Atten-SHUN! Ten Musicians Who Served In the Military

Some real surprises here, kids

Kathy Copeland Padden
7 min readFeb 5, 2023
Yes, but can you sing?

It’s pretty mindblowing when you consider how many rebellious rock and rollers were in the armed forces. And it’s also pretty unsurprising that a good chunk of this list sucked at it and was discharged early.

Everyone knows about Elvis’ stint in the Army, but how about Jerry Garcia or Ice-T? Yep. Both vets.

Many of these guys found themselves in uniform to avoid a jail sentence. Personally, I think I would’ve picked jail. Probably because I was a teenage Navy girlfriend and saw that shit up close and personal. It wasn’t pretty.

So, without further ado, here are a few musicians who answered Uncle Sam’s call willingly or unwillingly.

Jerry Garcia

I was in the Army, man. Far out.

In 1960, the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia decided the Army sounded better than jail time for stealing his mom’s car. It's an understatement to say Jerry wasn’t cut out for military life. Like, at all.

The hippie icon was described as “unreliable, irresponsible, immature, unwilling to accept authority, and completely lacking in soldierly

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Kathy Copeland Padden
Kathy Copeland Padden

Written by Kathy Copeland Padden

is a music fanatic, classic film aficionado, and history buff surfing the End Times wave like a boss. Come along!

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