Terry Chimes of The Clash on His Surprising Career Change

Terry Chimes has revealed how he gave up the ‘craziness’ of the music industry to beome a chiropractor.

The musician, 68, is best known for being the drummer for The Clash from the late 1970s to the early 1980s when he was replaced by Topper Headon.

After he left The Clash for the final time in 1982, Terry drummed for some other bands before opening a chiropractic clinic in 1994.

Speaing about the surprising career change on The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X, Terry admitted he thinks he’s the only ‘normal’ person in the music industry.     

He said: ‘When I was a kid, I loved health and disease. I wanted to be a vet, actually, and three things put me off.

Terry Chimes has revealed how he gave up the ‘craziness’ of the music industry to beome a chiropractor.

The musician, 68, (pictured in 1982) is best known for being the drummer for The Clash from the late 1970s to the early 1980s when he was replaced by Topper Headon 

‘One, that the patients bite you. Two, you spend all day killing animals. And three, they’ve got one of the highest suicide rates. So, I thought, ‘Well, I’ll stay away from that.’ 

‘I thought about medicine, went for an interview at medical schools, but it just didn’t seem right for me. And then I looked at The Rolling Stones, and thought, ‘You know, those guys must be having the most fun it’s possible to have.’ 

‘So I thought, ‘I’ll just do that then.’ So I joined a band, which in time became The Clash. We did very well and played with lots of other bands as well.’

The drummer eventually grew tired of life on the road and wanted to settle down and live a healthier lifestyle.

He said: ‘But after 15 years of that, I kind of had enough of being on the road and travelling and all the craziness. 

‘It’s full of crazy people, the music business – I was the only normal person there!

‘And when it came to having a new career, by then, I was a non-drug taking, non-smoking, non-drinking, vegetarian, health nut. So, chiropractic made much more sense. Healthy. So, I went that way.’

Surprised to hear of the career change, host Chris said he wasn’t sure if he could give up the rock star lifestyle if it had been him.

After he left The Clash for the final time in 1982, Terry drummed for some other bands before opening a chiropractic clinic in 1994 (pictured in 2012) 

The Clash performed from 1976 to 1986 and released six studio albums. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003

Well, fame is a drug,’ Terry replied. ‘And you obviously are addicted to that drug. But fame is a drug. It’s very hard to walk away from it. 

‘But the funny thing is, if you walk away, it’ll come running after you. If you chase it, it runs away. 

‘It’s a pretty strange thing; a bit like gambling. If you’re desperate to win, you won’t win. If you don’t care if you win, you’ll win.’

The Clash performed from 1976 to 1986 and released six studio albums. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003.  

Tune into The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X weekdays from 6:30am – 10am and on Global Player