The Life of a Musician: The Gift and the Curse

There are many advantages in having artistic talents. The inspiration of creating music is invaluable, and playing music in front of people who enjoy your tunes is priceless. But it does seem that there are disadvantages also. We often here of the life of a "rockstar" and several negative attributes can be attributed to this kind of lifestyle. For instance, drugs seem to come with the territory and being a musician often produces an incredible ego.

I speak from first hand experience. The rush of having an incredible show subsequently leads to free shots, groupies, afterparties, more beer, more women and the list goes on and on....

Moreover, it is very difficult to separate these musical "side effects" from the industry. In fact, the gifts and the curses seem very intrinsic. What is frustrating is it doesn't have to be that way for musicians. I estimate in the ethers of creativity, there must be some force that induces negative pitfalls that musicians often fall into.

Addictions often are just a price of being a musician. The wear and tear of gigging, the hard work that is put in practice, and the late nights in the studio often produces enough stress (even though it's fun) whereas one is more susceptible to substance abuse.

What I'm learning (a tough lesson indeed) is we as musicians have to run the music and not let the music run us. Perhaps it's our own thoughts that push us into these sticky situations and lifestyles. Furthermore, before we were musicians, we were humans and still are humans first.

If you really look at it, we choose what kind of lifestyle we want to live even if some occupations birth circumstances that may sway one to follow a said lifestyle. Musicians, please read the previous sentence again.

Finally, maybe we can learn from Eminem who stated in the Detroit Metro Times:

"I talk to Elton a lot. We became friends and I talk to him about things, career wise. And he had a substance abuse problem in the past. So when I first wanted to get sober, I called him and spoke to him about it because, you know, he's somebody who's in the business and can identify and relate to the lifestyle and how hectic things can be. He understands like the pressure and any other reasons that you wanna come up with for doing drugs, you know. Me and him have had similar lives and stuff. So I reached out to him and told him, "Look, I'm going through a problem and I need your advice."

Main point being, don't be afraid to get some help. As musicians, making music is what we do but at the end of the night, we decide who we are.