90s | Pop Culture | Music | 00s

9 Famous Musicians Who Had Side Projects You Never Heard About

It's awesome being a famous performer: everyone knows who you are, your music reaches millions of people worldwide, and the millions just keep flowing in. However, it's easy to forget that a lot of these people consider themselves artists, and often want to try to expand their art away from what people expect.

In the music world, this tends to lead to side projects. While some of these turn out great (and sometimes even more popular than the bands they spawned from), in the case of these 9 projects, they're more weird than anything.

Garth Brooks - Chris Gaines

Amazon

The country legend decided to try his hand at more regular rock fare, but didn't want his longtime fans to get confused or put off by an album that sounded nothing like his other stuff. The solution? Grow an emo haircut, wear eyeliner, and change his name to Chris Gaines. No, we are not kidding.

Sir Paul McCartney - Liverpool Oratorio

Wikimedia

The hardest-working Beatle may have had plenty of successful bands following the dissolution of the band that made him famous, but his Liverpool Oratorio project wasn't one of them. It was an eight-movement classical piece (like, not classic rock, actual classical music) that loosely told his life story. Weird.

Mike D - Country Mike

Mike D

You might not know Mike D's name, but chances are you're familiar with his work. As a third of the main trio that made up The Beastie Boys, Mike's responsible for co-writing some of the definitive rap songs of all time. So of course, he had to make a country album as a joke and distribute it to friends and family.

Tommy Lee - Methods of Mayhem

Wikimedia

Formed on the eve of his divorce from Pamela Anderson, the Motley Crue drummer formed a rap-rock side project with people like Fred Durst, Snoop Dogg, Lil' Kim, Kid Rock and George Clinton making guest appearances. The album actually went Gold, but let's be real here: when was the last time you thought about it?

Keep reading for even more bizarre side projects...

Pat Boone - In A Metal Mood

AllMusic

1950s Christian pop star Pat Boone proclaimed "No More Mr. Nice Guy" when he did this cover album of heavy metal anthems, turning them into the style of big-band jazz. It's not the worst thing ever in all honesty, but it's definitely one of the weirdest. He even promoted it on MTV while wearing leather and a dog collar.

Korn - Fieldy's Dreams

Korn.net

While already a member of one of the biggest rap-rock/nu-metal bands of the late 90s, Korn bassist Fieldy decided to go even further into the rap side of things. The result was an album that tried to be like Methods of Mayhem, but instead just sounded like a mix of songs that Cypress Hill would've axed while recording an album. This is peak 90s.

Green Day - The Network

Wikimedia

A side project that the Green Day boys still refuse to admit to being a part of (even though it's now pretty well-documented), The Network was a throwback to new wave bands of the 80s. Its one album, Money Money 2020, honestly isn't too bad, but this is definitely one of the stranger projects on here.

Joe Pesci - Vincent Laguardia Gambini

AllMusic

Mr. "How Am I Funny?" himself is no stranger to a music career. In fact, he once tried to quit acting entirely in order to be a singer. The result of that was bad enough, but this album, a collection of songs recorded as his character from My Cousin Vinny, is inexcusable.

Aretha Franklin - La Diva

AllMusic

The Goddess of Soul decided to try to be a Goddess of Disco. How bad were the results you might ask? The album was never released by the label. Yeah, THAT bad.

What weird side project do you remember?

More Throwbacks

Music

Hootie And The Blowfish Are Making A Comeback In A Huge Way

Hootie and the Blowfish are one of those bands that helped define the 90s. You couldn't go more than two hours without hearing one of their songs after they hit it big.But as is the case with most bands, Hootie and the Blowfish decided to take a break. In 2008, their lead singer Darius Rucker went solo, and became successful on his own. The only time the band has reunited was for Jason Aldean's High Noon Neon Tour when he was in Atlanta, but now they've decided to return in a major way. Kick your Monday off with us

90s

Brace Yourself: The Backstreet Boys Released A New Song And Are Going On A World Tour

The Backstreet Boys have been one of the biggest bands in the country, well, the world for several decades now. After getting their start in the early 90s, they've managed to be one of the very few bands that has stuck together and continued performing. They didn't need a big reunion, because they didn't break up. Well, let's just pretend like that whole Kevin fiasco didn't happen. But anyways, they've been putting out music and performing together for 25 years now, and they have no intention of stopping. To be fair, they did warn of this two decades ago. They

90s

The Spice Girls Announced Their Reunion Tour Dates And We Really 'Wannabe' There

It's been months and months of a "will they or won't they" debate, but we've finally got some concrete details about the Spice Girls reunion tour. It feels like every time they appear on a talk show or make a comment on Twitter they've been contradicting what the others have said, but now it's official, there's no going back, the Spice Girls are going on tour. Well, sort of. There is one catch, Victoria Beckham is not going to be there. We all suspected it for a while, as she herself had said that she didn't want to go on

90s

The Tragic Story Behind Pearl Jam's "Jeremy", Now Those Involved Reveal What Happened

Pearl Jam is one of those iconic 90s bands that everyone remembers hearing. They were edgier than the popular music, instead fitting in alongside Nirvana in the grunge style of music that was becoming popular. Like Nirvana, Pearl Jam originated from Seattle. The band has remained extremely successful in the years since its inception, but one song they wrote definitely brought the band to the attention of a lot more people. In 1992, their song "Jeremy" was released as a part of their debut album. The song was their first foray into more story-driven lyrics, but a lot of people

00s

After 15 Years Apart, BBMak Are Finally "Back Here" Again

As the 90s faded out, and the new millennium rushed forward, a lot changed. Clothes became very shiny, hair became excessively straightened, and people started to get cellphones. There was one thing that didn't change right away though, and that was that boy bands still reigned supreme. Backstreet Boys and *Nsync were obviously the two biggest groups who were constantly in a battle for the crown, but there was an entire league of boy bands that had a whole bunch of hits that a lot of us were completely obsessed with. BBMak was one of those bands. While they may

90s

Remembering NFL in the 90's

NFL in the 90s. The Golden Years of FootballIf you can cast your mind back to what the NFL was like in the 90’s, you can perhaps remember some of the great teams and players of the time, not to mention some of the important milestones as well. Maybe you remember the Dallas Cowboys winning three Super Bowls in four years or when the Denver Broncos won a perfect season in 1998. Of course, there are plenty of memorable player moments too. Like when Dan Marino won the title of the best all-time passing leader. Or when Jerry Rice