10 Musicians Who Hated Being Famous

From the moment he started playing music, Rivers Cuomo had big dreams of being a rock star. Starting out in hair metal outfits, Cuomo's obsession with Nirvana led to him making a more authentic version of himself with Weezer. Once the band's debut album gave them hits like "Buddy Holly" and "Say It Ain't So," Cuomo finally started to realize what he had gotten himself into.

With the constant grind of touring weighing on him, Cuomo withdrew completely after the band's first tour and even enrolled at Harvard University to cool out from the lifestyle he was dealing with. When he finally came back to the band, their followup album Pinkerton was full of tracks detailing Cuomo's inability to function, from his uncomfortable nature around groupies to his hopeless romantic side trying to break through the surface.

Though the album is heralded as a classic now, the public tore these personal songs to shreds, leaving Cuomo to fold the group for 5 years and eventually turning to a more pop-rock sound on later releases. Rivers may still not be all that comfortable with his own star power, but that loner style of pop-flavored rock has become the template for many different rock acts that emerged in the coming decades.