Guitarists... Before They Were Famous!
Published on 21 February 2025
Not all rock stars emerge fully formed into the world. Some develop over time, serving apprenticeships in the bands of others, playing sideman to other stars before their own greatness is realised.
We’re going to look at some of those today, inspired by the anniversary of a certain James Marshall Hendrix’s first gig with Little Richard. Some of these entries will be familiar to you, and others may be a fresh surprise, so have a seat and join me as I check out famous musicians before they hit the big-big-time!
Contents
Jimi Hendrix
It’s hard to imagine Hendrix not constantly living in the spotlight, given how natural and engaging he was as a performer. Maybe he couldn’t imagine it either, which is why his antics on tour with Little Richard ended up getting him fired from the band!
Indeed, if there was one rule that the fledgling Hendrix had yet to learn, it was to never upstage your boss. Dancing, playing guitar with one’s teeth and behind one’s head are tasks for headliners, not sidemen, and Lil’ Rick certainly didn’t appreciate the competition for attention!
He was also habitually late, which was another reason to be given the firm boot, as attested by Little Richard’s brother and tour manager Robert Penniman:
“I fired Hendrix, who was using the name Maurice James all the time I knew him. He was a damn good guitar player, but the guy was never on time. He was always late for the bus and flirting with the girls and stuff like that. It came to a head in New York, where we had been playing the Apollo and Hendrix missed the bus for Washington, DC. I finally got Richard to cut him loose.”
Just remember that next time your band gives you heat: even Jimi got given the heave-ho!
Bluesbreakers
John Mayall’s seminal blues rock institution Bluesbreakers became a continual band to watch for upcoming guitar talent. The tastemaker had a habit of attracting young players who then shot off into the stratosphere. Here are just some of the players who got their big break via John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers:
- Eric Clapton
- Peter Green
- MIck Taylor
- John McVie
- Jack Bruce
- Larry Taylor
- Walter Trout
Mostly, these stars were in Bluesbreakers prior to their subsequent fame, and the band was seen by some as a sort of testing ground for blues rock musos. Without the Bluesbreakers and the Yardbirds (who of course brought a spotlight to Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck), then the British Invasion would’ve sounded pretty different!
Brian Eno
Ambient music pioneer, thinking man’s musical seer and all round polymath Brian Eno is known for wearing a lot of caps. The U2 and Coldplay producer is also an author, lecturer and consultant, but before all that, Eno was a member of Roxy Music.
Indeed, in the years before he helped create Low and Heroes with David Bowie, Eno was a sometime synth player and full-time ideas man for Brian Ferry’s art-rockers. He downplays his musical role, but his influence is pretty obvious on the early Roxy stuff, and during live performances, the band’s instruments would actually be fed through his synthesizers in order to let him filter, chop and generally interfere with their sound in real time.
Who even does that nowadays? Once a pioneer, always a pioneer.
St Vincent
Singularly stylish songwriter and guitarist St Vincent had a previous life as Annie Clark, a singer in the mildly bonkers band/collective The Polyphonic Spree. The Spree are a ‘choral rock’ band who never seem to have less than about 12 people on stage at once, attired in the same quasi-hippyish robes.
It’s a vibe for sure, but you can see somebody as strongly visually specific as Clark wanting to step out of the uniform, as it were.
Sheryl Crow
Multi-platinum superstar Sheryl Crow has had Bob Dylan write her songs, and has sold over 50 million albums. Prior to that, as some people know, she was a high school teacher by day and a struggling singer-songwriter by night.
But that’s not what I want to highlight here! She also had a somewhat higher profile pre-fame job, and it took her onto the world’s largest stages. Sheryl Crow, before she was a star in her own right, was a touring backing vocalist for none other than the King of Pop, Michael Jackson!
Yup, our Shez was part of MJ’s Bad tour in the late 80s, and even duetted with him on certain tracks.
Bucket list stuff for most people, but Sheryl was obviously just getting started.
Waylon Jennings
Outlaw country icon and tough-walkin’ singer-songwriter-actor Waylon Jennings wasn’t, in fact, born as a bearded, crinkly cowboy. He had a whole life prior to becoming ‘Waylon Jennings’, and that included a pretty memorable job in music…
Waylon Jennings was Buddy Holly’s bass player!
I don’t know why I find this one hard to accept, but it’s true! Maybe it’s just the difference in ‘swagger’ between the two acts? Anyway, Jennings was chosen for the band directly by Holly himself in 1958, and remained in the band until that fateful plane crash occurred in 1959. Jennings had actually been scheduled to take that flight, but had given up his seat. Spooky, but very lucky!
Lemmy
We all know Lemmy as the hard-drinking, hell-raising frontman for Motörhead. Most of us also understand that he was previously the hard-drinking, hell-raising bassist for cosmic space rockers Hawkwind, but what about before then?
Before then, Ian Fraser Kilminster (I do not know when his nickname came around) was a roadie for Jimi Hendrix (Lemmy shared a flat with bassist Noel Redding) and The Nice! How about that? I’m guessing The Nice would’ve been a bit of a chore, what with Keith Emerson (latterly of Emerson, Lake & Palmer of course) using a wall of modular synths, organs and other keyboards. Jimi’s full Marshall stacks must’ve been a breeze in comparison!
Dave Grohl
Apparently, the Foo Fighters frontman was actually a drummer - and a pretty good one - prior to him starting the Foos in 1995! Who knew? And he was in a relatively successful three-piece who were by all accounts destined for big things before their singer sadly committed suicide in 1994.
I’ve managed to find some rare footage of Dave playing drums here, from a little-known festival back in the 90s.
You just never know people’s stories, do you?
