Rockstar Mentality

My good friend Nate sent me an interesting quote today from Chris Martin, leader of Coldplay:

"There's this glamorized ideal of arrested development in music particularly with Kurt Cobain and Morrison, and all the great fallen idols. There's this one side of you and and side of musical culture, which tells you that you're not supposed to move in your life at all. But if you look at the greatest artists, like Dylan, that's not true. The whole rock star myth, which is 40 years old and basically nonsense, has nothing to do with being a rock star. Everybody gets trashed and breaks things. By that standard, plummers and heating engineers are just as rock and roll as rock stars. You've gotta follow your own beliefs; it's all about freedom."

I think that is a great viewpoint. I have already met lots of people in CA who think that because I moved here to play music it naturally follows that my greatest ambitions are to play angry songs, drink lots of booze, and have lots of promiscuous sex. They are quite surprised when I reply that I spent the night playing Wii, or playing Scrabble (I got demolished last night), or singing 'Nsync karaoke.

I would love to have the success of Nirvana or the Doors. But I would also be happy with a one paragraph blurb on Wikipedia if it means I get to make good music and live the life I want to, pursuing freedom.