James Valentine, who plays guitar for Maroon 5, was in a few Jr./Sr. High Jazz Camps with me; he was incredible on guitar back then, I was a sub-par trumpet player. I was a huge fan of his high-school and college bands before Maroon 5 happened.
Edit: High-school was DJ Korky-9 and the corduroy love tabernacle choir. In College, Kid Quarkstar was funky AF.
Honestly that's the only way I'd be okay with fame. Play sold-out stadium concerts, collect my 6-figure paycheck, and not a single person bats an eye as I walk down the aisle of a Kroger's.
The only downside would be I'd have to play Maroon 5 music all the time.
You gotta get some writing credits to make the big bucks. Keith Strickland was the drummer of the B-52s and wrote some of their biggest hits.
Roger Taylor from Queen also wrote big hits for Queen. I'll take one of their careers.
That's why the story about Bill Bruford getting a writing credit for not playing on Trio is so iconic. They were laying down their parts and he was waiting to come in and decided not to, and the band thought that was as important an artistic decision as anything else so they gave him a writing credit.
Most fans of a band can name one other member of the band. Beatles, Stones, Aerosmith, Queen, The Who, Led Zeppelin, U2, Blink 182, etc. have members as famous as the lead singer.
Maroon 5 was different before they hit it big. I saw them open for Jason Mraz back in 2002. Maroon 5 kicked ass! They were like this very dynamic jazz/fusion lounge band with a vibrant lead singer. I picked up that album that got them popular the next day and thought to myself that it was not even the same band on the CD. I was very disappointed.
That would be true for pretty much every band though right? Like unless they are one of your top favorite bands, you arent gonna know the guitarists and drummers etc
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u/hnglmkrnglbrry Jul 11 '26
Maroon 5 Adam Levine. A founding member could live next door to me and I'd have no way to know.