Have you ever met a professional musician who also knows a lot about other things besides music?

Um, that would be me. HI! Welcome to fluther. :)

I haven’t met him, but Brian May probably knows a lot about astrophysics

Yes, I’ve known several who were also artists. Like Robin Rose of the Urban Verbs.

My cousin used to play in the Navy jazz band. He was also on the Smithsonian volunteer staff as a Native American cultural advisor. So I guess the answer is yes.

And a group that used to play bluegrass in DC—the Charles River Valley Boys—originally formed in Boston of Harvard and MIT students—Bob Siggins was a physicist and some of the others had advanced degrees

and of course, fluther’s own @Axemusica

Pete Seeger and Donovan Leech are two of the most remarkably well read people I have heard speak.

I’ve read a few really good articles written by the frontman of Bad Religion.
When it comes to politics, that guy knows his shit.

@anartist awww thank you :D

Also, the band Weezer were all in school at Harvard when they got their break. After they cut a few albums, they went back and graduated.

@takidavaki306
I have met several Doctors ( Physician ) that were jazz, ukulele and violin musicians making money on the weekends.

@Michael_Huntington Why do you say that about Brian May?
My boss is a professional bass player, and the only person IRL that I can talk to about Super String, DMT, and all sorts of other topics that make most peoples eyes glaze over.

<3 @Trillian for mentioning super string and DMT <3 <3 <3

Um. Er. Uh. Buckaroo Banzai? Never met him, though. Musician, physicist, brain surgeon, and weird dimensional alien foiler.

my friend willie put in my tile porch…my friend woody is crazy with computer code.

I met Steve Morse many times who is also a licensed commercial pilot and flies himself to all his gigs. The best was meeting Frank Zappa who aside from being the most acclaimed composer of his time was an early champion of free speech in music and testified against Tipper Gores Parents Music Resource Center campaign to influence control over music lyrics. He was particularly proud of his senate testimony.

My husband – he’s JeanPaulSartre on fluther.

I think there are a lot of musicians that are “polyavocational.” Yes I made that word up, but I feel good about it. Possibly because they’re a musician… there’s a question for you.

Yes

Absolutely.

These people have to eat while they’re waiting for a record deal, y’know.

Greg Gaffin from Bad religion has a Ph.D.

Of course. Both personally, and from what I’ve read. In fact, I don’t think any musician – especially a singer-songwriter worth his salt could write without having broad horizons. Think of Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young. Brad Roberts of Crash Test Dummies has a degree in philosophy. Don’t let the MMMM MMMM fool you.

I had a friend that worked his way through college playing in a band and on his how as a organ player. Some rock and roll translates well to the organ.

He eventually achieved his BS and Masters in Nuclear Engineering.

Yes; my ex is a professional guitarist, a Ph.d in psychology, a published author, recorded a record decades ago that got him a new car and was a radio station exec. Besides all that, he’s a nut.

My violin teacher knows a lot about literature and history. It’s like I’m getting a music, history, and literature lesson all rapped into one. It’s quite fun

Only because you know music does not mean that is all the person is about.. I love art and used to be a artist, but I can cook, write, going to college, full time mom, work, accounting… See my point!!

My father is a professional musician and one of the most intelligent people I know. He went to school for accounting and economics, and to this day can argue circles around anyone I know on market issues (including a few professional economists).

One of my majors in college was music, and some of the professionals I met there also had other areas of interest that they knew a lot about. One was basically an expert in women’s poetry through history. Another knew just about everything you could ever want to know about computers (and had a fully-wired recording studio for teaching an electronic music course).

According to this, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, known for his stints with Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers during the 1970s, has been working as a defense consultant and chairs a Congressional Advisory Board on missile defense.