It turns out The Purple One’s favourite pastime comes in the form of a bat based game; but he’s not alone with his nerdy distractions. From model trains to knitting and mug collections, here’s some of music’s most unlikely hobbiests

If it wasn’t odd enough that Prince chose Lianne La Havas’ living room in Leyton to host a press conference, Prince’s passion for ping-pong revealed during his recent UK residency (and New Girl cameo) has also been an unlikely turn out.

There’s a beautifully odd symmetry in finding out a star known for his aura of otherness enjoys such a commonplace hobby – like finding out Liberace enjoyed dry stone walling. It’s the very ordinariness of it which makes it so great. It’s an insight into someone who gives very little away.

He’s not the only musician with such an unexpectedly everyday hobby however: this week in particular Wu Tang Clan’s RZA will be attempting to defend his title at the Hip-Hop Chess Federation’s celebrity tournament in California, and we also know that Steve Vai is a beekeeper, Stephen Malkmus loves Scrabble (ok, maybe not so surprising), Cherie Currie from The Runaways is an accomplished chainsaw carving artist and Faith No More’s guitarist Jim Martin became a champion pumpkin farmer.



Want some more? Here are some of music’s most unlikely hobbiests:

Table Tennis

Prince isn’t the only musician who loves a game of whiff whaff - Damon Albarn is also an avid table-based sportsman. “Everywhere I go I have to have a table tennis table. I love it; it’s a brilliant way to relax when you’re working,” he explained to the Radio Times in 2008. The Blur frontman enjoys the sport so much he even played against the Olympic British youth team.

Knitting

Many musicians have swapped fretwork for needlework in a bid to avoid unraveling (there ends the knitting puns). Kelley Deal, the lead guitarist of the Breeders, began knitting as an attempt to remain sober after years of heroin addiction and is now an avid knitter. She specialises in handbags; has released a book of handbag patterns, Bags That Rock: Knitting on the Road and also sells scarves made from sections of felted jumpers. She even led a knitting session at an ATP festival in 2009. There are other knit devotees, too. Rivers Cuomo of Weezer has tweeted that he spends his downtime knitting in bed.

Collections

We all know Lemmy collects Nazi memorabilia, you probably know Ronnie Wood is a stamp collector, and you may even know Slash collects pinball machines. But did you know that Grandmaster Flash collects mugs from every state and country he visits, and has more than 5,000 in his collection? He takes the collection very seriously too: the mugs are kept in an insured and climate-controlled storage space and he also has a small garage in Leamington Spa for all his saucers (OK, that bit we made up).



Fishing

If you haven’t seen Underwater World of Trout, Vol. 1, you might not know Roger Daltrey built the 26 acre Lakedown Trout Fishery – he even dug out his trout lake with his own bulldozer – to indulge in his passion for trout farming. “When I go fishing,” he claims, “I come away feeling like I’ve smoked half a dozen joints.” Another devoted fisherman is Mickey Melchiondo, aka Dean Ween. He launched a website called Mickey’s Guide Service and has led fishing tours off Long Beach Island, not to mention his own online fishing series called the Brownie Troop Fishing Show where you could watch him go fishing/get drunk with Butthole Surfers’ own Gibby Haynes.

Model Trains

What is it about musicians and model trains? Frank Sinatra dedicated an entire part of his Californian ranch to model trains and Johnny Cash endorsed Lionel Trains, the model train company, by singing the song below about his love for them. Neil Young went one further and became part owner of Lionel. He even invented a Trainmaster Command Control and has a 750ft setup in a 2,800ft barn on his San Francisco ranch. And in 2004, to coincide with the release of his Greendale album Young and Lionel trains released a limited edition Greendale Train Set. Rod Stewart is also a proud model enthusiast … sorry model train enthusiast. You may know him best for Da Ya Think I’m Sexy? but in the world of model trains he’s more renowned for 1:87 scale model of New York’s Grand Central Station, “Every three years Model Railroader magazine puts me on their cover, which is better than Rolling Stone.” Check him out.

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