I can't believe what a great career they ended up having ...

Also: Kurt Warner. From supermarket employee to Pro Football Hall of Famer.

 

Agreed. Living in Southern California then was a weird musical bubble. Oingo Boingo was huge. I don't get why they barely made a blip outside the bubble.

I thought Fishbone was way more likely to hit nationally than RCHP. Didn't happen.

 

Although he sucks now (crossthread), Bruce Willis when from bartender to being picked over hundreds of actors for Moonlighting. And I believe he was in his 30s. Pretty late for the big break.

He's made many crappy movies. But lifetime pass for Moonlighting, DieHard, Pulp Fiction and Sixth Sense.

Also, Ringo Starr is a great drummer. But his career might have been a bit different if he hadn't hooked up with that other Liverpool band at just the right time.

 

Marky Mark

 

You talking about their career, or the first song at one of their concerts?

 

Hell, if you'd have said that in 2005 and added the caveat that he'd win a Super Bowl with the New Orleans Saints before the end of the decade I'm not sure anyone would have bought it.

 

Seth MacFarlane deserves a spot on the list.
Supremely talented guy, but he went from having his crude animated show canceled by Fox and receiving little more than cult classic status, to a multi-million dollar media empire in the span of about three years.

 

Saw UT in one of their last shows in Columbia, MO. They played two nights there, three at Mississippi Nights in STL and were done. I never saw Son Volt, but I saw Wilco on the Being There tour and was hooked.

 

Anthony Peeler was at Mizzou when I was. He was dogged by drug problems throughout his time there and bit a woman on the ear right before the 1992 draft.

He ended up grinding out a 13-year NBA career and made $24 million.

 

Jimmy Fallon sucks. Period.

 

Minus the drugs and ear-biting, Alabama had a run of under-developed guys from the David Hobbs and Mark Gottfried years I never would have pictured making it in the league, with nine-year veteran Jason Caffey leading the parade.

 

Wayne Chrebet.

Undrafted out of Hofstra, gets cut after a one-day tryout with Baltimore of the CFL, only really got a chance to go to camp with the Jets because they were having training camp there at the time, was the 11th receiver out of 11 on the depth chart, ends up making the team because they literally had no one else at receiver, ends up playing 11 seasons and becoming one of the most beloved players in Jets history.