Most origin stories in music get cleaned up before they reach the public. By the time an artist is selling out arenas, the years of eating half a sandwich for dinner or sleeping somewhere they weren’t supposed to have become a footnote, if they’re mentioned at all. The gap between “struggling artist” and “global star” is rarely as clean as a highlight reel suggests.
These eight musicians lived in that gap for long enough that quitting would have made complete sense. Some were one bad winter away from walking away entirely. What kept them going, in almost every case, was stubbornness, a guitar, and not much else.
1. Shania Twain: Hungry Before School, Famous After
Regarded as one of the best country singers of all time, Shania Twain had an extremely rough childhood. She was born in Ontario, Canada and grew up in the small town of Timmins. Her mother and stepfather worked to make ends meet, and due to their financial struggles, Twain and her four siblings often went to school famished. This wasn’t a brief tough period. It was the baseline reality of her early years.
In 1987, Twain’s parents both died in a car crash, forcing her to raise her siblings alone. She continued to pursue music and Polygram Records eventually signed her. She began her rise to stardom in 1995 after releasing her album “The Woman in Me,” and went on to release the widely acclaimed “Come on Over” in 1997, which stood as the number one country album for a total of 50 weeks. The distance between those hungry school mornings and that chart record is almost impossible to measure.
2. Eminem: Detroit’s Housing Projects to Hip-Hop’s Highest Peak
Eminem grew up in Detroit, Michigan, in a low-income household. His mother raised him as a single parent, and they moved frequently between rundown neighborhoods. The instability of his environment meant that basic needs were often hard to meet. His mother, Debbie Mathers, estimated that Eminem spent time in more than 30 different schools.
In 1996, Eminem released his first independent album, “Infinite.” The album was a commercial failure, selling only a few hundred copies. Critics dismissed it as derivative, and Eminem was left feeling discouraged and frustrated. He continued to struggle financially, working low-paying jobs to support his young daughter, Hailie Jade. In 1997, he released the Slim Shady EP, which caught the attention of Dr. Dre. Two years later, in 1999, “The Slim Shady LP” was released, and the tides began to turn.
3. Mariah Carey: A Mattress on the Floor and a Demo Tape
After graduating in 1987, Mariah moved to Manhattan. There, she worked as a waiter and a coat check attendant and studied cosmetology while writing songs and actively pursuing a music career at night. She shared a one-bedroom apartment with four other women, slept on a mattress, and worked as a waitress to pay her rent.
When she was 18, Carey attended a CBS Records party with Brenda K. Starr, for whom Carey had started singing backing vocals in concerts. Starr convinced Carey to bring along one of her demo tapes. She intended to give the tape to Columbia’s Jerry Greenberg, but Tommy Mottola, the president of Columbia Records, intercepted it before she could hand it to Greenberg. After listening to the tape on the way home from the party, Mottola signed Carey immediately. The story of that one party is the kind of pivot that entire careers hang on.
4. Beck: Eight Dollars, a Guitar, and a New York Winter
Before Beck became a genre-bending icon, he was just another struggling musician trying to make it in New York. In 1989, with only $8 in his pocket and a guitar in tow, he left the West Coast in search of opportunity. What he found instead was a harsh reality: no money, no home, and no easy way forward. Despite the hardships, the city shaped his artistry. He connected with a circle of like-minded musicians, honing his craft while bouncing between borrowed floors and park benches.
The brutal New York winters and constant struggle wore him down. By early 1991, he made the tough decision to return to Los Angeles, hoping for a fresh start. The move proved to be the right one. Just two years later, “Loser” launched him into the mainstream, turning his years of struggle into something far greater.
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5. Jewel: Living in Her Car While Playing Coffee Shops
Jewel has shared that she lived in her car after losing her job when she refused a boss’s advances. During this time, she performed in coffee shops while struggling to survive. Her 1995 debut album “Pieces of You” became a global success. Today she is outspoken about mental health, resilience, and homelessness.
The singer famously lived in her car while traveling the country, playing small gigs and performing on the street. She also worked at a computer warehouse but says she was fired when she refused her boss’s advances. For a year, she was without a home but kept writing songs and appearing at coffeehouses. Her big break came by age 19, so she was lucky enough to make her way above the poverty line, finding hits, a home, and better mental health.
6. Ringo Starr: Illness, Poverty, and the Long Road to the Beatles
Born as Richard Starkey in the inner city of Liverpool, Starkey faced many obstacles as a child. His mother worked as a barmaid and housemaid. Poverty and violence plagued Starkey’s neighborhood, but things got worse for him when he contracted peritonitis after an appendectomy and had to live in a children’s hospital for one year. Soon thereafter, he contracted tuberculosis and had to spend two years in a sanatorium.
Upon release, he took on menial jobs but still attempted to pursue music. In 1962, Starr officially joined the Beatles. Despite not receiving the same praise as Paul McCartney and John Lennon, Starr was an integral member of the band and serves as a model for drummers across the world. That arc, from a Liverpool sanatorium to one of the most famous bands in history, is worth sitting with for a moment.
7. Jennifer Lopez: Sleeping on a Studio Sofa to Become a Global Icon
Lopez, a dancer, pop performer, actress, and model, was born to financially struggling Puerto Rican parents in the impoverished Castle Hill area of the Bronx. After an argument with her mom regarding college, the two took a break and JLo started couch-surfing. She remained homeless for a few months until landing a dance job in Europe.
Lopez was kicked out of her home for choosing to pursue a career in dance rather than a college education. For weeks after, she spent all of her time at the dance studio and even slept there since she could not afford another place to stay. After training in dance since she was a child, she was given the opportunity of a lifetime when she was cast as a Fly Girl dancer on the Fox show “In Living Color.” Her current wealth is estimated to be $400 million.
8. Ed Sheeran: Sleeping Under Bridges Before Selling Out Stadiums
While he’s now settled with his wife and kids, Ed Sheeran’s life wasn’t always quite so calm. The singer revealed his rougher situation in his book “A Visual Journey,” speaking on how 2008 to 2010 saw him sleeping under bridges, on the Circle Line trains, and under an arch outside of Buckingham Palace. He learned his routines of where to find safe spaces to sleep and worked busking at all hours to get his music out there.
The “Shape of You” singer has talked about his life living under bridges as a young artist. Writing in his book, Sheeran would sleep under bridges from 2008 to 2010. He would also sleep on trains and under an arch outside of the iconic Buckingham Palace. Within just a few years of those nights, Sheeran would become one of the best-selling artists in the world, filling stadiums on every continent.
What’s striking about every name on this list isn’t really the hardship itself. It’s the specific window right before everything changed, when quitting was the logical choice, the sensible move, the thing any reasonable person might have done. They didn’t. Most of them couldn’t explain exactly why, either. That stubbornness, for better or worse, is the thread connecting all of them.
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