PRPG:

The Musical Careers of Three Former Child Stars

June 9, 2014

These three actors rode the waves of fame at an age when most of us were still picking bubblegum out of our braces. But once those careers slowed down, they chased a different spotlight into the music business.

Macaulay Culkin

Pizza UndergroundFor his starring role in the smash hit Home Alone, Culkin is largely considered one of the most successful child actors of all time and, unlike many of his former colleagues, he’s still wealthy enough to not have to scramble for acting gigs, affording him the chance to take roles in low-budget, high-prestige indie movies like Party Monster. He also keeps busy with projects like his band, the Pizza Underground. It performs covers of old Velvet Underground and Lou Reed songs…with many of the lyrics replaced with references to pizza. Really. The title of one song: “Take a Bite of the Wild Slice.” After getting booed offstage and having beer cans flung at them during shows in Manchester and Nottingham, the Pizza Underground cancelled the rest of a planned European tour. Instead of blaming ill-tempered audiences that weren’t amused by their pizza puns, the band said on Twitter that they had to return to the United States “to deal with a cheesemergency.”

Jenna von Oy

While Blossom star Mayim Bialik went on to earn a doctorate in neuroscience from UCLA (really) and costar on The Big Bang Theory, things went a little different for Von Oy, who played Blossom’s perky, ditzy friend Six. After costarring on UPN’s The Parkers, she briefly attended film school at USC, then branched out to country music. She self-recorded an album called Breathing Room in 2000, but couldn’t land a recording contract. (Breathing Room was self-released in 2007, but didn’t draw much attention.) Von Oy returned to acting, primarily voice work on shows like Family Guy.

Corey Feldman

With movies like The Lost Boys, Stand By Me, and The Goonies, Feldman was one of the most popular child actors of the 1980s but his fortunes turned in the 1990s. While juggling the occasional acting gig, he tried to start a music career. In 1994, he recorded an album of “New Jack Swing” songs—a style popular at the time for groups like Jodeci and Boy II Men—called Love Left. Feldman then started a rock band called Corey Feldman’s Truth Movement in the late ‘90s. All the while he dressed like his friend and idol Michael Jackson, in metal-studded leather fatigues and fedoras. He’s still recording music today. His last album, Technology Analogy, was released in 2010. Along with his Goonies costar Sean Astin appeared in the following strange music video, filmed at the home of Michael Jackson, with Feldman dancing around like Michael Jackson.