The U.S. Navy has an equally strange list of famous musician alumni as any other branch: Two musical laughingstocks and a titan of mournful soul were former midshipmen.
Fred Durst: The Limp Bizkit frontpiece, amateur porn star, and novice film director did a two-year bid in the Navy before coming back to his home state of Florida to stunt a generation of music fans’ musical growth. Break stuff, indeed.
MC Hammer: After failing to make it as pro baseball player, Stanley “MC Hammer” Burrell joined the Navy to figure things out. He excelled at his position, and was a favorite of his commanders. Tragically, during his enlistment he developed a taste for hip-hop and parachute pants.
Bill Withers: The reclusive Withers actually spent nine years as a sailor, from 1956 to 1965 – the longest time in uniform for any musician by far (that we know of). Withers hasn’t released any new material since the mid-’80s, which is a damned shame for such a voice to go to waste.
This article appears in May 21-27, 2009.