Before he set crowds alight with his arsenal of generational dance anthems, Fatboy Slim almost went a different route—extinguishing blazes as a firefighter.
The venerated "Praise You" producer has revealed that he almost quit the music industry to pursue his dreams of becoming a fireman. According to the Darlington & Stockton Times, Slim, who spoke at a recent event for the Fire Fighters Charity, said he kicked the tires on a career pivot during times of financial strife.
"I have been in the music business pretty much all my life but there have been ups and downs and there was one particular down where everyone around was like, 'You are going to have to actually get a proper job now because you are skint.'"
"I thought about what job I would like to do and for some reason fireman just… I don’t know," Slim continued. "I just had this vision that I wanted to be a fireman."
Slim, a legendary breakbeat and acid house producer with four celebrated albums under his belt, even went as far as doing his due diligence on the medical prerequisites necessary to become a firefighter.
Fatboy Slim performs at Glastonbury 2013.
"But I did (take it) seriously and I got as far as finding out what the medical involved and was I too old and I checked how many inches my chest expansion was," he said. But then luckily I got a PRS [Performing Right Society] cheque which kept the wolf from the door and then I had another hit."
Slim said he remains a "wannabe fireman" at this juncture, but thinks he's too old at the age of 57. However, the London Fire Brigade has no age limit—just saying, Slim.
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