Nooooooah. No, that was a big joke in the family. When I was 16, 17, I started drifting away from everything else and picking up a guitar, and it was like, 'What are you doing? You can't sing and you can't play a guitar', right up to the day we got signed by Rough Trade. And then it was like, 'Go on play us a song', whereas before it was, 'Shut up, fucking racket.'
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Family and peers mocked the speaker's early music efforts until success changed their attitude.
- In plain terms
- People laughed at me for playing guitar until I got signed, then they wanted to hear me.
- What can you take from it?
- External validation often shifts perceptions of talent and effort.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Who doubted your talents?
- How does success change how people treat you?
Another view
It reduces complex artistic motivation to external approval.
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