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

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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