Random Childhood Homes Of Famous Musicians (16 items)

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  (#13) Taylor Swift

  • 29

  Taylor Swift grew up on a Christmas tree farm in Wyomissing, PA. She began to make music at a young age, performing in local talent competitions and even singing the Star-Spangled Banner at a Philadelphia 76ers game when she was 11 years old.

  Her family had a musical background - her grandmother was a professional opera singer. In the hopes of Taylor establishing a country music career, the Swift family moved from Pennsylvania to Nashville, TN, when she was a teenager.

  The Pennsylvania home was last sold in 2013, and Century 21 Gold Agent Lisa Tiger’s pitch was careful to make sure potential buyers knew the home’s musical history:

  A Grand 3 story Classical revival home has been painstakingly restored and was home to Taylor Swift, who lived here for 10 yrs before moving to Nashville to become a star!…The formal DR leads to a bright Study with FP (Taylor played her guitar here)…
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  (#1) Johnny Cash

  • Dec. at 71 (1932-2003)

  Country music legend Johnny Cash grew up in a New Deal agrarian community in Dyess, AR, which was established in 1934. His family moved to the new town when Cash was just a small child.

  The Great Depression caused great financial difficulties for Cash’s family, and he spent his early years working in the cotton fields on the family farm. His experience with growing up in poverty in the Deep South is a consistent theme in his music. His 1959 song “Five Feet High And Rising” describes a traumatic childhood experience in Dyess, where a terrible flood forced his family to leave their home.

  Cash's family home, Farm No. 266, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.
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  (#3) Kurt Cobain

  • Dec. at 27 (1967-1994)

  After a confident introduction to the real estate market in 2013, Kurt Cobain’s childhood home in Aberdeen, WA, stood vacant for five years, much to the confusion and chagrin of the upscale Beverly Hills firm trying to sell it. Despite the frequent price drops and abundance of relics from Cobain’s youth, no one was buying. People began to wonder if the house was haunted.

  Though it serves as a priceless museum of Cobain’s life, the dingy old cottage still carries the tremendous weight of his memory. Cobain lived a normal, well-adjusted childhood until his parents divorced when he was 9 years old. He became an angry, troubled teenager who lived a transient lifestyle accompanied by substance use and petty crime.

  Cobain left the house in 1987, but his family diligently left his contributions to the space intact, such as the graffiti from his childhood bedroom. After a $300,000 price drop, the home was finally purchased in 2018.
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  (#9) Ray Charles

  • Dec. at 74 (1930-2004)

  Ray Charles Robinson was born in Albany, GA. His family moved to Greenville when he was a young infant, and he lived in this house until he began attending the School for Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine, FL, at the age of 7. At the school, he learned to read and play music, and to write and arrange it in Braille. His mother passed when he was 15.

  The house was small and rustic, with no electricity or plumbing. The Robinson family would pump well water by hand, and they used a wood-burning stove. The house decayed over the years, and was slated for demolition in 2006 - until Elesta Pritchett, the mayor of Greenville and Charles’ childhood friend, campaigned to buy and repair the historic landmark.

  The house was restored and became open to the public in 2009. In front of the house, there is a commemorative plaque celebrating Ray Charles’ memory. Pritchett provides personal tours by appointment.
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  (#7) John Lennon

  • Dec. at 40 (1940-1980)

  Called “Mendips,” the home that John Lennon grew up in was owned by his aunt, Mimi Smith. After a tumultuous falling out between his absentee father and remarried mother, Lennon went to live with his aunt, who he regarded as a mother.

  Lennon was a precocious troublemaker with a penchant for grotesque drawings and pranks. He was eventually able to harness this energy into music, as he began playing in various bands throughout high school. When he was 16, he struck up a friendship with a young Paul McCartney, which resulted in their long and lucrative songwriting career as The Beatles.

  Mendips was added to the National Trust after Yoko Ono purchased the property in 2002. It is available for tour, alongside Paul McCartney's childhood home.
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  (#6) Paul McCartney

  • 76

  Paul McCartney lived in this home throughout his teenage and young adult years, and this house is often regarded as the birthplace of The Beatles.

  Following the passing of his mother when he was 14 years old, McCartney developed a friendship with future bandmate John Lennon, who also lost his mother at a young age. McCartney taught himself the Spanish guitar, trumpet, and piano while living here, and some early Beatles tracks such as "When I'm Sixty-Four" were written and composed there.

  The house is owned by the National Trust, and has retained or restored its original interiors from McCartney's youth. It is available for tour, alongside John Lennon's childhood home at Mendips.

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