5 Rock Music Legends Who Started in Garage Bands

No matter your dream, art, or career, we all gotta start somewhere. These five legendary musicians once started out in very different bands from the ones that got them famous. Let’s take a deep dive into five rock music legends who started out in garage bands!

1. Bruce Springsteen

Before he was singing about being born in the U.S.A., Bruce Springsteen was in a garage band called The Castiles.

The Boss got his very first guitar in 1964 and quickly went on to form a couple of different bands. The Rogues were his very first band, which he was promptly thrown out of because the quality of his guitar was cheap. He then began making music with a neighborhood friend and formed The Castiles. It was Springsteen’s first foray into soloing, and the rest is history.

2. Iggy Pop

When it comes to legends who started out in garage bands, this one is pretty surprising. The OG Iggy Pop was a very different musician from the punk rock icon we know today. Before he was Iggy Pop, he was Jim Osterberg, a teenager who started learning to play the drums for a blues band in the 1960s.

The Iguanas came about when most of the band members were in high school, where they would play gigs at dances, parties, and clubs in Michigan. The outfit didn’t last long, but it was where he got the name “Iggy”. Pop would later go on to make some legendary proto-punk tunes with The Stooges.

3. Eddie Vedder

Eddie Vedder is an alt-rock and grunge icon through his work with Pearl Jam. But shortly before Pearl Jam became a thing, Vedder was working blue-collar jobs and recording bootlegs at local shows. In 1986, he made the move to answer a newspaper ad for Bad Radio, a band that was looking for a new frontman. Vedder sent them a cover of “Atlantic City” by Bruce Springsteen, and he got the gig.

4. & 5. Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham

Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham went to school together as teens, and they started making music together around 1966. Buckingham was already part of a band called The Fritz Rabyne Memorial Band, which was later shortened to “Fritz”.

Their lead singer decided to drop out, and Buckingham gave Nicks a call to take his place. Fritz would be the duo’s first band together for about three years. Later, they would both leave behind the psychedelic-tinged Fritz and eventually join the legendary folk-rock outfit Fleetwood Mac.

Photo by Michael Ochs Archives

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.