Talented People
I think one of my most favorite things to do is to listen to talented people speak about their craft, or even better to watch them work. What brings this about is that I once more heard Billy Joel speak to Howard Stern. As usual, Billy was brutally honest in the assessment of his work and his talents. He was listening to ‘Honesty’ being played for him as Howard said how much he loved the song, and Billy was making fun of how he sounded. “I hate it!” He said. I also love hearing about the inspiration behind the songs. For ‘Big Shot’ he said that he imagined a dialogue between Mick and Bianca Jagger being hungover and Mick yelling her down. Good stuff, and I’m also fascinated by how a guy like that handles sudden wealth and fame. Billy Joel like Townsend and Springsteen and so many other truly creative people suffers with major depression issues. At the start of his successful run, he tried to kill himself by drinking furniture polish. Crazy. A little later on, we watched a Springsteen i...