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Never Meet Your Idols
There’s no quicker road to disillusionment than meeting the artists you adore
Never Meet Your Idols! This statement is not categorically true, but the question is, would you risk it?
Intentionally or not, we create narratives in our heads about the artists who’ve made the records we love and what it would be like to meet them.
Invariably, no interaction can play out exactly as we’d have imagined, or in the scenarios we conceive. I wanted to interview Tom Araya, and instead I walked Kerry King to a supermarket to buy vodka. Definitely not on my bingo card.
The simplest way to consider this is that the construct we’ve created about the albums and the artists who’ve created them is independent of any factual reality. This is a good place to be — the fantasy is entirely in your control. The advice here is that you must know how to preserve this construct. Something about the chase is better than the catch…
You have to care an awful lot to start with
And if you’re here, reading this, then chances are you can picture what I’m talking about.
The bands we listen to and the records we hold in such high regard resonate with us in ways that are often difficult to articulate (yet music writers will always strive…
