Beyond Music: Artists And Their Surprising Hidden Talents

The world of music, no matter what genre, is filled with incredibly talented people (and quite a few commercial acts but more on them at another time). Most of them are well-known for their talent in music alone, and that’s enough for their fans to love them. Sometimes, the recognition artists get is directly related to their talent. Rappers, for example, are talented poets as well (RAP stands for Rhythm and Poetry, after all), so Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer didn’t come as a surprise. But there are others that have talents that are completely unrelated to music yet still bring them recognition outside of the spotlight.

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is one of the most important figures in pop culture, defining pop music conventions and giving various movements their anthems over the years. His list of accolades ranges from a Nobel prize to an Oscar, with dozens of others in between. What few people (aside from his true fans) know about him is that he is also an accomplished visual artist.

The covers of several of his albums are reproductions of his own paintings – 1970’s Self Portrait and 1974’s Planet Waves, for example. His paintings were exposed in several galleries, from the National Gallery of Denmark to the Gagosian Gallery in New York and the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Brian May

Brian May has gone down in history as the guitarist of Queen, perhaps the biggest rock sensation ever. Aside from enchanting our ears with his riffs, he also wrote a series of famous Queen songs and released quite a few solo works as well.

Aside from being a genius guitarist, May is also an intellectual: he studied Mathematics and Physics at Imperial College London, graduating with honours with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics, and he was awarded a PhD in astrophysics from the same college in 2007.

Dan Spitz

Daniel Alan Spitz made a name for himself as the lead guitarist of the American heavy metal band Anthrax. With the band, he was nominated for three Grammy awards and helped it reach seven Platinum albums.

Spitz left Anthrax in 1995 to pursue a passion that’s pretty far off smashing guitars on the scene: he wanted to become a watchmaker. He joined the Swiss watchmaking school WOSTEP and earned Swiss degrees in micro-mechanical engineering, and later opened his own luxury watch service.

Bruce Dickinson

Bruce Dickinson has an incredible stage presence and energy, rocking audiences for ages as the lead singer of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden. He joined the band in 1981 and stayed for 12 years before leaving for six years. Ultimately, he returned to the band, recording albums and touring ever since.

He is also an airline pilot. He flew the band’s private jet called “Ed Force One” during their world tours and even worked as a commercial pilot for Astraeus Airlines. He is also an honorary citizen of Sarajevo, even though this doesn’t really count as a talent, right?

Marilyn Manson

Finally, back to the visual arts. Some say Marilyn Manson is a piece of art himself, considering the extravagant makeup and costumes he usually wears on stage. He wears many hats as it is – aside from singing, he is also a songwriter, actor, producer, author, and he also worked as a music journalist.

He has been a watercolour painter since 1999 – he revealed in an interview that he has sold his first paintings to drug dealers at the time. He created his own art movement called “Celebritarian Corporation”, coining the slogan “We will sell our shadow to those who stand within it.” This is the name he has given his art gallery, too. His works have been exhibited at the Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions Centre and the Gallery Brigitte Schenk in Cologne, Germany, among others.