🪦 From Gravedigger to Rocker! Rod Stewart’s Weirdest Odd Jobs
Sometimes we see legendary rock stars in their flamboyant outfits, wild messy hair, and with a glass of champagne in hand, and we think: "Well yeah, this guy was born with a silver spoon in his mouth." But reality was quite different. Before good old Rod Stewart filled stadiums and sold millions of records with his raspy voice, he had to hustle hard at jobs that would make anyone second-guess their life choices.
That's right: before becoming the rock star everyone knows today, Rod Stewart had to grind away at some pretty bizarre gigs. Here’s the lowdown on the weirdest day jobs of the messiest-haired Brit in history.
Gravedigger at Highgate Cemetery (The Shovel Myth)
This is the most famous piece of gossip from his biography. For decades, legend had it that Rod made a living digging graves in London's famous Highgate Cemetery.
Years later, in his autobiography, Rod himself set the record straight so people wouldn't think he was some kind of vampire: he wasn't technically a gravedigger, but rather the guy in charge of marking and measuring the plots, as well as cleaning headstones and pulling weeds. The main reason he took the job? To scare away his own demons.
Turns out that as a kid he was terrified of death, and his brother suggested he take a job there to face his fear head-on. A classic British-style "shock therapy": Scared of dead people? Go clean their graves then.
Soccer Player Who Ended Up Getting Paid Per Match
Rod Stewart's ultimate pipe dream was always soccer. As a young guy, he was pretty good and even got a trial for Brentford Football Club, a local team.
Although he actually signed as a youth player, reality was way less glamorous than it sounds: they paid him pennies per match, and he had to polish the first-team players' cleats. In the end, he realized two things:
- Soccer required waking up at six in the morning to train in the freezing London cold.
- Music allowed him to get drunk, stay up late, and still make money.
The choice made itself.
Newspaper Delivery Boy and Picture Frame Hauler
Before he started shredding his vocal cords in front of a microphone, Rod had to jump on whatever gig came his way. He worked delivering newspapers on freezing mornings and as a helper in a picture frame factory, hauling wood and choking on dust all day long.
Word is that during downtime at the workshop, he’d play the harmonica to pass the time until his bosses sent him back to work because he was absolutely useless at carpentry.
Dishwasher in Seedy Joints
Like any proper aspiring artist, Rod had to do time in the kitchen. He was a dishwasher in several low-end joints where, as he has recalled himself, the grease caked onto the pans was practically indestructible.
This job didn’t last long because patience wasn't his strong suit, and he preferred wandering around public squares as a bum with his guitar in tow.
The Real Talk:
If you feel like your current job is going nowhere or you have to do some weird gigs just to pay rent, remember Rod Stewart. The guy went from pulling weeds off graves and scrubbing rock-hard grease off dishes to becoming one of the most successful musicians of all time.
The takeaway is clear: no matter where you start hustling, the important thing is finding the right mic to get the hell out of there.