The fairytale version of becoming a rockstar always starts with the person knowing their whole life that they wanted to be a musician. However, the reality is that that's not always how it goes.

In fact, it typically isn't.

You probably already know that Kurt Cobain was a janitor before he made it big with Nirvana. Or that Sebastian Bach was a landscaper. But did you know that Tom Araya was a respiratory therapist before he became the frontman for Slayer, or that Serj Tankian owned a software company before System of a Down even formed?

READ MORE: The Jobs 26 Rock + Metal Musicians Had Before They Were Famous

It's interesting to look at the lives of some musicians and see how they almost went down completely different paths. If one thing had happened differently, we wouldn't have songs like "Freak on a Leash" or "The Beautiful People." So, we compiled a list of 13 rock and metal musicians who had other careers before they made it big.

13 Rock + Metal Artists Who Had Other Careers Before Music

These rockers had other careers before they became musicians.

53 Rockers Who've Been in Multiple Successful Bands

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