Chris Brown likes music, but he doesn’t like to sing. In college, he played guitar and keyboards in an indie pop group — but he never did vocals. “I only sang when I really, really had to,” he explains.
These days, Chris Brown has less time for jamming. His life in Chicago is full of responsibilities — his job as a hedge fund software engineer, and his duties as a father; he and his wife, Katey, have three boys all under the age of four.
Despite how busy he is, Chris doesn’t seem to mind the extra chaos his name adds to his life. It’s a common name, and he’s used to it (in college, his financial aid got switched with a different Chris Brown’s. Another time, he received an irate call from a girl who’d been stood up by a Chris Brown. “It wasn’t me, though,” he assures.) On occasion, after showing his ID in a security line, or handing over his credit card, he’ll get an excited reaction from a Chris Brown fan. Sometimes, they ask him to do a dance or request an autograph. “I haven’t given one,” he admits. “I always sort of politely offer, but then they realize…” He trails off.
Chris knows the names of many of Chris Brown’s songs, because he sees them on the Billboard Top 100 lists that often appear on the screens in the elevators at the Sears Tower, where he works. He even admits that it was kind of cool the first time Chris Brown had a number one hit.
Still, he wouldn’t mind if Chris Brown’s career slowed down a bit. “I’d be happier if he was like Ja Rule, who was around for like a year, then faded away.” Unfortunately, with the performer’s recent success at the AMAs, it looks like Chris Brown may have to deal with even more attention than usual. He sighs. “He’s like the next Michael Jackson. So it looks like I have a good 30 years of this.”