Rock Star (formerly known as "I'd Rather Be A Rockstar") is a formerly unidentified pop rock song by the French band California, released in 1973 as a single with another song titled So Long Jo.
Search History
On May 15th, 2011, babache51, a WatZatSong user, uploaded one of their many snippets to the website. Like most of the snippets by the OP, this one was labeled as being an English rock song. They didn’t provide any information about the song, nor a longer snippet.
The song was heavily theorized to be from the 70s and from France, due to the OP speaking in French in his posts, and because of the supposed accent. Many also suggested that the song might've been recorded off of the radio, based on the abrupt start.
While having multiple YouTube uploads of the snippet by various channels, the most popular uploads were posted by Lost Music: Cold Case on July 1st, 2021, and by Ziro on March 11th, 2024.
On September 18th, 2024, a Discord channel on the FMM Discord Server for the song was created. Only five days later, user PersonOfDistraction placed a $50 bounty on the song’s solve.
On April 28th, 2025, the song was identified by WZS user ArielT as Rock Star by California after they typed “play my guitar just for you” into Filmot (a website that can find videos by the words in the captions).
Old leads and theories
It was suggested the song was made around the 1970s, and that the singer was either British or French. Most of babache51's identified songs were released in the 1970s. This was proven to be true, as the song was in-fact made in 1971, and the band behind the song is French.
One theory proposed that the vocals were those of "Ron Nowlan" from the Massachusetts band "The Pawns," though their discography listed no songs with a matching title, then afterwards, this lead was proven false after the song’s identification.
Lyrics
[Verse 1]
Working in a gas station all my life
I’d rather be a rock star any time
Pushing a broomstick from 9 to 6
I’d rather be a rock star to get my kicks
‘Cause there’s nothing I’d rather do
Than play my guitar, just for you
And I hope that one day soon
I’ll find a place inside your heart
[Pre-chorus]
(Two, three, four!)
[Chorus]
Well, I'd rather be a rock star
Well, I'd rather be a rock star
Well, I'd rather be a rock star, rather be a rock star
[Verse 2]
All my friends, they got married
They sold their dreams for a washing machine
But me, I sit here all alone
Counting the days 'til I go home
'Cause there's no one left in this whole town
To jam with when the sun goes down
No one cares about an old rock 'n' roller
Nobody but an old radio
[Pre-chorus]
(Two, three, four!)
[Chorus]
Well, I'd rather be a rock star, rather be a rock star
Well, I'd rather be a rock star, rather be a rock star
[Bridge]
And I hope that one day soon
I'll find a place inside your heart
La la la, la la la la la
La la la la la la la la la la la la
[Pre-chorus]
(Two, three, four!)
[Final chorus]
Well, I'd rather be a rock star, rather be a rock star
Well, I'd rather be a rock star, rather be a rock star
Well, I'd rather be a rock star, rather be a rock star
Well, I'd rather be a rock star, rather be a rock star
Well, I'd rather be a rock star, rather be a rock star
California
California, c. 1971. Left to right: Sherwin Ross, Robert Zettwoch, Jack Starr
California was a classic rock band from Paris, France that was active from 1971 to 1973.
The band consisted of Sherwin Rossman (Sherwin Ross) (vocals, drums), Jack Starr (guitar), and Bobby Zetwok (Robert Zettwoch) (bass).
In 1971, they released their first single, Rock Star, which included this song and one other.
In 1973, they released their second and final single, Teenager Lover / Gin Gin Woman, with two songs.
Shortly after, they disbanded and Bobby Zetwok died in 2022, but Jack Starr is still active today.
