Fresh out of high school in 1994, Royce Nunley embarked on an eight-year gig as bassist for the Suicide Machines, touring Europe twice, Japan four times and playing all over the United States and Canada.

That was followed by stints as a producer, sound engineer, tour manager and bartender before trading it in for long nights in the library. Having relinquished his punk rock lifestyle, Nunley, 39, of Ferndale will graduate from Wayne State University Law School on Monday, May 18.

"Being in a moderately successful band isn't quite as glamorous as it may sound," Nunley said. "We were on the road between six and nine months a year. I was fortunate to see a lot of places and do a lot of things during that time. But we worked very hard at what we did. We toured in a van. I literally lived in that van with the rest of the band for eight years. It's hard not to want to kill the other people in the van after so long."

Burned out, Nunley left the Suicide Machines and started a short-lived band, Blueprint 76, before taking a hiatus from playing music altogether. He opened Ringside Recording Studios and Broken Spoke Records in Detroit, making a natural move to producer.

"I wrote a lot of songs for the Suicide Machines and had a habit of recording all the instruments and vocals myself before giving the songs to the rest of the band to hear," Nunley said. "I had done it so many times for my own songs before I started recording other people's music that I had a good idea of what to do. Also, the Suicide Machines worked with a very talented producer from L.A. named Julian Raymond. I learned a lot by watching him work and recording with him."

While he was producing, Nunley also was working as a sound engineer and tour manager. He did both for the Reverend Horton Heat, a rockabilly band from Texas, and was part of its European, Canadian and national tours.

In 2006, Nunley stopped touring and began putting down firmer roots, bartending at The Majestic in Midtown Detroit and working toward his bachelor's degree in Spanish, which he earned from Wayne State in 2011. The following year - with a baby on the way - he decided he no longer wanted to be dependent on bartending to make a living.

"I thought law school could give me an opportunity to have a meaningful career while hopefully providing me enough cash to send my kid to college if he chooses to go," he said.

Nunley chose Wayne Law because he wanted to stay close to Detroit, and during his first year and a half of law school he kept his bartending job at night. Now, he is a full-time student and plays in a band called Radio Burns.

While he was a second-year student, Nunley participated in the Student Trial Advocacy Program, winning the Donald E. Barris Trial Competition in fall 2013 and winter 2014. He's also held legal internships at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan and the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, a resource center for advocates seeking equal justice for the state's immigrants.

After graduation, he plans to open his own firm specializing in immigration, criminal and employment law. Although Nunley will continue to play with Radio Burns for the on-stage experience he loves, he says his current role in the music scene is "bitter old man yelling at all the new punk rockers to turn their music down."