Having a career as a successful EDM producer/DJ is never guaranteed, no matter how good you might be. It’s always nice to have a backup plan, just in case, but it’s crazy to think that iconic “Praise You” and “Right Here, Right Now” producer Fatboy Slim might have given it all up to become a firefighter.
Reports The Argus, Fatboy Slim revealed the alternative life he nearly chose while speaking at an event hosted by the the Fire Fighters Charity.
“I have been in the music business pretty much all my life but there have been ups and downs and there was one particular down where everyone around was like, ‘You are going to have to actually get a proper job now because you are skint’. I thought about what job I would like to do and for some reason fireman just… I don’t know. I just had this vision that I wanted to be a fireman.”
He jokingly compared being a musician to working as a firefighter.
“You sit around for ages with your mates making up nicknames for each other, then you suddenly have to go and do something really, really important. Obviously, what I do is a bit more frivolous. And it is a great uniform and chicks dig uniform. No, I am being flippant.
“But I did (take it) seriously and I got as far as finding out what the medical involved and was I too old and I checked how many inches my chest expansion was. But then luckily I got a PRS (Performing Right Society) cheque which kept the wolf from the door and then I had another hit. I am figuring now at my age it is too late to be a fireman but I have always had the greatest respect for the fire service, I think it is very underrated of all the blue lights.”
Imagine if we never got that infamous video of Christopher Walken suspended by wires, flying around a hotel lobby to the sounds of “Weapon of Choice,” or never heard “Right Here, Right Now” in every de rigueur hacker movie of the early ’00s. Thankfully, that isn’t the case.
Photo via Rukes.com
This article was first published on Your EDM. Source: Fatboy Slim reveals he almost quit music to become firefighter