21 Musical Side Projects That Reminded Famous Folks to Not Quit Their Day Jobs

Good thing they had highly successful careers to scurry back to
21 Musical Side Projects That Reminded Famous Folks to Not Quit Their Day Jobs

Creative types can’t help but to create, and it’s hard to keep them in a box. Just because they happen to find success as, say, an actor, doesn’t mean they won’t want to bang out that children’s book or concept album. Even musicians get tired of the same old sound and want to venture out into new genres. 

Good on all these people for trying something new. They went for it, and no one can fault them for that. We can, however, fault them for the quality of this new something. Good thing they have their multi-million dollar main hustle to fall back on.

 

Jada Pinkett Smith

Jada Pinkett Smith wicked WISDOM CRACKED.COM She's the frontwoman of a nu-metal band, Wicked Wisdom. They played Ozzfest in 2005, released an album in 2006, and have played shows as recently as 2018. Pinkett Smith says she's received death threats from confused, enraged metalheads.

Brie Larson

Brie Larson Finally yout PE.OR ليا Z CRACKED COM To vent her frustration at not being cast in 2003's Peter Pan, 14-year-old Brie wrote an album called Invisible Girl. It caught the attention of a label that briefly tried to style her as an Avril Lavigne-type. They released a tepid pop-punk album called Finally Out of P.E. because FRICK gym class!

Kobe Bryant

Kobe Bryant bryant K.O.B.E. Kobe CRACKED COM Kobe had been rapping since high school, and he really wanted to make a career happen. After a live performance of his debut single absolutely tanked, the music video was nuked and he was released from his label. Не then started his own label, but couldn't keep it running for a full calendar year.

Ryan Gosling

Ryan Gosling DEAD MAN'S BONES CRACKED.COM Gosling's spooky Halloween-rock duo, Dead Man's Bones, released a self-titled album in 2009. It sounds like if Grizzly Bear had to write the soundtrack to a Scooby Doo movie with a children's choir.

William Shatner

William Shatner WILLIAM SHATNER CAPTAIN KIRK OF STAR TREK THE TRANSFORMED MAN CRACKED.COM Shatner released a spoken-word cover album of poetry and pop songs in 1968, The Transformed Man, that would be a #1 comedy album and pull in a Netflix deal if it were published today.

Lindsay Lohan

Lindsay Lohan and LINDSAY LoHAN Bog wisan Bey JAMMSIE REUSION P HISSION PAS Anuria San Bow PARLEY ي MAS Plus SUN Mom Hember SALE NT Niote NEW SPORT SUAVE LOAD LA HAE BLACK Sess بن M FU F es Houses Mil DSH SPEAK CRACKED.COM ARK CHER For a firebrand actress attempting a music career no one asked for, Lohan saw some legitimate, shockingly sustained success. Her 2005 album charted at #20--a relative disappointment, compared to her #4 album in 2004.

Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson CRACKED.COM She cut her teeth on a George Gershwin cover song, and went on to cover, just, a whole bunch of Tom Waits songs. Her first full-length cover album, Anywhere I Lay My Head, got this rave review from Spin: There's nothing particularly compelling about Scarlett Johansson's singing.

Luke Evans

Lord of the Rings Stars' Side Projects R Luke Evans Rugged action star Luke Evans does cringy power ballads. Oh, is that disrespectful to his music? Nothing compares to his disrespect to Pat Benatar's Love is a Battlefield. If Benatar's 1983 original is the LOTR movies, then Evans' 2019 cover is the Hobbit movies. Yes, we stand by that comparison. CRACKED.COM

Aretha Franklin

In 1979, the Queen of Soul attempted to become the Queen of Disco. ARETHA FRANKLIN Aretha Franklin's La Diva was a monumental flop that has never officially been released on CD. CRACKED.COM

Robert Downey Jr.

In 2004 Robert Downey Jr. recorded an album of original and cover songs titled The Futurist. THE Fuburist After receiving mixed reviews, he has wisely refocused his energies on his film career. CRACKED.COM

Ray Liotta

In The Identical (2014), Ray Liotta plays a pastor and father of two sons separated at birth, one of which becomes a famous musician who looks and sings exactly like Elvis Presley. CRACKED.COM

Usher

General Mills NATURALLY FLAVORED Honey Nut Cheerios GRACKED.COM first WHOLE GRAIN OATS ingredient Emoged . Drive Delei FREE DOWNLOAD! EXCLUSIVE SONG by USHER Only at Walmart RT RACE FOR WITH DETAILS Usher recently released a song as a cereal box prize!

Steven Seagal

The highlight of Steven Seagal's 2005 album Songs From the Crystal Cave is arguably Strut, a duet with Jamaican STEVEN dancehall legend SEAGAL Lady Saw, in which Songs from the Crystal Cave Seagal sings Me want the poonani. CRACKED.COM

John Travolta

In 1986, John Travolta lent his vocal talents to The Road to Freedom, an album of songs written by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Sample lyric: You are not mind or chemicals, you don't even have a form/ You're in a trap of senseless lies, it's time to be reborn THE ROADIO FREEDOM and friends The spectacular new hit album of Scientology® songs! CRACKED COM

Johnny Cash

In Johnny Cash's 1984 single Chicken in Black, the country icon COLUMBIA becomes a bank @Columbia, Marcas Fleg robber after being M 513 229 given a brain BS Inc. transplant, while his old brain is STEREO 2:58 given to a chicken who subsequently becomes a music 7464-04513-7 star. JOHNNY CASH THE CHICKEN IN BLACK The video features -G. Gentry- Cash wearing a Produced by Billy Shemill yellow-and-purple supervillain outfit. CRACKED.COM

Joe Pesci

Joe Pesci released a 1998 album as the persona of Vincent Gambini from the 1992 film My Cousin Vinny. Michael Gallucci reviewing for Allmusic described the work as such: his nasally New York tones translate directly onto record about as subtly as a mob hit, burying everything around it in a mound of failed songs and lame jokes. Sings just for You VINCENT LAGUARDIA GAMBINI PARENTAL ADVISORY EXPLICIT CONTENT CRACKED.COM

Georage Lucas

George Lucas' 2015 flop Strange Magic was one of his biggest passion projects. It's an animated musical with a story built around lyrics from Lucas' favorite songs (those songs are about 70% of the movie). His goal was to make another Star Wars, but for girls, and he worked on the movie on and off for 15 years. It had the worst opening of any animated film, ever, and got 17% on Rotten Tomatoes. CRACKED.COM

Heidi Montag

CRACKED COM ie TV ds Heidi Montag spent nearly $2 million of her own money on her first album, titled Superficial. The album, which she and her husband produced themselves, took three years to make. Despite boasts that it was comparable to Michael HETDI Jackson's Thriller in terms MONTAG of sound and quality, SUPERACIAL Superficial was met with poor sales and bad reviews. Au

Metallica

Metallica were excited to make an album with Lou Reed. They blamed fans when it sucked. Lulu debuted to pitiful sales, selling only 13,000 copies in its first week. James Hetfield later called the fans who criticized the effort fearful people who are probably typing from their mom's basement that they still live in. CRACKED.COM

Kevin Spacey

Kevin Spacey sang and danced to get investors for Beyond the Sea. Не wrote, directed and starred in it because his mom loved Bobby Darin. Audiences, however, did not share his passion, and the movie bombed at the box office, making less than a third of its $25 million budget. CRACKED.COM

Bob Dylan

RENALDO & CLARA is a four hour movie created by Bob Dylan that has footage of his concerts, interviews of various singers, and vignettes based on lyrics from his songs It was pulled from theaters when critics called it incoherent, impenetrable, self-indulgent, and... virtually unwatchable. CRACKED.COM

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