Teen Drops Out of High School To Become Professional "Guitar Hero"

Call it The Decline of Western Civilization IV: Blake Peebles, a teenager in North Carolina, recently dropped out of high school to pursue his dream of playing music. While this sounds like an everyday occurrence, there is a catch: Peebles dropped out so he can concentrate on playing Guitar Hero with hopes of becoming good enough at hitting colored plastic buttons to play in the surprisingly-lucrative world of competitive gaming. Peebles has already won a few Hero tournaments, but so far his winnings include gift certificates, gaming equipment and 52 Chick-fil-A meals. For what it's worth, Peebles was doing poorly to begin with in school, and his parents have since hired him a private tutor. If Peebles lives up to his high-flying Guitar Hero dreams, he could earn up to $80,000 a year on the competitive circuit, though groupies should be slightly harder to come by.

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Song Stories

“Time to Pretend”

MGMT | 2008

Listening to MGMT’s breakthrough song, one might interpret it as being about the excesses of rock stardom, but it’s actually about the duo’s pet praying mantis. Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden told Rolling Stone they got the idea from the insect's jerky movements. The mantis died, but the two bandmates kept the egg sack and allowed the hundreds of eggs to hatch. “We tried to name them all, but they died after a day,” said Goldwasser, with VanWyngarden chiming in, “But the praying mantis dance inspired us.”

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