Jon Huntsman's rock star ambitions: GOP candidates once aspired to be musician

Whether or not Jon Huntsman will face off against President Obama in the 2012 presidential race remains to be seen, but if all had gone according to plan, the 51-year-old GOP candidate would've actually been rocking a much different type of arena. As NPR is reporting, Huntsman -- a former Utah governor and Obama-appointed U.S. ambassador to China -- originally dropped out of high school to be a rock 'n' roll star with a garage band called Wizard. The man who's been described as “a conservative technocrat-optimist with moderate positions” has certainly made no secret of his adolescent passion ("My initial passion in life was to be a rock 'n' roll musician," Huntsman is quoted by The Los Angeles Times as having told graduates at the University of South Carolina). But now, his former bandmates are coming forward, telling NPR that Huntsman, a devout Mormon, found ways of adapting his passion for rock music with the guidelines of his religion.

Tags
Share
Stay in the loop!
Enter your email to receive updates on our LDS Living content