We live in this age where everybody wants to be a star. They want to be famous. Unfortunately they do not really want to do anything creative or purposeful in order to be famous. It is an end in itself.
Yet the irony is that fame kills creativity and eats people alive. It destroys them.
Rock music is littered with the crumpled results.
So many Rock Stars started off brightly, caring about their music, trying to perfect it, to have it recognised as good music. Many of them started out with ideals and were ordinary people.
Then success kicks in, the money, adulation and stardom.
They begin to think they are someone special, someone who is better than everyone else. This is boosted by sycophants. They become arrogant.
They begin to drink or take prodigious amounts of drugs to cope with the pressure. They have to step through a door and out on to a stage to perform. The expectations are enormous. Because the public have paid big they expect massive.
They begin to drink and take drugs in order to cope with the come-down from performance – the highs of a great show or the lows of a flop.
They begin to believe the hype – they deserve it.
The creative force dries up – they are divorced from the natural well that they sourced and the level of expectation eats them away. They can’t live up to expectations. It creates panic. Their subsequent work is poor or non-existent. They are hounded by paparazzi and fans.
Their life falls apart. They become a shambling wreck, a has-been, an alcoholic, a druggie, or even worse – they become an arrogant, swaggering superstar who believes their own hype – living off the nostalgia of past success.
Many just commit suicide or die from the excesses.
Stardom is not a pleasant place to be. There’s a price to pay.