The cult classic film School of Rock premiered 15 years ago and since then, we've learned that there *is* a real school of rock in Philadelphia, where teenagers learn how to play classic rock music.
The films writer and star, Mike White, wasn't even a fan of classic rock music, but he wanted to write a film where his frequent collaborator and co-star, Jack Black, can play his favorite classic rock songs.
All these made us look up if there are any actual musicians who used to be teachers (whether music or not) before they launched famous careers in music. Here are five of them:
1. Sheryl Crow
Before becoming a country music superstar with multiple Grammy awards, Sheryl Crows path to fame has always been evident. Coming from a musical family, she went on to study music at the University of Missouri. After she finished her degree, she taught music to elementary school children in order to pay the bills while she wrote ad jingles. Her modest professional singing career started during her teaching years, when she performed at nights and during weekends. She caught her big break when she became a back-up singer for Michael Jackson. At present, she continues to advocate for music education.
2. Sting
Sting taught as the only male faculty at St. Catherines Convent School (I was the only teacher not in a habit, he said) in his native Newcastle, England from 1974 to 1976. His subjects were English, music, and soccer. He moonlit as a jazz musician during evenings, weekends, and holidays. He left after two years and moved to London to form The Police, and went on to have a successful solo music career, with multi-platinum album sales.
3. Roberta Flacks
Roberta Flacks musical achievements started long before she sang her hits such as Killing Me Softly with His Song and Feel Like Makin Love. She attended Howard University on a music scholarship at only 15 and graduated at 19; completed a teacher training course, making her the first black student-teacher in an all-white school near Chevy Chase, Maryland; and taught English and music in Farmville, North Carolina. She was still teaching in Washington, D.C., while performing in bars and clubs at nights, when her singing career took off.
4. Art Garfunkel
Best known for being one-half of the legendary duo, Simon and Garfunkel singer, poet, actor Art Garfunkel is also a math teacher. He earned a bachelor's degree in art history and a master's degree in mathematics in Columbia University. He continued to complete his doctorate coursework afterwards. In fact, he was working on a PhD in Mathematics Education at the height of their commercial success. After the pairs musical partnership ended, he briefly went back to teaching sophomore geometry for a year and starred in two films. After a three-year hiatus, he launched his solo music career in 1973.
5. Gene Simmons
Before all the outlandish stage outfits and makeup, KISS vocalist and bass player Gene Simmons was a sixth-grade teacher in Spanish Harlem in New York City. He revealed in his interviews that he got in trouble with the school for letting the kids read Spiderman comics instead of Shakespeare. In 2005, Gene Simmons starred in a British reality TV show Rock School on VH1, where a group of classically trained young students from a prestigious English boarding school learned how to be rockstars, much like the premise of 2003's School of Rock.