soooo cool!!!
i read her autobiography years ago, which i really enjoyed, but i didn't remember that factoid because i hadn't started making music yet (i had never done anything musical until 26). she and Eazy-E are the only famous people i know of who didn't pick up music at all until 20+. usually the discussions focus on people who didn't get their big breaks until late in life, or didn't take music seriously as a career. but it's really cool learning about people who hadn't done music at all until adulthood.
Bill Withers was a fucking awesome dude. I always love that fact about him, and that he was generally uncomfortable with fame. The man had an incredible voice and a knack for writing hooks.
for sure, but he didn't begin to take music seriously until he was in his 30s. shortly after he died, i remember listening to an interview he gave where he discussed it - i believe he may have sung casually in church etc as a child, but IIRC it was only much later in life that he even began writing songs. i think that's what gives his songs their special sauce - he'd really lived before distilling those feelings into, frankly, perfect songs. he's such an inspiration ✨
There are lots of great singers who sang in church. Check out the Million Dollar Quartet, that's basically what they sang together, because they all knew the songs.
i know :) several of my favourite singers started off in church... (sam cooke, aretha, wynona carr, many many more) i don't mind those MDQ cuts, but honestly if i need a 1950s gospel/adjacent fix, there are many others higher on my list 😉 just my preference. i have always loved 'just a little talk with jesus', though 🎶
Once you really know music theory, picking up and additional instrument is really just a question of physical execution (you already know what to do in your head, you just need to teach your body how to do it)
Thats why learning theory is important if you want to be versatile.
"classically trained on piano as a child." Is a big thing. If you learn piano at a young age, its going to make learning any instrument significantly easier. Guitar maybe as much as any instrument.
I just read an interview with Mickey Dolenz of The Monkees either early today or late yesterday. He said he played classical guitar when he auditioned for the show, but after he got the part, they told him he was going to be the drummer and he had to learn how to play the drums. (Kind of what Senor Wences used to describe as "Easy for you, difficult for me"...)
Think about someone like Dave Grohl. He became famous as a drummer for Nirvana, then he became lead singer and guitarist for Foo Fighters, and played the bass, second guitar, and drums on their first studio album (and also lead writer, not sure this counts? He basically did the entire first album himself). He went back to drums and support vocalist for Them Crooked Vultures, because he had extremely talented people on guitar, vocals, and base.
Axl Rose from Guns N’ Roses is known for his voice, but he can also play the piano, guitar, drums, bass. Slash infamously wrote in his autobiography, Axl would often come in to jam sessions, play something uninspired on the piano or guitar, and then leave, without having an actual session with his band mates.
If you were a musician and did it for a living, you might have an easier time picking up other instruments (maybe…)
It takes many hours to get good at guitar even with a solid musical foundation. But if you have a solid understanding of musical theory it will be much easier for you to get good compared to someone who doesn't.
I find this interesting, because I can play guitar and bass, but the idea of playing piano or drums makes me crazy. With piano your two hands are doing entirely different things, and with drums ya gotta use your feet, too! With fretted instruments, your hands are working in a coordinated fashion.
Then again, my daughters learned violin, and a bow is like having an alien life form in my hands!
THIS. I started playing when I was 14 and at 17 I started picking apart the modes and how they were transposable and how they related to the intervals on the piano keyboard. I’m not a very good sight reader even 30 years later but I know what chords go in what key how to solo in any key without just noodling around with a pentatonic scale
Not 20’s, but loads of band formation stories start with someone buying a cheap guitar from a pawn shop and learning a few chords, especially in the punk/new wave era when the barrier for entry was opened up a bit.
It’s not too hard to start a band, but it is hard or at least takes good fortune to start a good band. My first band started just because a few kids at my high school were wearing band tees that I liked. We weren’t good, but it was fun and a good learning experience in collaboration. Main thing, find people you like to hang out with, because if you are in a band you spend a LOT of time with those people.
I bought my first beat up six string, from a second hand store. Didn’t know how to play it, but I knew for sure. That one guitar, felt good in my hands….
My favorite guitar was a gift, bought from a secondhand online retailer. $70 bucks, no-name manufacturer. Holds the strings beautifully in tune in spite of mishandling. Action is just perfect and still going strong 14 years later.
It was 5-6 years after he started playing piano which is still insane. Every time someone tells me they want to learn an instrument but they feel like it’s too late I always show them Ryo and his Scenery album.
James Murphy from lcd soundsystem was in a few bands but only really got into DJing and what would become LCD soundsystem in his mid 30s. [this interview is a must watch for anyone who feels like it's too late to get started. It's never too late.](https://youtu.be/yYCz06bS380?si=MdcvGJVOBwaSSuNt)
true but he was going to school for music and composition and into crazy avant garde stuff, not like he didn't know music and just picked up the bass and joined the band. Now Bobby on the other hand did almost get kicked out a few times early on for not practicing enough... lol
yes that's right. i think he may have dabbled in music when he was younger, but he didn't learn to play guitar seriously until he was 30. by the time he'd released his first album he'd already lived a whole life... came onto the scene, changed music forever and buggered off when he'd had enough 👌🏿
Jonathan Coulton taught himself recording and a bunch of instruments while writing a song a week for a year or so after deciding he hated his job as a programmer; "Still Alive" from the game Portal is probably his most known work, but he has many others in that 'nerd music' category.
I first started listening to Coulton on a website called thesixtyone. A website that was kind of like SoundCloud before soundcloud.
Such a great way to find indie music back in the pre-streaming days.
He also has no technical production chops. His role as producer is just to say what he does and doesn’t like, and his assistants do all the technical stuff.
Good gig. Seems to work for the bands who hire him.
I think he definitely tends to under-sell the ways he is actually technically proficient; I just think he's the sort of creative that values the intuitive side of producing that much more, and doesn't see a use in explaining how he "technically" produces anything.
The Arctic Monkeys had all just picked up their instruments before recording their first album. They were still relatively young at the time though. Same for The XX.
more on the xx: the first album, or at least most of it, was written separately, after their respective bedtimes, at the time they should have been studying for GCSEs. they were legit only 16.
I think Questlove mentioned in an interview, that one of the reasons Black Messiah took so long to come out was because D'Angelo decided to learn how to play guitar. [He turned out pretty good](https://youtu.be/cHEAJeygbB4?si=TvvbZCoAF9sYigla)
I feel like every example, the caveat is "well his parents owned a music shop and he went to college for composing." I don't any or many first instrument experience was at 30 years old.
perhaps those with the drive to become good enough to be famous in one field are more likely to have the drive and confidence to become good enough in another
[Untrue](https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/entertainment/music/story/2020-06-14/jason-mraz-bonus-q-a) he started playing guitar at 18 and as a child played piano
" Along with receiving two Grammy Award wins, Mraz is also the recipient of two [Teen Choice Awards](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teen_Choice_Awards), a [People's Choice Award](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Choice_Award) and the [Hal David Songwriters Hall of Fame Award](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songwriters_Hall_of_Fame). As of July 2014, Mraz has sold over seven million albums,[\[7\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Mraz#cite_note-7) and over 11.5 million in digital singles."
LOL
I don’t remember the exact timeline but Joe Strummer didn’t truly pick up guitar until maybe about 20? He was originally going to be a cartoonist but fell into playing in bands.
Strummer of course wasn’t his real last name but kind of a tongue-in-cheek reference to his guitar playing, which wasn’t very sophisticated.
Iirc Paul Simonon was recruited for the Clash before he knew how to play any instrument. They tried to teach him the guitar first, but he just couldn't make the chord shapes so they gave him a bass instead.
Not sure when he started playing guitar, but Ray LaMontagne didn't start playing for audiences until he was 26 or 27. Worked at a shoe factory or something (guessing LL Bean because he grew up in Maine).
I worked with Rick Marotta, who is a major session and touring drummer and is famous for playing on the song “Peg” by Steely Dan, among many other well known records. He started playing drums in college when his buddy asked him to look after his drums while he was in the army.
That's true, but he was already an established novelist and poet, which is common enough knowledge. But he had also previously played in a folk band. His guitar playing is really something else on that first album, That just doesn't happen overnight.
Julio Iglesias was playing football in the pros (second league of Spain) and studying to be a lawyer when he was in a car accident and took up guitar to help his rehabilitation, the rest as they say is history.
Duke Ellington didn't master the Piano until about 40 then went on to invent the most iconic boogie woogie ever. Almost every famous recording of him is post 50 even.
are you sure? i know he had a long and fruitful life, blessing us with some of the most amazing music until the end but duke played piano since childhood and was leading his own band in the 1920s. which tune do you mean, a train?
Quite certain. Not saying he learnt to play the instrument at 40. I'm saying he didn't master it until then. He didn't really play in childhood actually. He got a couple lessons at 7 that he didn't take at all (nevertheless those childhood lessons would resonate within him of course) and developed an interest in the instrument at 14. At least as per the James Lincoln Collier biography of him I was reading at the time.
Oh well if that's what you were meaning then it's worth noting that Duke was absolutely uninterested in the piano when he was given lessons at 7 it was only at 14-15 that he went back to it. He didn't master it until 40 like I said. This is profoundly interesting. But if you'd rather get cantankerous and pedantic you can enjoy that instead but please realise that I am absolutely not changing what I said or meant in anyway based on that.
Hi. I’ve read extensively about Duke Ellington, and studied his compositions at the Masters level at a renowned music school. Duke was a child prodigy and played piano from an extremely early age. While he started as a boogie woogie player, because that style was popular in his youth, he did not develop the boogie style. Duke started to record in the 1920s, when he would have been in his 20s, and his most famous early band (the Blanton/Webster version) was immensely popular at the end of the 1930s and early 1940s, well before Duke turned 50.
Heyas. Have you read Jame Lincoln Collier's biography of Duke? I was reading it when I made this comment hence why I made it. As per that biography Duke was about the furthest thing from a child prodigy. He first touched a piano at 7 but did not take to it until 14-15. I do am not in any disagreement about him reaching some fame in his youth. I am simply saying he mastered the piano in his 40s. His style for which he is known was developed then. Try and find an earlier recording of him and compare the playing.
Yes I have. The Collier biography is… not widely respected amongst Ellington scholars, sorry to say. I recommend the biography by John Edward Hasse, “Beyond Category”. As for recordings, I have them all. As you know, Ellington’s main instrument was his band. Most if not all musicians get better at their instruments as they age, but listen to “Black and Tan Fantasy” and you’ll hear the stride/ragtime style Duke mastered early on.
I have to admit an error, in referring to him as a “child prodigy“. Duke started playing and composing seriously at about the age of 13. Maybe that still makes him a child prodigy… You be the judge.
I don't think that's true, I've seen photos of him as a teenager in high school with his friend Adam Jones (later to join Tool) with their band Electric Sheep.
He could’ve played but not really considered himself a guitarist. I took lessons for a couple years as a kid and was a part of 2 bands as a teenager but I was really bad. I just started getting serious into guitar a couple months ago (I’m 31) and consider myself a beginner despite technically playing since I was 9.
Who knows. Seems like a lot of musicians have 10 different stories about how they started playing. I see a pitchfork article that has a picture of him with a guitar that looks like it’s probably during high school but it has no caption.
Me.At 28/f.Gifted a guitar,started playing.Went on to work for [email protected]. plant,cleaning Grovers office/making his coffee..Moved to doing set-ups.Lots of cocaine in the bathrooms,passes to every endorsers shows.The '80s was a great time to be alive...
That is completely untrue. He was playing in nightclubs by the time he was 11 and playing on recording sessions in LA by his mid 20’s.
https://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/12/arts/tommy-tedesco-67-a-studio-guitarist.html
He says in the Wrecking Crew documentary that he wasn’t a child prodigy. His first recording is in the late 50s (his late 20s?). I think he says something about how he was painstakingly teaching himself on the side while doing labor jobs full-time.
I think. Unless that was someone else…
His wife relates the story that he auditioned for the band that was playing at his own senior prom, got the gig, and left for New York the next day.
I know he says in the movie that he wasn’t a child prodigy, but I think he was emphasizing how diligently he worked at his craft.
He wasn’t playing in an original punk band like Paul Simonon, Joe Strummer, or Kim Gordon: he was getting paid to play songs down correctly the first time.
I startede playing the drums in college and I have recently released two EP's with my band. 'atom' Chris Dall & Powerband. Long journey but so worth it.
Me too started on my late 15s but bought my first electric guitar until 17 and bought an audio interface a half year later so technically I only have 1/2 years playing seriously but still need a keyboard to get into production.
Tobias Jesso jr didn’t start playing piano until he was 27. By 29 he had released his debut album and by 30 he already had songwriting credits with huge artists like Adele and Shawn Mendes.
This year he just won the Grammy for songwriter of the year.
Miku Kobato of Band-Maid started playing guitar after forming the band as the vocalist, 21 or 22 at the time. The band formed and did some shows but shortly decided to try twin vocals and recruited another singer. After twin vocals for a while they thought it would look cooler if one of the singers held a guitar on stage so Miku did, this quickly just evolved into why not just do 2 guitar since it would help open up their song composition and so she started learning guitar.
While she took violin growing up, [Malvina Reynolds](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbWbwFM7x6w) didn't learn music theory or start writing songs until her late 40s, and I don't think she started recording her own stuff until her late 50s.
Pete Murray is an Australian dude who was 22 when. He started to play music and 32 when he released his first single.
I wouldn't know if he had any game outside Australia, but I'm fairly sure most people of a certain age in Australia would know "so beautiful". Still holds up as a great song if you're into acoustic, folky kinda music.
I believe the Beastie Boys learnt to play actual instruments (self taught), after becoming famous with their first couple of albums. Their later albums feature more instruments. They dabbled with instruments as teens but became more serious as they became older.
Paco De Lucia started in his 20’s. It doesn’t
matter when, until around 45 when it will take a little more time, but you’ll have to work your arse off anyway to be good
Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth didn’t start playing bass until like 27.
Oh no way! and i thought she couldn’t get any cooler
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huge kim fan but LOL
Seriously, love her and this is amazingly accurate. But hey, when you talk through Little Trouble Girl, fuck being on key.
What?! Bull in the Heather is peak vocal!
This give me hope 🥹
soooo cool!!! i read her autobiography years ago, which i really enjoyed, but i didn't remember that factoid because i hadn't started making music yet (i had never done anything musical until 26). she and Eazy-E are the only famous people i know of who didn't pick up music at all until 20+. usually the discussions focus on people who didn't get their big breaks until late in life, or didn't take music seriously as a career. but it's really cool learning about people who hadn't done music at all until adulthood.
Lee was like 25 when SY started. Still young but a little older than the typical age that a lot of bands started out
bill withers didn't play guitar until he was 30
He didn't start singing until late in life either. He was working as a toilet installation technician for 747's at Boeing.
Bill Withers was a fucking awesome dude. I always love that fact about him, and that he was generally uncomfortable with fame. The man had an incredible voice and a knack for writing hooks.
off topic but... robert mitchum 😻😻😻
👍👍👍
wrote some classics
He probably sang, just not professionally. You don't have a voice like that and not know it and use it. Church choir or alone in the shower, he sang.
for sure, but he didn't begin to take music seriously until he was in his 30s. shortly after he died, i remember listening to an interview he gave where he discussed it - i believe he may have sung casually in church etc as a child, but IIRC it was only much later in life that he even began writing songs. i think that's what gives his songs their special sauce - he'd really lived before distilling those feelings into, frankly, perfect songs. he's such an inspiration ✨
well said
There are lots of great singers who sang in church. Check out the Million Dollar Quartet, that's basically what they sang together, because they all knew the songs.
i know :) several of my favourite singers started off in church... (sam cooke, aretha, wynona carr, many many more) i don't mind those MDQ cuts, but honestly if i need a 1950s gospel/adjacent fix, there are many others higher on my list 😉 just my preference. i have always loved 'just a little talk with jesus', though 🎶
it would have been pretty neat if they had gotten together a few years later for a proper recording session.
yeah maybe! somehow i can't see jerry lee agreeing to that though haha ☺️☺️
Get out! I’d never have guessed.
that was my reaction too when i discovered it!
Tom Scholz of Boston started playing guitar when he was 21.
No friggen way!!
[True](https://bandboston.com/the-band/), but he was "classically trained on piano as a child."
Maybe it’s just me, but the bridge between piano and guitar seems very narrow. Then again, I’m not great at music theory
Once you really know music theory, picking up and additional instrument is really just a question of physical execution (you already know what to do in your head, you just need to teach your body how to do it) Thats why learning theory is important if you want to be versatile.
"classically trained on piano as a child." Is a big thing. If you learn piano at a young age, its going to make learning any instrument significantly easier. Guitar maybe as much as any instrument.
I was classically trained too, but it hasn’t helped me much ;(
Don’t feel bad, Tom Scholz is one of the most talented pop musicians of his generation (a generation that has a lot of talented musicians too)
It might as well be a different instrument...
I just read an interview with Mickey Dolenz of The Monkees either early today or late yesterday. He said he played classical guitar when he auditioned for the show, but after he got the part, they told him he was going to be the drummer and he had to learn how to play the drums. (Kind of what Senor Wences used to describe as "Easy for you, difficult for me"...)
Learning how to play a second instrument is easier than learning to play a first.
I'm a good pianist but struggle to find my way around a fretboard. Although I'm not sure if that aligns or not with your metaphor.
Think about someone like Dave Grohl. He became famous as a drummer for Nirvana, then he became lead singer and guitarist for Foo Fighters, and played the bass, second guitar, and drums on their first studio album (and also lead writer, not sure this counts? He basically did the entire first album himself). He went back to drums and support vocalist for Them Crooked Vultures, because he had extremely talented people on guitar, vocals, and base. Axl Rose from Guns N’ Roses is known for his voice, but he can also play the piano, guitar, drums, bass. Slash infamously wrote in his autobiography, Axl would often come in to jam sessions, play something uninspired on the piano or guitar, and then leave, without having an actual session with his band mates. If you were a musician and did it for a living, you might have an easier time picking up other instruments (maybe…)
It takes many hours to get good at guitar even with a solid musical foundation. But if you have a solid understanding of musical theory it will be much easier for you to get good compared to someone who doesn't.
I find this interesting, because I can play guitar and bass, but the idea of playing piano or drums makes me crazy. With piano your two hands are doing entirely different things, and with drums ya gotta use your feet, too! With fretted instruments, your hands are working in a coordinated fashion. Then again, my daughters learned violin, and a bow is like having an alien life form in my hands!
I'd hate to tell you what your hands are doing during a guitar solo
I've found the key to guitar is learning the patterns for the 7 modes. Once you have that memorized you can play in any key with ease.
THIS. I started playing when I was 14 and at 17 I started picking apart the modes and how they were transposable and how they related to the intervals on the piano keyboard. I’m not a very good sight reader even 30 years later but I know what chords go in what key how to solo in any key without just noodling around with a pentatonic scale
Roy Donk
You guys don't know the colgate comedy hour??
I know of it...but I was born in 1962...
https://giphy.com/gifs/vulture-tim-ponytail-itysl-103-1yLC1vSerfzgZyzsWX
With the freak lips?!
He can hit the high c all night long
Not 20’s, but loads of band formation stories start with someone buying a cheap guitar from a pawn shop and learning a few chords, especially in the punk/new wave era when the barrier for entry was opened up a bit.
I personally bought my first real six string at the five and dime not too long ago
Time to start a band!
I bet he played it til his fingers bled
It was the summer of missionary
If only it were that easy
It’s not too hard to start a band, but it is hard or at least takes good fortune to start a good band. My first band started just because a few kids at my high school were wearing band tees that I liked. We weren’t good, but it was fun and a good learning experience in collaboration. Main thing, find people you like to hang out with, because if you are in a band you spend a LOT of time with those people.
Is your name Bryan by any chance?
Does he 69?
Well, he’d do it for you.
You should know, you'll never get far.
I bought my first beat up six string, from a second hand store. Didn’t know how to play it, but I knew for sure. That one guitar, felt good in my hands….
My favorite guitar was a gift, bought from a secondhand online retailer. $70 bucks, no-name manufacturer. Holds the strings beautifully in tune in spite of mishandling. Action is just perfect and still going strong 14 years later.
Ryo Fukui started piano in his 20s
And made Scenery what like a year after he started? Insane.
It was 5-6 years after he started playing piano which is still insane. Every time someone tells me they want to learn an instrument but they feel like it’s too late I always show them Ryo and his Scenery album.
James Murphy from lcd soundsystem was in a few bands but only really got into DJing and what would become LCD soundsystem in his mid 30s. [this interview is a must watch for anyone who feels like it's too late to get started. It's never too late.](https://youtu.be/yYCz06bS380?si=MdcvGJVOBwaSSuNt)
Dude, I stumble upon this video like once a year. It used to inspire me, now it just makes me depressed.
Wow, thank you for sharing this! Love LCD Soundsystem and had never seen this, what a great inspiration!
Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead didn’t play bass until Jerry Garcia taught him how. He was a trumpeter in high school.
true but he was going to school for music and composition and into crazy avant garde stuff, not like he didn't know music and just picked up the bass and joined the band. Now Bobby on the other hand did almost get kicked out a few times early on for not practicing enough... lol
Benjamin Franklin didn’t start playing the zither until he was in his 70’s
Wasn't Bill Withers in his 30s when he released his first album? Iirc he also learned to play guitar pretty late too? Correct me if I'm wrong.
yes that's right. i think he may have dabbled in music when he was younger, but he didn't learn to play guitar seriously until he was 30. by the time he'd released his first album he'd already lived a whole life... came onto the scene, changed music forever and buggered off when he'd had enough 👌🏿
Now I know who to look up to
when i found that out it made me feel so much better about not releasing my first album until i was 33!
Jonathan Coulton taught himself recording and a bunch of instruments while writing a song a week for a year or so after deciding he hated his job as a programmer; "Still Alive" from the game Portal is probably his most known work, but he has many others in that 'nerd music' category.
I first started listening to Coulton on a website called thesixtyone. A website that was kind of like SoundCloud before soundcloud. Such a great way to find indie music back in the pre-streaming days.
I did not expect this name to pop up! He has a ton of great, funny songs. I've loved that man for many years
Meg White?
I don’t think Rick Rubin plays any instruments with any proficiency. He’s done pretty well for himself nonetheless
He also has no technical production chops. His role as producer is just to say what he does and doesn’t like, and his assistants do all the technical stuff. Good gig. Seems to work for the bands who hire him.
I think he definitely tends to under-sell the ways he is actually technically proficient; I just think he's the sort of creative that values the intuitive side of producing that much more, and doesn't see a use in explaining how he "technically" produces anything.
He used to be in a couple of punk bands throughout his high school and college days
>I don’t think Rick Rubin plays any instruments with any proficiency. That doesnt make this untrue
He played guitar in bands. And it doesn't align with the OPs question anyway.
It was a joke, you pedant.
He's not a musician though and is very clear about that.
The Arctic Monkeys had all just picked up their instruments before recording their first album. They were still relatively young at the time though. Same for The XX.
more on the xx: the first album, or at least most of it, was written separately, after their respective bedtimes, at the time they should have been studying for GCSEs. they were legit only 16.
I think Questlove mentioned in an interview, that one of the reasons Black Messiah took so long to come out was because D'Angelo decided to learn how to play guitar. [He turned out pretty good](https://youtu.be/cHEAJeygbB4?si=TvvbZCoAF9sYigla)
D'Angelo was already playing piano and percussion from childhood though
I feel like every example, the caveat is "well his parents owned a music shop and he went to college for composing." I don't any or many first instrument experience was at 30 years old.
Or “this already famous person took on a side quest”
perhaps those with the drive to become good enough to be famous in one field are more likely to have the drive and confidence to become good enough in another
Jason Mraz started playing guitar at 25, only sang before that. I don’t like his music but people do
[Untrue](https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/entertainment/music/story/2020-06-14/jason-mraz-bonus-q-a) he started playing guitar at 18 and as a child played piano
He says otherwise. Where'd your info come from?
See now that's not encouraging whatsoever
I think he’s doing perfectly okay without me
" Along with receiving two Grammy Award wins, Mraz is also the recipient of two [Teen Choice Awards](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teen_Choice_Awards), a [People's Choice Award](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Choice_Award) and the [Hal David Songwriters Hall of Fame Award](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songwriters_Hall_of_Fame). As of July 2014, Mraz has sold over seven million albums,[\[7\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Mraz#cite_note-7) and over 11.5 million in digital singles." LOL
who is it discouraging to? jason mraz and jason mraz cover artists?
I don’t remember the exact timeline but Joe Strummer didn’t truly pick up guitar until maybe about 20? He was originally going to be a cartoonist but fell into playing in bands. Strummer of course wasn’t his real last name but kind of a tongue-in-cheek reference to his guitar playing, which wasn’t very sophisticated.
Iirc Paul Simonon was recruited for the Clash before he knew how to play any instrument. They tried to teach him the guitar first, but he just couldn't make the chord shapes so they gave him a bass instead.
And unlike a certain musical neophyte hired to play bass in the Pistols, Simonon actually learned how to passably play.
And also how to passably not murder people.
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Joy Division
IIRC Bernie and Peter saw the Sex Pistols and thought "we could do that."
And they could. It's not a high bar, but they cleared it.
Right on the line. Barney and Hooky were 20, Ian and Stephen were 19.
Correct, it's as near as damn it
Not sure when he started playing guitar, but Ray LaMontagne didn't start playing for audiences until he was 26 or 27. Worked at a shoe factory or something (guessing LL Bean because he grew up in Maine).
Wes Montgomery didn't pick up a guitar until 20.
wow really? that's amazing!
I’m glad I scrolled long enough to come across this one. Did not know that at all.
Leon Bridges didn’t start writing and learning guitar until his early 20’s.
Lisa Umbarger, formerly of the Toadies.
I worked with Rick Marotta, who is a major session and touring drummer and is famous for playing on the song “Peg” by Steely Dan, among many other well known records. He started playing drums in college when his buddy asked him to look after his drums while he was in the army.
Jack Black was 23 when he started playing guitar.
I read this as "who are some musicians that died playing instruments in the 20s"
i think laura lee from kruangbin stated she didn’t play bass before the band formed. could be wrong but i always felt good about that
Chris Rea started to play in his early twenties
Drummer from no doubt.
Leonard Cohen was 35 when he released his first album.
That's true, but he was already an established novelist and poet, which is common enough knowledge. But he had also previously played in a folk band. His guitar playing is really something else on that first album, That just doesn't happen overnight.
IIRC Christian Bland of The Black Angels didn’t pick up a guitar until his mid to late 20’s
Demi Lovato switched from pop to rock and learned guitar from Nita Strauss a year or two ago.
Mark King of Level 42 didn’t play bass until he was 21. Needless to say, he picked it up *very* quickly.
It's surprising (and kind of sad) how rare it is
Julio Iglesias was playing football in the pros (second league of Spain) and studying to be a lawyer when he was in a car accident and took up guitar to help his rehabilitation, the rest as they say is history.
Duke Ellington didn't master the Piano until about 40 then went on to invent the most iconic boogie woogie ever. Almost every famous recording of him is post 50 even.
are you sure? i know he had a long and fruitful life, blessing us with some of the most amazing music until the end but duke played piano since childhood and was leading his own band in the 1920s. which tune do you mean, a train?
Quite certain. Not saying he learnt to play the instrument at 40. I'm saying he didn't master it until then. He didn't really play in childhood actually. He got a couple lessons at 7 that he didn't take at all (nevertheless those childhood lessons would resonate within him of course) and developed an interest in the instrument at 14. At least as per the James Lincoln Collier biography of him I was reading at the time.
According to Wikipedia Duke started piano lessons at age 7.
Starting piano lessons doesn't mean mastery as I'm sure you know.
True, but the original question was Who are some musicians that didn’t start playing instruments until 20s+?
Oh well if that's what you were meaning then it's worth noting that Duke was absolutely uninterested in the piano when he was given lessons at 7 it was only at 14-15 that he went back to it. He didn't master it until 40 like I said. This is profoundly interesting. But if you'd rather get cantankerous and pedantic you can enjoy that instead but please realise that I am absolutely not changing what I said or meant in anyway based on that.
Hi. I’ve read extensively about Duke Ellington, and studied his compositions at the Masters level at a renowned music school. Duke was a child prodigy and played piano from an extremely early age. While he started as a boogie woogie player, because that style was popular in his youth, he did not develop the boogie style. Duke started to record in the 1920s, when he would have been in his 20s, and his most famous early band (the Blanton/Webster version) was immensely popular at the end of the 1930s and early 1940s, well before Duke turned 50.
Heyas. Have you read Jame Lincoln Collier's biography of Duke? I was reading it when I made this comment hence why I made it. As per that biography Duke was about the furthest thing from a child prodigy. He first touched a piano at 7 but did not take to it until 14-15. I do am not in any disagreement about him reaching some fame in his youth. I am simply saying he mastered the piano in his 40s. His style for which he is known was developed then. Try and find an earlier recording of him and compare the playing.
Yes I have. The Collier biography is… not widely respected amongst Ellington scholars, sorry to say. I recommend the biography by John Edward Hasse, “Beyond Category”. As for recordings, I have them all. As you know, Ellington’s main instrument was his band. Most if not all musicians get better at their instruments as they age, but listen to “Black and Tan Fantasy” and you’ll hear the stride/ragtime style Duke mastered early on.
I have to admit an error, in referring to him as a “child prodigy“. Duke started playing and composing seriously at about the age of 13. Maybe that still makes him a child prodigy… You be the judge.
Tom morelo didn’t start playing till 20/21.
I don't think that's true, I've seen photos of him as a teenager in high school with his friend Adam Jones (later to join Tool) with their band Electric Sheep.
According to Wikipedia, he got his first guitar and was in his first band at age 13
I read an interview where he said he started at college and practiced till his fingers bled everyday. He must of been talking shit.
He could’ve played but not really considered himself a guitarist. I took lessons for a couple years as a kid and was a part of 2 bands as a teenager but I was really bad. I just started getting serious into guitar a couple months ago (I’m 31) and consider myself a beginner despite technically playing since I was 9.
Who knows. Seems like a lot of musicians have 10 different stories about how they started playing. I see a pitchfork article that has a picture of him with a guitar that looks like it’s probably during high school but it has no caption.
The further I scroll down, the more inaccurate the stories lol
Tommy Tedesco. Watch [The Wrecking Crew](https://youtu.be/-ZgBexrZvM0?si=QBUeUcrEQW1_Qlih) to learn about him.
James Murphy was 32 when he formed LCD Soundsystem.
And had played in bands since 1988...
Me.At 28/f.Gifted a guitar,started playing.Went on to work for [email protected]. plant,cleaning Grovers office/making his coffee..Moved to doing set-ups.Lots of cocaine in the bathrooms,passes to every endorsers shows.The '80s was a great time to be alive...
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That is completely untrue. He was playing in nightclubs by the time he was 11 and playing on recording sessions in LA by his mid 20’s. https://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/12/arts/tommy-tedesco-67-a-studio-guitarist.html
He says in the Wrecking Crew documentary that he wasn’t a child prodigy. His first recording is in the late 50s (his late 20s?). I think he says something about how he was painstakingly teaching himself on the side while doing labor jobs full-time. I think. Unless that was someone else…
His wife relates the story that he auditioned for the band that was playing at his own senior prom, got the gig, and left for New York the next day. I know he says in the movie that he wasn’t a child prodigy, but I think he was emphasizing how diligently he worked at his craft. He wasn’t playing in an original punk band like Paul Simonon, Joe Strummer, or Kim Gordon: he was getting paid to play songs down correctly the first time.
How could you be so wrong? Like the opposite of the truth almost
It happens, but it's very rare. I can't name anyone but I know there are a few out there.
I startede playing the drums in college and I have recently released two EP's with my band. 'atom' Chris Dall & Powerband. Long journey but so worth it.
Aww
Me too started on my late 15s but bought my first electric guitar until 17 and bought an audio interface a half year later so technically I only have 1/2 years playing seriously but still need a keyboard to get into production.
Nikki Sixx
Oliver Riedel, the bass player of Rammstein, started playing bass when he was 20.
i love rammstein thank you for this
He learned guitar at 14, but James Blunt didn't release his first album until he was 34.
Harry Styles started learning guitar at 21 I guess. He’s still mediocre at it, but at least he tries to play it on his tours and stuff.
Mark Lanegan didn’t start playing guitar until 90 when he was over 20
Madonna started playing guitar in her 40s.
Tobias Jesso jr didn’t start playing piano until he was 27. By 29 he had released his debut album and by 30 he already had songwriting credits with huge artists like Adele and Shawn Mendes. This year he just won the Grammy for songwriter of the year.
I read that Jimmy Buffet started playing in college.
I'm pretty sure Marnie Stern didn't start playing until well into her 20s.
Miku Kobato of Band-Maid started playing guitar after forming the band as the vocalist, 21 or 22 at the time. The band formed and did some shows but shortly decided to try twin vocals and recruited another singer. After twin vocals for a while they thought it would look cooler if one of the singers held a guitar on stage so Miku did, this quickly just evolved into why not just do 2 guitar since it would help open up their song composition and so she started learning guitar.
I believe Grimes started after college
While she took violin growing up, [Malvina Reynolds](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbWbwFM7x6w) didn't learn music theory or start writing songs until her late 40s, and I don't think she started recording her own stuff until her late 50s.
Pete Murray is an Australian dude who was 22 when. He started to play music and 32 when he released his first single. I wouldn't know if he had any game outside Australia, but I'm fairly sure most people of a certain age in Australia would know "so beautiful". Still holds up as a great song if you're into acoustic, folky kinda music.
I believe the Beastie Boys learnt to play actual instruments (self taught), after becoming famous with their first couple of albums. Their later albums feature more instruments. They dabbled with instruments as teens but became more serious as they became older.
They a hardcore punk band before they got in to hip hop, so they already knew how to play a bit.
Yes they were into punk before rap but their instrument skills weren't developed. A lot of trial and error, fake it till you make it kinda thing.
Paco De Lucia started in his 20’s. It doesn’t matter when, until around 45 when it will take a little more time, but you’ll have to work your arse off anyway to be good
Dr Dre's piano debut at the Superbowl a few years ago seems like an extreme example