As we honor Teacher Appreciation Month, here are 20 musicians who have also worked on the other side of the desk.
Sheryl Crow
After studying theory and voice at the University of Missouri -- where she also fronted a rock band named Kashmir -- the 1984 graduate moved to St. Louis, where she taught music at Kellison Elementary School for two years. Later, she cashed in her teacher's pension and headed for California to make it as a jingle writer. Then Sheryl Crow became a backup singer for Michael Jackson. A decade after college graduation, she released her Grammy-winning album 'Tuesday Night Music Club.'
Sting
Sting played with several bands while attending Northern Counties College of Education and continued to perform while teaching at St. Paul's First School in Cramington. During his two years as a school teacher, Sting was known to be strict, though several girls had crushes on him. Often absent from school to work on music, he eventually joined the Police. "When I got my degree, I became a teacher," he told the Malay Mail (Malaysia) in 2003. "But deep down, that's not what I wanted to be. Somehow God smiled on me -- it's your turn, you can have a hit record."
Bun B
On the Rice University website, Bun B is listed as Bernard Freeman -- his real name -- with the title "distinguished lecturer." After appearing at Rice as a guest lecturer two years prior, Freeman -- one half of Houston hip-hop duo UGK -- was offered a greater role, teaching a class on religion and hip-hop. Despite his music industry connections, he told XXL Magazine that no student demos would be accepted until the end of the term. "If they're coming into the course specifically to give me a demo . . . that's a wrap on the first day."
Peaches
Before Peaches' songs appeared in movies like 'Mean Girls' and 'Lost in Translation' and before she worked with artists like Pink, Christina Aguilera andFeist, this Canadian electronic musician's 'Teaches of Peaches' ended up in the music and drama departments at Associated Hebrew Schools of Toronto, where students knew her as Ms. Merrill Beth Nisker. A former class clown in school, she also entertained kids at birthday parties before adopting a new name and a s*xually-charged, gender-bending persona.
Kris Kristofferson
Before he wrote 'Me and Bobby McGee' and dated Janis Joplin, Kris Kristofferson won four Atlantic Monthly prizes for fiction and was awarded a prestigious Rhodes scholarship in 1958. After studying at Oxford, the future country star and actor volunteered for the Army, where he became a helicopter pilot and a captain. After briefly teaching at West Point, he was offered a full-time gig teaching English but turned it down so he could head to Nashville and write songs.
Wyclef Jean
The former Fugees member and solo artist accepted an invitation in 2010 as a visiting fellow in the Department of African Studies at Brown University. The Haitian-born Wyclef Jean, who performs activist functions for his homeland, was appointed to participate in the school's Haitian Initiative, which includes lectures, faculty conversations and classes.
Steve Miller
After attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison for four years, this guitar-slinging rocker dropped out just six credits shy of an English degree. "College was just an opportunity for gigs," he told the USA Today. In 2010, Steve Miller was named artist-in-residence at USC, where he taught master classes for students enrolled in the school's music and music industry programs.
Brian May
Before he rocked stadiums as Queen's guitarist, Brian May was working toward a doctorate, writing papers with intriguing titles like "Mgl Emission in the Night-Sky Spectrum" and "An Investigation of the Motion of Zodiacal Dust Particles." Once he got rock stardom out of the way, the astrophysicist completed his Ph.D in 2007. That same year the man who wrote 'I Want It All' was appointed chancellor of Liverpool Moores University.
Gene Simmons
You probably wouldn't expect the blood-spitting, s*x-craving Kiss bassist to be teacher material. With good reason. "I did it for six months, and I wanted to kill every single kid," Gene Simmons told Newsday in 1988. His job teaching sixth graders in Spanish Harlem ended, legend has it, after he ditched Shakespeare plays in favor of Spider-Man comic books.
Art Garfunkel
Perhaps he wasn't sure if Simon & Garfunkel was going to hit it big -- or maybe he figured the duo wouldn't last. But even as they recorded albums, Art Garfunkel attended the Columbia University Teacher's College, where he began working on a doctorate between studio time and concerts. He even briefly taught math at the Litchfield Preparatory School in Connecticut. But it didn't take a math major to realize the royalties from 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' would pay far better than any teaching gig.
Todd Rundgren
In 2010, the 'Hello It's Me' singer and influential producer was asked to be a Wells Scholars Professor at Indiana University. During his 2-week gig, Todd Rundgren taught courses on his life and music, participated in a class on theBeatles and even performed his hit 'Bang the Drum All Day' with the IU marching band during halftime at a Hoosiers football game.
Roberta Flack
After earning a music scholarship to attend Howard University at 15, Roberta Flackbecame a high school English teacher in North Carolina. Eventually, Flack taught music as well before she was discovered while singing at a Washington, D.C. club. "The kids had never been actively involved in singing," the Grammy winner told the Chicago Tribune of her teaching experience in 1986. "I exposed them to Bach, Mozart, Handel, all the great choral things." Her song 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' shot up to #1 in 1972.
J-Live
Before he quit teaching to become a rapper, J-Live was known to eighth graders at Junior High School 296 in Brooklyn as Mr. Cadet. While they knew Mr. Cadet occasionally deejayed on weekends, they didn't know he had sold tens of thousands of records and toured Europe and Japan. "I wanted to make sure there was not a lack of focus in the class when I was teaching," he told the Evening News in Edinburgh. Even after becoming successful in hip-hop, J-Live has vowed to return to teaching.
Paul Simon
Not long after partner Art Garfunkel closed the book on his teacher career, Paul Simon took his place at the front of the classroom. In 1970, after recording the 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' album, Simon was invited to teach a songwriting workshop at NYU's School of the Arts. Auditions for the workshop were advertised in the Village Voice, and one of those selected was future Grammy winner
Melissa Manchester, who now teaches a class at USC.
Lamont Dozier
As an important cog in the famous Holland-Dozier-Holland hit making machine at Motown, Lamont Dozierpenned dozens of #1 singles for acts likeMarvin Gaye, the Four Tops and the Supremes. This year, the singer was named an artist-in-residence professor at USC, where he helped create the music performance program. When asked by USC News if songwriting could be taught, Dozier said it could if students are willing to listen and observe. "A lot of people don't know how to listen," he said. "They're too busy trying to tell you about themselves."
Rob Leonard
The inspiration for a character on the TV show 'Bones,' Leonard is one of few who can claim to have worked with both theGrateful Dead and the FBI. A founding member of '50s cover band Sha Na Na, he earned his Ph.D from Columbia College, where he became an expert in forensic linguistics and assisted law enforcement in high-profile murder cases. For his doctoral dissertation, he studied Swahili -- a language he still teaches at Hofstra University, where he is a linguistics professor.
JT Taylor
Education was always stressed in JT Taylor's family, which included teachers, attorneys and a social workers. Taylor, who earned an academic scholarship to attend Norfolk State University, was a former nursery school teacher and amateur night club singer in the late '70s when he auditioned -- and passed the test -- to become the lead singer for Kool and the Gang.
Mark Volman
A mediocre student in high school, Volman figured he'd become a sheet metal worker like his father if music didn't pan out. Luckily, the band he co-founded, theTurtles, did take off, scoring several hits in the '60s. Years later, the singer was visiting a college with his oldest daughter when he decided to enroll himself at age 44. He went on to earn master's and teach music business at his alma mater, Loyola Marymount, before taking a position as an adjunct music professor at Belmont University in Nashville. Today he chairs the entertainment industry studies program at Belmont -- and tours with the Turtles in his spare time.
Greg Graffin
Not willing to give up his passion for music or education, Graffin has been known to give biology lectures and grade papers during the day while laying down tracks for the next Bad Religion album at night. Graffin earned his B.A. from UCLA and his a Ph.D from Cornell, writing a dissertation on the attitudes of prominent evolutionary biologists toward science and religion. An author of books on evolution and religion, the punk rocker, who now teaches at Cornell, released his band's 15th album last year.
Kenny Aronoff
Even as he continued to perform as John Mellencamp's drummer, Aronoff joined the faculty at Indiana University's School of Music to teach percussion. After several years as an associate professor, his burgeoning career as a session drummer -- he eventually appeared on over 30 Grammy-nominated recordings -- forced him to quit the classroom.
Posted By: Richard Kigel
Sunday, May 29th 2011 at 12:12PM
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