3 Famous Musicians Who Didn’t Enjoy Being Famous

Sometimes, famous musicians achieve their fame because they truly wanted it more than anything. Others, though, could be considered artists who simply wanted to make art, without the intrusive attention that comes with fame. Let’s take a look at a few rock musicians who didn’t actually want to be famous. Or, at the very least, shied away from fame once they got it.

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Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam

No one could have predicted how enormous grunge music would become in the 90s. Not even the bands that came to fame through the genre’s boom, and certainly not Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder. The beloved grunge frontman struggled more than most when it came to the intensive attention from the masses, considering he’s somewhat shy.

After Ten became a massive debut hit for Pearl Jam, Vedder declined interviews often. He also wasn’t particularly interested in producing music videos. He even decided to get experimental with a lot of Pearl Jam’s follow-up songs, such as “Stupid Mop” and “Bugs”, possibly to turn off some of the more “normie” fans of the band. That didn’t deter many fans, and I think it’s safe to assume Vedder has since gotten used to stardom.

Kurt Cobain of Nirvana

I wouldn’t say Kurt Cobain exactly loathed the idea of being famous. If anything, I think Nirvana’s famed late frontman just hated that the very people who bullied him through his adolescent years started to show up en masse to Nirvana’s shows, where he sang about the very turmoil that they thrust upon him. It was a dark sort of irony that Cobain didn’t vibe with, which led to songs that gave a stiff middle finger to such bullies, such as “In Bloom”. 

In the end, though, I think the fame was too much. And giving someone battling drug addiction and depression an enormous amount of money never ends well, which likely culminated in his eventual death. Rest in peace, Kurt.

George Harrison of The Beatles

George Harrison is an interesting entry on our list of musicians who didn’t want to be famous, considering he was the guitarist of the biggest band of the 20th century. And yet, the “quiet” Beatle didn’t relish in The Beatles’ fame nearly as much as his bandmates. After the Fab Four broke up, Harrison enjoyed an excellent solo career, but it was clear he wasn’t really making music for the sole purpose of milking his fame and making money. He enjoyed making tunes with his friends, and he was very much done with the era of constant interviews, tours, and other people telling him how to make music.

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