I've been a fan of Ole for a long time, especially since albums like 1998's Burial and the Extol s/t from last year are heavy and awesome regardless of whether you like/hate "Christian" oriented metal or not. Still, going from this with your band-



To this as a solo artist-



-is definitely the sign of someone who has a ridiculous level of uncanny talent. Now THAT, amigos, is true blue eclecticism.


Everyone who got their career started with Zappa always seem to go off to places you don't expect afterwards, but O'Hearn is a completely different beast alltogether. He was Frank's #1 bass guy on the road and in studio for the latter part of the 70's, playing on albums such as 1976's double live album Zappa In New York and 1979's Sleep Dirt. During this period, Frank taught O'Hearn everything he knew about production, studio management, etc. and encouraged O'Hearn's interest in early electronic music and ambient (such as Kraftwerk, Brian Eno, etc.). This mentorship eventually led from him doing stuff like this with Zappa-



-to a career resulting in millions of album sales in the "New Age' oriented ambient world from the late 80's all the way to the present day. Brilliant stuff in its own right, but you wouldn't think this is the same guy would ya?



To those of you unfamiliar with Sacred Songs, Daryl Hall's first solo album from the late 70's that he recorded with his best bud Robert Fripp (of King Crimson)...the results were good enough to where the two considered joining forces for a "new" band. However, because it took THREE years to get the album released, Daryl ended up staying with Oates and Fripp ended up recruiting other people....which, of course, became the iteration of KC fronted by Adrian Belew.

But again, listen to this and tell me that a Daryl Hall-fronted King Crimson might not have been pretty cool eh?



This one is less of a "look how this artist did/is doing something unexpcted outside of their main musical career" and more of a "holy shit really?" sort of story.

Derek Shulman was the frontman and eldest of the three Shulman brothers who formed underdog progressive rock band Gentle Giant back in 1969-70. Most of you are probably vaguely familiar with albums like Octopus, The Power And The Glory, etc. even if you don't like progressive rock much, as the music was, indeed, genuinely progressive, interesting and even catchy in some ways. Twelve albums over 10 years is nothing to sneeze at, but GG never had the same level of exposure or success as Yes, Genesis or ELP did during the decade. By 1980 the band was completely out of juice, and broke up quietly after Civilian tanked commercially.

In a bizarre stroke of irony however, Derek ended up becoming rich in the music industry after all...just not as the frontman for a groundbreaking band. He ended up becoming the main A&R rep for PolyGram Records...and eventually CEO of both Atco Records AND Roadrunner Records down the line. The list of bands he has ended up signing and turning into multi-platinum successes, including everyone from Pantera to Dream Theater to Slipknot and even friggin' Nickelback (blergh), is absolutely mindboggling.

It just goes to show you kids: even if you get booed off the stage at a 1972 Black Sabbath concert as the opening act, you can be rest assured that someday you'll sign Bon Jovi and laugh your ass all the way to the bank.