Van Morrison's Childhood Dream Job Had Nothing to Do With Music 

Not many recording artists can claim to have enjoyed a successful career spanning seven decades – Van Morrison is one of them. Born in Northern Ireland in 1945, he began playing at an early age and graduated to the scene via the ranks of the rock band Them.

In 1967, Morrison began his solo career. He has won two Grammy Awards and penned numerous critically acclaimed songs, but you might be surprised to learn that the young Morrison's ambitions lay in an entirely different direction.

MORRISON'S CHILDHOOD ASPIRATIONS

Morrison grew up with a love of music. His father owned an impressive record collection, and one of Morrison's fondest memories is of his dad taking him on weekly trips to a local record shop. Despite this, he apparently never had it in his head that he was going to become a musician himself. Speaking in an interview with The Guardian, he explained: "When I was a kid, I was singing in the pram, apparently. But I didn't really know – when I was at school, I wanted to be a vet. Actually, one of the teachers said I was going to be a singer. One day he was going round the class, and he said, 'This guy at the back is going to be a singer.' And I said, 'Me?' He said, 'Yeah. You're going to be a singer.'"

Where did the idea to be a vet come from? In a 2019 interview with Ireland's RTE, the singer recalled: "The teacher asked me, and I said I wanted to be a vet. I had a dog, and it just came from that really." Morrison fans will instantly recall his majestic 1974 album, Veedon Fleece. The singer had been living in the USA for seven years at that time and wrote the songs for that record during a healing trip back to Ireland. The LP’s striking cover photography by Tom Collins features Morrison crouched on a lawn before the Sutton Castle Hotel, squatting between two large Irish Wolfhounds. 

WHY HE DECIDED TO STICK TO SINGING

A vet he may have wanted to be, but fate had other ideas. In that same Guardian interview, Morrison stated: "Singing is my profession – there is no plan B. When I heard Goodnight Irene by Lead Belly, with Sonny Terry on harmonica, that was it. Everything else went out the window."

The American folk blues singer Lead Belly was one of the many artists Morrison was introduced to growing up. It seems we have him to thank for the many fine records Morrison has given us.

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