The School of Greatness - 573 Keep Your Head Up with Andy Grammer

Episode Date: December 7, 2017

"IT’S A SWEET DEFIANCE TO FOLLOW YOUR PURPOSE.” Music is something that’s always been in my life. I love it. I used to sing in school, and I’m fascinated with people who pushed through the toughest times of the art to make their dreams become a reality. I had the pleasure of interviewing Andy Grammer on a past episode and there’s a lot he’s said that has stuck with me. When the universe seems like it’s telling you to stop and give up, that’s when you have to push even harder and let it know your serious. That’s exactly what Andy Grammer did. His dedication brought him from busking on the streets of Santa Monica to being a multi-platinum artist. I hope you’re as inspired by his story as I was, on Episode 573.

This is 5-Minute Friday! Oh, we've got a big one today, guys. I was enamored with our guest today and the adversity that he overcame to achieve his dream. Now, for those that don't know who Andy Grammer is, you are in for a beautiful treat. He is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. His debut album, Andy Grammer, was released in 2011 and swamped the hit singles Keep Your Head Up and Find By Me. He became the first male pop star in a decade since John Mayer in 2002 to reach the top 10 at Adult Pop Radio on his first two singles. And that is just the beginning, my friends.

Like, keep your head up. Even just the title, you're like, I don't know. And what was funny is that was, I think people could feel the reason that that one did well i just lost my mom she passed away about eight years ago and that song came from being on the street without getting any any real like acknowledgement success no one's seeing you for what you think you are that period of my life i remember just like i was like rehearsing in my Santa Monica apartment. And there was a knock on the door. And I went out.

And there was a little sticky note. That said literally. It said give up the dream. Your voice is terrible. And I remember. And there was nobody even there. Oh my gosh. There wasn't even someone I could be like.

Oh well you're just. You just suck. Like you're just the worst person ever. It was just like the world being like. Give up. Like stop. And. Wow.. It was just like the world being like, uh. Give up. Like, stop. And so I was out on the street doing my thing,

and there was a whole day that went by where I didn't get any dollars. And I was like, wow, man. This is really intense. And I had my little cart. Zero dollars. Zero dollars. The whole day. I don't know if it was like overcast or something or no one was coming,

but it's such a funny thing. Such like a sweet defiance to follow your purpose even when you're – the only reason you're allowed to be there is because it's freedom of speech. Right? So you're there. And you have a permit. Yeah, you have a permit. I'm paid. You pay like –

Like $35 for the year to be able to just have freedom of speech with my guitar. And I'm singing to no one. Wow. And people that are there are just not interested and they're walking by. I like packed all my stuff up. Just like, man, amazing. Wow. Okay.

And I'm leaving and I looked up at the sky and I was like, your move, whatever's up there. I literally will never leave. So if you want me to be here in 50 years, just like singing, because this is the only opportunity that I have, I'm going hard at it, then I'll be here. Like it's your, your call.

And I do believe there is something about like, once you state your intentions and once you put it out there into the universe of like where you're going, then some things go like the secretary at the desk of the universe is like, ah, no, he's serious. We can give it to him. He's not going to leave. Like we should probably it to him now. He's not going to leave.

We should probably give it to this guy. He's just going to be annoying. Andy's going to be annoying until something. And so after that, I went home and then I wrote that song.

Wow, man. But I do believe, you know, my mom had passed away. I had zero dollars. I was living in a pretty crappy apartment. And so out of that,

if you hear that guy sing Keep Your Head Up, then you're like, oh, I'll listen to what you have that guy saying keep your head up then you're like oh i'll listen to what you have to say go ahead what do you got it wasn't like everything in your life was good yeah it wasn't like uh some sort of trust fund baby that was like everybody it's cool yeah yeah you there's there's pain is is something that grounds a lot of a lot of the positive stuff of course you need them both to make it feel real. Wow. I do love to talk about this because I don't know if I heard enough of this when I was coming up.

So like in any business or art form, one of my favorite quotes is, the reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind the scenes with everybody else's highlight reels. So like you go through your life and you're like, man, i'm on year three out here and did prince do this right you know like it was prince on the street i don't all i've seen of prince is on the cover of billboard right and i feel like maybe he just like was born on billboard right i like to try and be as open as possible because i think there's probably a lot of people out there that are really good and have something awesome to share with the world and need to know that I didn't just go like oh it's working I went my cover of this band that I think I like makes people stop for 30 seconds and then I slowly was like I going to write 10 songs that sound like that one. And out of those 10, none of them are good,

but the 10th one is kind of intriguing, so I'm going to write another 10. Like that one, yeah. Yeah, I like this one. So then you write another 10, and guess what? Number 7 of those 10, you're getting people to at least take a look. Clap.

And just over and over and over and over again so there's a relentlessness to whatever greatness that i think is really really important