Everybody’s got to relax somehow – and rock stars are no exception.
When they’re not busy at their day job of making an almighty racket, summoning Satan or ravishing groupies, they enjoy nothing more than kicking back, playing golf and, er, growing pumpkins.
Rock star hobbies
1. Alice Cooper: golf
When Alice gave up rock’n’roll misbehaviour, he needed something to fill the void. His new addiction was golf, and he’s become very good at it. The sport is now such a dominant feature of his life that he titled his 2007 autobiography ‘Alice Cooper – Golf Monster’. He currently has a handicap of four – which is very good, according to those who know about such things.
2. Bruce Dickinson: fencing
The very definition of a heavy metal polymath with a wide hinterland, Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson has a variety of interests that could be construed as hobbies – though he approaches each of the with the dedication and commitment of his day job.
Where to start? Well, he’s a champion fencer, who was once ranked number 7 in the UK. Bruce is also a successful broadcaster, notably presenting the Friday Rock Show on BBC Radio 6 between 2002 and 2010. Less successfully, he’s also tried his hand at writing with the Tom Sharpe-esque Iffy Boatrace books.
Bruce’s most high-profile venture outside Iron Maiden, however, has been as an airline pilot. Having gained his airline transport pilot’s licence, he regularly flew Boeing 757s for the now defunct British charter airline Astraeus. On Maiden’s Somewhere Back In Time world tour of 2008-2009, he flew the band, crew and all their equipment around the globe in a specially converted jet named Ed Force One, as documented in the film Iron Maiden: Flight 666. This proved such a success that Bruce piloted an upgraded Ed Force One on two subsequent world tours.
3. Ronnie Wood: painting
Beyond the Rolling Stones, Ronnie Wood is a prolific and highly respected visual artist. Having received formal training at Ealing Art College, he has spent decades documenting the rock 'n' roll lifestyle through vibrant sketches and oil paintings. His work often features intimate portraits of his bandmates and musical peers. For Wood, painting is an essential creative outlet that offers a quiet, contemplative balance to the frenetic energy of stadium life.
4. Keith Richards' library
Beyond his outlaw persona, Keith Richards is a devoted bibliophile with an immense collection of rare books and historical texts. His passion for reading is so intense that he once seriously considered a career in library science, even investigating professional filing systems to organize his thousands of volumes. Richards views his library as a sanctuary of knowledge, particularly favoring histories of the American Civil War and the sea, proving that the heart of rock 'n' roll is unexpectedly scholarly.
5. Roger Daltrey: trout fishing
In the early 1980s, The Who’s charismatic frontman transformed a wooded valley in East Sussex into the Lakedown Fishery, a sprawling four-lake retreat. Daltrey personally designed the landscape, finding sanctuary from the deafening roar of rock stardom in the meticulous work of aquatic management. A case of still waters run deep...
6. Brian May: astrophysics
Brian May is the ultimate bridge between stadium rock and scientific rigour. While touring the world with Queen, he maintained a deep fascination with the cosmos, eventually completing his PhD in Astrophysics in 2007. His research focused on zodiacal dust, proving that his intellectual curiosity is as expansive as his guitar solos.
Beyond the stars, May is a global authority on stereoscopy – the Victorian precursor to 3D imaging. He owns one of the world's largest collections of vintage stereo cards and even designed the OWL stereoscope to make 3D viewing accessible to modern audiences. Whether analysing planetary dust or restoring forgotten 19th-century photographs, May approaches his passions with a scholar's precision, proving that a rock legend can be equally at home in an observatory as he is at Wembley.
7. Neil Young: model trains
As we shall see, ol’ Neil is not the only rock star to play with toy trains, but he is, perhaps, the most unlikely. He once constructed a gargantuan layout at his northern Californian ranch. Covering some 1,000 square feet, this O gauge track was remarkable for both filling his impressive train room but also continuing into the landscape outside. Alas, it is no longer in existence, but as Classic Toy Trains magazine noted: “ . . . among O gaugers with long memories, it will always rank among the greatest and most influential of toy train layouts ever built.”
8. Rod Stewart: er, model trains
Yes, it’s our second rockin’ model railway enthusiast. Sir Rod is also a model enthusiast, but that’s another story. He takes his trains very seriously, and has been regularly featured in Model Railroader magazine, which drooled over his impressive Three Rivers City layout based on the New York Central and Pennsylvania railroads of the 1940s. He has a second, smaller track in his UK home, which is based on the East Coast Main Line.
9. Jim Martin: punpkin growing
The former guitarist with Faith No More has built himself an unlikely second careers as a champion pumpkin grower. No, really. Back in 2003, he won an award for the heaviest pumpkin grown in California at the 30th Annual Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off, bagging fourth place overall. His monster pumpkin weighed it at 1,064 pounds. Which is a LOT of pumpkin.
10. Mick Jagger: bingo
For decades now, 82-year-old Sir Mick has been goaded into doing something more age-appropriate than gyrating onstage in front of thousands of fans. What his detractors perhaps don’t know is that he’s apparently a huge bingo enthusiast, who holds games at his home in a very exclusive part of the affluent London suburb of Richmond.
11. Flea: movie roles
“Hang On, isn’t that . . ?” Yep, the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist, whose real name is Michael Balzary, has long pursued a second career as an actor, albeit in fairly minor roles. We first saw him as a young punk rocker in Penelope Spheeris’s 1984 film, Suburbia.
He also appeared in the second two parts of the Back to the Future trilogy, as a hippy in Terry Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and as a German nihilist in the Coen brothers masterpiece The Big Lebowski. More recently, he’s had roles in Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver, Damien Chazelle’s Babylon, and as the voice of a ‘mind cop’ in both of Pixar’s Inside Out films.
Flea’s not the only Chili Pepper to try his hand at acting, mind. Anthony Kiedis can be seen in the 1991 action flick Point Break. This means that two members of the band have acted opposite Keanu Reeves, as Flea was also in Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho.
12. Steve Harris: West Ham United
A lifelong West Ham fan, Iron Maiden’s founding bassist originally dreamed of becoming a professional footballer and even played with the club’s youth team. Instead, he contents himself with gobal rock superstardom and games with his own Maidonians football team. They’ve beaten rival rockers like Rainbow and Def Leppard but play less frequently these days, now that Harris has turned 70.
13. James Hetfield: beekeeping
When you spend your professional life swaggering around, playing some of the heaviest metal on the planet, you need to relax and unwind away from the stage. Jamest Hetfield does so in a perhaps surprising way: beekeeping. Yep, the Metallica frontman calms himself down with a little help from his apian chums. He’s even been known to share honey from his own hives with bandmates and crew.
14. Maynard James Keenan: winemaking
Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan is a hands-on vintner, operating Caduceus Cellars in the rugged terrain of Jerome, Arizona. Eschewing the typical celebrity-label trend, he is deeply involved in the gruelling physical labour of the harvest. For Keenan, winemaking is a sacred, complex craft that mirrors the disciplined intensity of Tool's multilayered prog rock.
15. Floor Jansen: horses
The statuesque Nightwish frontwoman has been obsessed with horses ever since she was a (relatively) little girl. But it was only when she joined the band in 2012 that she was finally able to afford one of her own. Now horse riding is her way of relaxing between stints of touring and recording.
16. Ian Anderson: salmon farming
The line between a hobby and a business venture can be a thin one, but whichever way you choose to look at it Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson was seriously into salmon farming at one point. Based primarily at his estate on the Isle of Skye, the business was sold off in the 1990s.
17. Brann Dailor: clowns
To say that Brann Dailor, drummer with American metal band Mastodon, is obsessed with clowns is a serious understatement. Indeed, he’s said to have the largest collection of clown memorabilia in the US and often likes to dress in clown gear. In 2021 he published a book of his own artwork, entitled Brann Dailor’s Clowns of the Coronavirus. Splendid.
18. Kerry King: python breeding
As we mentioned earlier, practitioners of extreme metal need a means of unwinding. For Slayer guitarist Kerry King, the takes the form of reptile breeding. Specifically, Kerry breeds carpet pythons under his own Psychotic Exotics brand. His herpetological hobby is a longstanding one and he’s earned plenty of respect in the snake community.
19. Elton John: owning a football team
Elton John’s devotion to Watford FC is the most heartfelt hobby in rock history. A lifelong fan who stood on the terraces as a child, he became the vice-president of the football club, based some miles north of London, in 1973 before eventually buying the team in 1976.
In November 1973, fresh from a US tour, Elton famously turned up at the club to train with the players to keep fit. He didn’t go alone; he brought along his footie-mad friend, Rod Stewart. Iconic photos from the day capture the duo practicing on the pitch and even sharing a communal bath at the ground afterward – a legendary moment of rock royalty meeting the gritty reality of lower-league football. Under his eventual chairmanship, the 'Hornets' rose from the Fourth Division to the top flight, cementing Elton’s status as a true saviour of the club.
20. Nick Mason: classic cars
Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason is rock’s ultimate 'petrolhead'. His passion for motor racing and classic cars is legendary; he owns over 40 rare vehicles through his company, Ten Tenths. The crown jewel is his 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO – one of only 36 ever made.
Beyond collecting, Mason is a serious racer who has competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans five times, proving his need for speed is as steady as his drumming.
21. Robert Plant: Wolverhampton Wanderers
Robert Plant’s devotion to British Midlands football club Wolverhampton Wanderers is legendary, spanning over six decades. A Vice President of the club, the Led Zeppelin frontman describes Molineux as his 'spiritual home'. Whether celebrating promotions or enduring relegations, Plant remains a fixture in the stands.
22. Lemmy: World War II memorabilia
Lemmy Kilmister was an avid historian and collector of WWII military artifacts, amassing a significant array of medals, daggers, and uniforms. Despite the controversy surrounding his interest in German memorabilia, he maintained it was purely a fascination with the era's aesthetics and historical gravity. For Lemmy, the collection was a personal museum, reflecting his lifelong obsession with the "visual violence" and weight of history.
23. Cozy Powell: motor racing
Cozy Powell’s need for speed was just as thunderous as his drumming. The drummer for Rainbow, Whitesnake and Black Sabbath, He competed as a Formula Three driver and raced Mazda saloons under Hitachi sponsorship.
His collection included a prized Ferrari and several high-performance motorbikes. Tragically, this passion led to his untimely death in 1998 during a high-speed car crash near Bristol. Whether behind a drum kit or a steering wheel, Powell lived his life at a relentless, high-octane pace.
Pics Getty Images
Top pic Bruce Dickinson, Iron Maiden frontman and fencer, 1980
