Terry Chimes, founding drummer of the legendary punk band The Clash, has traded his drumsticks for a stethoscope.
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Now 68, Chimes is running a chiropractic clinic in Essex, England. He opened the practice in 1994 and has been treating patients ever since. The musician recently spoke about his dramatic career shift during an appearance on The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X.
"When I was a kid, I loved health and disease. I wanted to be a vet, actually," Chimes said. "But three things put me off. One, the patients bite. Two, you spend all day killing animals. And three, they've got one of the highest suicide rates. So I thought, I'll stay away from that."
He considered medical school and even went on interviews. But something didn't feel right. Instead, Chimes saw the wild freedom of rock and roll and decided to chase it.
"I looked at The Rolling Stones and thought, those guys must be having the most fun it's possible to have," he said.
Life as The Clash Drummer
That fun came in the form of The Clash, a band that helped define British punk in the late 1970s. Chimes played with the group in three separate stints: from July to November 1976, January to April 1977, and again from May 1982 to February 1983.
The group fused punk with reggae, ska, funk and rockabilly, and left a lasting mark on global music. Their 1979 album London Calling was named the best album of the 1980s by Rolling Stone. The band achieved further success with Combat Rock in 1982, which featured the hit single "Rock the Casbah."
But for Chimes, the music industry eventually lost its luster.
"After 15 years of that, I kind of had enough of being on the road and traveling and all the craziness," he said. "It's full of crazy people, the music business. I was the only normal person there."
Known for clean living, Chimes avoided drugs, alcohol and smoking. He followed a vegetarian lifestyle and always leaned toward health and wellness. Eventually, that mindset brought him back to his original passion.
"Chiropractic made much more sense to me," he said.
A New Calling
The turning point came during a bowling outing in Sun City while touring with Black Sabbath. After three hours of play, Chimes' shoulder locked up.
"They said they would find a chiropractor. This guy came in, cracked all my joints and I could move my arm again. It made a big impression," he told The Guardian in 2010.
Chimes enrolled in chiropractic school in Bournemouth and initially kept his identity a secret. That changed when the re-release of "Should I Stay or Should I Go" shot to number one in the UK. Chimes appeared in the music video, and classmates quickly made the connection.
Since opening his practice, Chimes has treated a range of patients, including fans of The Clash and musicians referred by former bandmates Mick Jones and Paul Simonon.
