3 Rockers Beloved by the Class of 2001 Who Became Famous in Their 30s

When you’re watching TV or listening to the radio, and you hear a new act, you perk up. More often than not, the performer is a young person, fresh to the scene. But sometimes the new face in front of you, the new voice in your ears, is someone who’s finally hit it big after decades of working.

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That’s what we wanted to highlight below. We wanted to dive into three artists from the recent past who found the limelight as adults. Indeed, these are three rockers beloved by the class of 2001 who became famous in their 30s.

Sheryl Crow

Sheryl Crow was a force of nature in the 1990s. Her brand of country-rock dominated the airwaves. But it didn’t happen early on for Crow in her 20s. No, it took a bit more time for the songwriter and performer to hone her craft and find her sound. Indeed, Crow released her debut LP, Tuesday Night Music Club, in 1993. A year later, “All I Wanna Do”, which was one of the singles from the album, popped, and the rest was history for the catchy artist.

John Ondrasik

For most of his life, John Ondrasik has been writing songs. But it was when he was in his mid-30s that everything took off for the piano player. Indeed, it was 2001 when his track “Superman (It’s Not Easy)” took over the airwaves. Soon after, Ondrasik (going by the name Five for Fighting) earned another global sensation with the tune “100 Years”. Suddenly, his silky falsetto was everywhere. And you quickly became jealous because you gave up your piano lessons at such an early age.

Butch Vig

In the mid-1990s, you couldn’t turn on MTV, VH1, or any other music purveyor without hearing the Madison, Wisconsin-born group Garbage. One of the band’s members, Butch Vig, had long worked behind the scenes to make others into household names. (For example, he was the producer on Nirvana’s breakout album, Nevermind.) But when Garbage hit the scene in 1995 with their pink, self-titled LP, it was Vig (then 40 years old) and company who were pushed center stage.

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