Okay, so yesterday I went all focus schmocus and "I can achieve amazing things!"on your asses. Sorry about that. It was probably a bit nauseating. I am trying to achieve something with this year of sobriety though. What is it? Ask anyone who knows me and they'll tell you I'm constantly banging on about one thing: rock stardom aka "the music" (actually I have about three broken records on rotation - the music, yoga and the benefits of healthy eating - now joined by a fourth: non-drinking. I'm a bore. I apologise. I'll work on shutting up in future.). So yeah, I wanna be a rock star. Have since I saw Joan Jett on TV when I was three. However, somehow in the 29 years since, except for a few mild flutters of success in that direction, I haven't yet managed to get around to doing it. I've been working on it for sure, and pretty constantly really. But in between my bursts of rock 'n' roll crusading, I have allowed other valid and bullshitty things to distract me. Oo distractions. Yes that theme again. As I've said, alcohol is a distraction for me. It bulldozes me off course. It depresses me (literally). Remove the alcohol and things get simpler. It doesn't make the process of becoming a rock star any easier, but it does give me a better chance of being able to carry out the plethora of tiny tasks involved in promoting my tunes. And believe me there's shitloads of them.
Anyway, I have in the past been (dim-wittedly) surprised to discover that a number of my superstar heroes are also famous alcohol abstainers. But then recently it all started to make sense. Superstars are hyper-driven, hyper-focused individuals. Sloppiness is not an option if you want to get to the top. And obliterating your brain and your body with alcohol is definitely sloppy. I remember reading a quote from Fab Moretti (drummer of The Strokes), where he said something like "You have to be meticulous with things in life, otherwise you fuck shit up". Here is a short list of some of my favourite non-drinking superstars: people who have been meticulous, and didn't fuck shit up (well, not in terms of releasing records anyway):
Pharrell Williams
David Bowie
Ian Brown (from The Stone Roses)
Prince
And while we're on the subject of making something of yourself (myself), here's something else to get you thinking:
Chin-chin peoples...
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