Dave Grohl
Kind of hard to believe now, but Dave Grohl was once better known as that stringy-haired guy behind the drum kit that Kurt Cobain jumped into. The Melvins' King Buzzo put a young Grohl in touch with Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic after the drummer's D.C.-area group, Scream, disbanded in 1990. Grohl got the gig with Nirvana, which was shopping a new demo to major labels at the time. The resulting album, Nevermind, was somewhat well-received upon its release. During the band's ensuing adventure into superstardom, Grohl mostly contented himself to man the skins, contributing little to Nirvana's songwriting. After Cobain's suicide, Grohl played a few gigs on drums with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers before stepping into the spotlight with Foo Fighters.
Gary Moore
Before embarking on a successful solo career, blues-rock guitar hero Gary Moore served several short stints as the six-stringer for Thin Lizzy. In the early '60s, a teenaged Moore came up playing with local Irish artists including Phil Lynott and Brian Downey. This experience made him Thin Lizzy's first choice to replace guitarist Eric Bell when he suddenly left the band after a New Year's Eve gig in 1973. That initial stretch only lasted a few months, but Moore would intermittently man the ax for the legendary Irish rockers through the rest of the decade before leaving Lizzy in the middle of an American tour in '79 and beginning his solo career in earnest.
Miles Davis
Years prior to the birth of the cool, Miles Davis first garnered a reputation for groundbreaking music as a sideman to Charlie Parker. Davis took Dizzy Gillespie's place as the horn blower in the legendary Charlie Parker Quintet around 1945. The combo recorded some stone-cold bebop classics together before complications arising from Parker's drug addiction persuaded Davis to leave. He would go on to have one of the most celebrated careers as solo artist and bandleader in jazz history.
Michael Schenker
Guitar god Michael Schenker has enjoyed a long and successful solo career dating back to 1979, but when he started out, he was just somebody's little brother. Schenker's older brother Rudolph formed the Scorpions in 1965, but the group didn't take off until vocalist Klaus Meine and a 17-year-old Michael joined up four years later. After recording the Scorps' debut album in '72, Mike bolted for the lead-guitar gig with UFO in spite of the fact that he spoke no English. Schenker toured and recorded five albums with UFO before forming his own group at the end of the decade.
Uncle Kracker
Uncle Kracker has scored a couple of top-ten hits with "Follow Me" and "Drift Away" since his solo debut in 2001, but at one time he was simply the nameless, faceless DJ scratching up records behind Kid Rock. Born Matthew Shafer, Kracker befriended the Kid way back in 1987 when both were aspiring Michigan rappers. Rock asked Shaffer to man the wheels of steel for him in 1994, a duty he performed faithfully until the Kid broke big with Devil Without A Cause in '98. The album's monster success gave Uncle Kracker the opportunity to record and release his solo debut, Double Wide. That album peaked at #7, kickstarting a new kareer career.
