Bands Who Lost Members To Mega-Successful Careers Outside Music

Throughout history, bands have lost members and musicians have gone on to work totally normal jobs, but it's impressive to see someone leave a group and find big success in a career outside of music. It's yet another reminder that diamonds are forever, but most musical careers aren't.

That's life, isn't it? It doesn't always turn out as anyone expects. One day, you're rolling with the crew to a show and playing for the fans, then the next day, a bandmate departs for a totally different career path. That's what happened to groups such as No Doubt and Anthrax as they saw their members leave to pursue other passions. The good news is that their ex-members didn't just survive in these new fields — they thrived.

Let's take a look at five bands who lost members to mega-successful careers outside music. Some of these vocational changes may just blow your mind.

Phantom Planet is primarily known for its song "California," which served as the theme song of the popular 2000s teen drama "The O.C." Yet the rock band had been around for years before that slice of mainstream success came knocking. In fact, one of Phantom Planet's founding members is actor Jason Schwartzman. He served as the group's drummer for nine years before departing in 2003. From there, he established quite the filmography for himself, becoming one of filmmaker Wes Anderson's most notable collaborators and a Hollywood mainstay.

In an interview with IGN, Phantom Planet frontman Alex Greenwald affirmed that there was no drama with Schwartzman's departure. "[W]e started this band together 10 years ago as adolescents, close to pre-adolescents," Greenwald said. "He made an adult decision that he got his creativity out better through acting and through that medium."

Schwartzman has continued to play and release music since departing Phantom Planet, but there's no disputing that his acting career is where he has excelled and received the most attention. Also, it helps that he's part of the Coppola family tree through his mother, Talia Shire, of "Rocky" and "The Godfather" fame.

In the '90s, D:Ream's single "Things Can Only Get Better" turned into a big hit for the group. While the band had other tracks that were notable in the U.K., there's no denying that the single off 1993's "D:Ream On, Vol. 1" is still the most recognizable. At the time, Brian Cox (no, not the "Succession" actor) played as the keyboardist in the band.

Before joining D:Ream, though, Cox had been in another band called Dare. After Dare's split, Cox enrolled at the University of Manchester and started his journey into the world of physics. He developed a passion for it, so when he had to decide between pursuing his musical endeavors with D:Ream and his love for particle physics, he chose the latter.

Since then, Cox has become a physics professor and a celebrity on British television, as he hosts and appears on educational and science-related shows. His achievements in the field have seen him showered with accolades and awards, including the Royal Society's Michael Faraday Prize and Lecture in 2012 and the Guinness World Record for "most tickets sold for a science tour." In 2024, Cox made a special appearance with D:Ream at the Glastonbury Festival, performing "Things Can Only Get Better" with the band again.

As the lead guitarist for Anthrax — a metal band that Metallica fans should listen to — Dan Spitz shredded up and down the fretboard on classic albums such as "Among the Living" and "Persistence of Time." He rocked the world with the high-energy group throughout its peak in the '80s and into the mid-'90s. However, the road life started to weigh down on Spitz, who had a family and wanted to spend more time with them.

This led to him leaving Anthrax and pursuing an interest he inherited from his grandfather: watchmaking. Spitz decided to go full steam ahead with the craft, enrolling himself at the Bulova School of Watchmaking in New York and receiving a scholarship from the prestigious WOSTEP training institution in Switzerland. In fact, the watch website Hodinkee dubbed Spitz as "as one of the best watchmakers in the world." His success in the field has become so noted that he's even been the focus of a documentary.

Spitz has returned to music since leaving Anthrax; however, he's become just as famous for his watchmaking abilities as for his guitar playing. "When you are at a school like WOSTEP, you will quickly see who the 1% is," he told Hodinkee. "In music, you see the 1% too. Reaching the top is something that can't be taught and can't be bought. You have to be an artist to be the best — either in watchmaking or music. You need to do it for the love."

In the '80s, Queensrÿche established itself as an important figure in the heavy metal scene. One of the band's driving creative forces was guitarist Chris DeGarmo, who left his signature touch on the band's music. In 1997, though, DeGarmo upped and left the band.

According to former Queensrÿche drummer Scott Rockenfield, DeGarmo was just done with music as a whole. "He wanted to pursue other things," Rockenfield told the "Signals of Intuition" show. "He felt like he had done what he wanted musically in his life and wanted to move on. That was all fine. We're still friends to this day."

DeGarmo departed Queensrÿche and embarked on a brand-new career as an airplane pilot, specializing in private flights and piloting a Learjet. While he hasn't disappeared from the music scene altogether, he has stayed mostly in the skies rather than on the stage. However, he returned to the limelight after he formed a project known as the Rue with his daughter, Rylie. Speaking to Billboard about the Rue in 2015, DeGarmo joked that he's in the best position to help with travel plans. "Rylie's ready to take over the world," he said. "And I'll fly her wherever she needs to go."

Mention No Doubt to the average person nowadays, and the first name that comes to mind is vocalist Gwen Stefani. This is the group where she made a name for herself as a musician before branching out for solo success. The truth is she was a vital cog, but her brother Eric was equally responsible for shaping No Doubt's original sound as a co-founder of the band in 1986.

Even as No Doubt found its feet in the music industry, Eric had another passion altogether: animation. Toward the end of the '80s, he landed a major gig that would ultimately change his career trajectory: He became an animator who brought to life a peculiar but funny family living in the town of Springfield. "The Simpsons" aired as a segment on "The Tracey Ullman Show" before becoming a standalone series; Eric worked on both incarnations of the show while juggling his career in No Doubt.

In 1994, though, Eric decided to leave the band to focus on his career as an animator on "The Simpsons," which has gone on to become one of the longest-running and most famous animated shows of all time. Ironically, the last album he wrote with No Doubt — "Tragic Kingdom" — proved to be its big breakthrough record. Eric didn't regret it, though. "I wanted to go back to drawing, and all the musical juices were sucked out of me at that point," he told the Los Angeles Times.