an eclectic turn, with Vedder making outlandish Frank Zappa-esque genre experiments like ‘Bugs’ and ‘Stupid Mop’. While Pearl Jam fans were interested to see every twist and turn in their discography, Vedder would have preferred the gradual ascent to stardom rather than becoming an overnight sensation.
6. John Frusciante – Red Hot Chili Peppers
The legacy of the Red Hot Chili Peppers wasn’t intended to be one of the titans of funk rock. From day one, the band had initially started as a big joke put on by the band members, with Anthony Kiedis joining Flea onstage to recite a poem that he had written on the fly. Once they started to take themselves seriously, though, John Frusciante would never be comfortable getting in the spotlight.
Taking over for the late guitarist Hillel Slovak, Frusciante was the one who brought the band’s music to a wider audience, creating the melodic flourishes behind classic songs like ‘Under the Bridge’ and ‘Give It Away’. Once he started to see how the sausage was made on the road, Frusciante became extremely reclusive, often self-medicating himself backstage with heroin and playing erratically whenever he took to the stage.
After one too many tension-filled gigs, Frusciante decided he had enough, quitting the band minutes before a performance overseas and moving on to a solo career filled with rock and roll excess. Even though Frusciante came back to the band clean and sober for the album Californication, it looked like one of the kings of funk rock guitar would be throwing his life away for a few years.
5. Neil Peart – Rush
Progressive rock has never been known as one of the most radio-friendly genres in the world. By its nature, the genre feels like the antithesis of everything the charts stand for, with artists making songs that are about the talent of the players rather than any kind of hook that leads the listener to the next track. While Rush were able to become superstars anyway, Neil Peart was never looking to become the next fixture of drum magazines.
Always the reserved member of the group, Peart began to withdraw from the public eye fairly quickly. Up until Rush’s final tour, Peart’s inherent shyness around his fans became one of the biggest aspects of his career, leading to him leaving as soon as the show was over and not bothering to talk to any of his fans whenever they began to geek out in front of him.
While Peart may have seemed like a callous person to some, the most naked version of him could be found in his lyrics. Throughout songs like ‘Limelight’, Peart was upfront about how much fame was complicated for him, saying that he couldn’t pretend a stranger was one of his friends just through a chance interaction. Peart might be known as a god amongst drummers today, but he preferred to be considered good rather than famous.
4. Kurt Cobain – Nirvana
There have always been contradictions surrounding Kurt Cobain’s life. Throughout his time with Nirvana, Cobain was making songs that would turn him into one of the biggest frontmen in the world, impacting the music industry in the same way The Beatles had back in the 1960s. Once he began to see what went along with fame, though, the frontman started to realise what a grave mistake he had made.
Rather than fixing all the problems that he had, Cobain became more isolated than ever when put on display by the music press. Even though he may not have liked the amount of fame that he was getting every day, he did at least lean into it, oftentimes toying with journalists by going against the grain or challenging the traditional norms of what a rock star is supposed to be like wearing a dress onstage.
Although Cobain could work the press to his advantage many times, the pressure coupled with depression would become too much for him towards the end of the In Utero tour, eventually taking his own life between the two legs of the tour. While Cobain may have been able to challenge what a rock star was supposed to be, we can only speculate what kind of music he would have made had he survived.
3. Everyone in Pink Floyd
The entire mentality behind Pink Floyd’s music has been about going up against big business. Ever since the loss of Syd Barrett, the whole idea for the band was about getting in touch with one’s humanity outside of the spectacle that comes with being a rock and roll star. Although every band member has stood out as fairly normal in front of the camera, they were never looking to become massive personalities onstage.
After Barrett began to lose his battle with his sanity, Roger Waters’ decision to take the reins for the group marked the moment things took a different course. Rather than play to the band’s strengths, Waters began channelling the kind of music he thought he should be writing, filling songs with warnings about what the rock lifestyle can do to someone if they were to take things too far.
Across albums like Animals and Wish You Were Here, Waters offered scathing critiques of what the fame machine is supposed to do, comparing it to a neverending cycle of men in suits looking to fill their pockets by exploiting as many kids with guitars as they can. While Waters may have quoted what was in his heart, it was never about brow-beating people, either. This was about finding what makes someone human outside of the massive press junkets.
2. George Harrison
From the minute that they became famous, no member of The Beatles was ever going to have privacy ever again. With every member of the band becoming an iconic character whenever they took to the stage, the idea of the Fab Four continuing forever felt like a dream that they had to uphold for their legions of fans. Once they finally decided to call it quits, though, George Harrison had no time to continue milking his star power.
Even though ‘The Quiet Beatle’ had the first major solo success with the release of his album All Things Must Pass, most of the songs were about foregoing all of the earthly possessions that filled his life. Becoming infatuated with Eastern philosophy, Harrison never considered his solo career to be a massive undertaking, usually making music to fulfil a contractual obligation or for the hell of it when playing on tour.
Despite coming back as a solo star in the late 1980s, Harrison was more concerned about making music with his friends than accepting any sort of awards, thinking that the band mentality was about people he could hang out with. Although Harrison may have made a fortune as a part of the most celebrated band in the world, the idea of him going on different press tours was never going to happen after the group split up.
1. Bob Dylan
After over half a century in the public eye, it feels like we still don’t know what Bob Dylan is all about. Throughout his career, Dylan’s mystique has been impossible to decipher, with many artists taking inspiration from him due to his mythic persona in the public eye. Although Dylan may have liked to toy with the press whenever he got the chance, it was only to enhance the mystery around his music.
Throughout every significant change in Dylan’s career, he was looking to knock down the walls of the traditional rock star formula. Once he became known as the voice of his generation, Dylan often took shots at those who made him famous in the first place, either putting them in song on tracks like ‘Ballad of a Thin Man’ or straying away from his usual style by going electric, which severely angered a number of his diehard fans.
After his infamous motorcycle accident in the late 1960s, though, Dylan would withdraw from the public eye, becoming a darker character in later years and only putting his private thoughts into albums like Blood on the Tracks. Even though Dylan would see success off and on for decades afterwards, every single one of his subsequent albums ensured that no one would find out what was going on in the head of Mr Zimmerman.
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