A question that Bobby Bones and Lunchbox get asked a lot is how they got their “stage names.”
Lunchbox got his name because in the 3rd grade he won a Superman lunchbox from Wal-Mart to use at school, but his mom told him no. He put it under his shirt to try and take it and as they were about to leave the store, she asked if there was something under his shirt. He said no but when she checked and saw the lunchbox, he claimed he had no idea how it got there. She made him return it to the manager and they’ve made fun of him for it ever since.
Bones got his when he was 17 and begged for a job at a radio station. They wouldn’t hire him for on-air and just to clean and switch out Rick D’s Top 40 on Sundays. Before his first shift, they fired somebody and told him it was his chance to go on-air, but he couldn’t use his real name and could either go by Bobby Z or Bobby Bones. He thought they were both stupid, but he chose Bones because it sounded more like a pirate or human. He tried to change it a few times but was always connected to the last place.
They also shared the origin story of where some other famous stage names came from!
- Post Malone. His real name is Austin Post and when he was 14 years old, he needed a name for his mix tape, so he plugged his name into one of those random name generators and Post Malone came out.
- MC Hammer was born Stanley Kirk Burrell and got his nickname from his childhood job with the Oakland A’s. The owner at the time loved him because he was a great bat boy and danced in the parking lot and he got the nickname because he looked like Hank Aarron.
- Lady Gaga’s real name is Stefani Germanotta, and she got her stage name from the Queen song “Radio Ga Ga.”
- Elton John’s real name is Reginald Dwight and he got his stage name from combining two names of his bandmates.
- Snoop Dogg’s real name is Calvin Cordozar, and he got the nickname because he looked like the cartoon, Snoopy.
- Whoopi Goldberg was born Karen Johnson and got her stage name because she had a tendency to fart and it led to friends calling her Whoopi.
- Brie Larson’s real name is Brianne Desaulniers and got her stage last name because it was her American Girl Dolls last name.
- Vin Diesel was born Mark Sinclair and got his stage name because his friends called him Vin for Vincent and Disel sounded tough and strong.
- Bruno Mars real name is Peter Jean Hernadez and got his stage name because Mars sounded cool and energetic and Bruno from the wrestler, Bruno Sammartino.
- LL Cool J’s real name is James Todd Smith but started calling himself LL Cool J and Playboy Mikey D in hopes it would help girls think they were cool and in a band.