Having worked in the music industry for many years, I had the privilege of meeting and being involved with some of the greatest rock acts in the world. In more recent times I’ve absorbed the autobiographies and biographies of the world’s great rock stars, and gained an in-depth view of their world from VH1’s Behind the Music or by reading Rolling Stone Magazine. Here are some of the lessons I have learned from the world of rock and roll.
One of the most memorable moments from my radio days was promoting the Guns N’ Roses tour of Australia. The highlight for me was being in the radio station studio in the wee hours of the morning with Slash, a bottle of bourbon and his guitar. There were only a couple of us there while one of the world’s great guitarists did his thing.
In his autobiography1, Slash wrote about how he went to Beverley Hills High School with Lenny Kravitz. They crossed paths many years later backstage at the American Music Awards when Guns N’ Roses were at their peak. At the time Lenny was working on ‘Fields of Joy’ from the Mama Said album and asked Slash if he was interested in playing the solo. At the recording studio Slash was warming up by playing one of his own riffs when Lenny heard it and asked him what it was. Slash said ‘I’m just warming up, it’s just something I play.’ Lenny asked him to bring it into the studio and see what they could do with it. Lenny was so happy with the first take, he was ready to call it a day. Slash wanted to a couple more takes but Lenny preferred first takes recorded when the person isn’t thinking too much. That piece became the guitar riff for Lenny’s hit ‘Fields of Joy’. They enjoyed the experience so much that they ended up recording another song together and ‘Always on the Run’ was the result of that.
LESSON: The lesson here is that you should always be experimenting and trying new things. Quite often Slash would sit down with his guitar and spend hours experimenting, not to write a new song but just to see where the notes would take him. He talks about a number of occasions where these impromptu warm up sessions have become the basis for a great song. The same thing can be applied to each of us no matter what our endeavour. We should always be exploring new ways to do things. It is a critical element in the creative process.
Nirvana went down in history as one of the most influential bands of the early 1990s after introducing Seattle Rock to the world and starting a whole new genre of rock music. Love them or hate them, they are a force in rock. Fortunately for Nirvana, people loved them and they had a massive following. At the time they went completely against the grain. Lead singer Kurt Cobain famously said, ‘I’d rather be hated for who I am than be loved for who I am not.’
LESSON: When you exercise your creative spirit you will undoubtedly be doing things differently to everyone else. You might have a different point of view, you might try new things or you might stand up for an idea against others. People are going to disagree with your idea, your thinking or your opinion. But as Kurt Cobain found, it’s better to be disliked for your ideas and have integrity than to adhere to everybody else’s thinking just to be liked. Many great leaders had to back themselves and in doing so have disappointed others. But many times the people who were disappointed either came around to the leaders way of thinking or in one way or another had to live with this new idea or concept.
Jimi Hendrix, one of the greatest rock guitarists ever, said, ‘I’ve been imitated so well, I’ve heard people copy my mistakes.’ There’s no question Jimi Hendrix played the guitar his own way. His sound and his style, were so imaginative, inventive and electric. He was simply something else.
LESSON: You have two choices, you either imitate or you innovate. Jimi Hendrix was an innovator. In order to really exercise your own creative spirit you must strive to innovate. There is always a new way of approaching things. Even though Jimi Hendrix was a complete innovator in his guitar playing, people like Slash, Keith Richards, and José González, have all found their own style and way to be innovative. Johnny Cash had his own style and because of his unwavering belief in both it and his own thinking he defied record companies, promoters and labels and went on to become the legend he is. The challenge is to constantly look at what we’re doing and think, ‘How can I innovate in this area?’ You need to constantly think of what else you could do differently. You will, if persistent, find a new approach. That’s where the rewards are. Not only in a monetary sense but also in terms of recognition and satisfaction.
The Rolling Stones are rock and roll royalty and still sell out stadiums throughout the world. When Mick Jagger was asked what the secret was to the longevity of the band, he said ‘It’s quite simple, I don’t tell Keith how to play guitar and Keith doesn’t tell me how to sing.’
LESSON: For any group of people to truly function well and generate the right creative spirit you must respect each person’s ideas. Sometimes, instead of listening to other people’s ideas and thinking how we can build on them, we critique their thoughts and stifle the creative spirit of the group. The Rolling Stones have been together for over 40 years which is testament to the fact that this is a lesson worth learning.
Aerosmith is another great rock band who continue to generate incredible album sales and sell out stadiums around the world. They’ve been through their hard times, like most rock and roll bands, but they’ve successfully come out the other side. Joe Perry and Steve Tyler are the brains behind the song-writing for Aerosmith. On VH1’s Behind the Music2, Joe Perry talked about one of them will have an idea for a new track and the other will start playing around with it to produce a resemblance of a song.
They’ll then produce lyrics and a song is made. Joe Perry said during the interview, he quite often would arrive at the studio with a couple of guitar licks which resembled the base of a chorus. He’ll play his rough concept to Steve Tyler who will start to bebop and scat. At this point it’s not actually lyrics, it’s more experimentation as he hums and scats a potential melody that might hook some of Joe Perry’s ideas together. Once the basis of a melody is created, they’ll then set about producing some lyrics. This process can happen in an hour or it could happen over a couple of months. In fact, the 2006 Annual Country Music Association award winning song ‘Believe’, was written over a period of 6 months by Ronnie Dunn from Brooks and Dunn and legendary song writer Craig Wiseman from Nashville. It took a number of sessions and 6 months to write a song that will go down in history as one of the greats in country music. In fact the song was written in the barn on Ronnie Dunn’s property. This is generally how song writing partnerships work. One of the partners brings in a concept for a lyric or a melody and it’s then workshopped.
There are a lot of great songwriting partnerships like Bon Jovi, Elton John and Bernie Taupin, where one part of the duo writes the melody and the other writes the lyrics.
LESSON: The Creative Problem Solving Institute3 in New York claims that by having more than one person involved in a creative session you can generate up to 80 per cent more ideas. You don’t even have to be in the same room, city, state or country to be able to collaborate with others. You could brainstorm over the web using iChat, Skype or one of the myriad of other online options that allow you to talk and even video conference. The simple process of collaborating written about in so many of the biographies or autobiographies of today’s great rock stars. Ronnie Wood, Slash, Anthony Kiedis from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and many others collaborate when writing the anthems of today’s rock generation.
There are people all over the world having killer ideas while they are walking the dog, in the shower or in their office. The sad thing is these ideas will never see the light of day because people never had the courage, didn’t have the confidence, or lacked the determination to make the first step. Bon Jovi are one of the modern era’s great chameleons. They’ve managed to change their look and style of music numerous times over the last three decades topping the charts, filling stadiums and being mobbed by fans wherever they go. On a television interview on Australia’s 60 Minutes4, Jon Bon Jovi said, ‘I was never going to be a coulda, shoulda, woulda kind of guy. Too many people say I could have done that, for me I say lets go!’
LESSON: If you’ve got a great idea then take the first step. Don’t be one of these people who leave great ideas in the shower. Be one of the people who has a great idea in the shower, towels off and does something about it. There is true power in taking the first step and doing something about a great idea.
If there’s something you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I am a great fan of the band ZZ Top. They are a remarkable band with their own unique, innovative sound. Billy Gibbons, their guitarist, said, ‘My discussion with Keith Richards about the creative process led me to believe that there’s an invisible presence of a stream of ever flowing creativity that we overhear—all you have to do is put up the antenna and dial it in. This presence allows you to maintain your sense of origin and move forward.’ This is the basis of every great writer in rock and roll and the greatest rock songs came from a moment when someone saw, heard or felt something and started to write.
LESSON: There are great ideas around us 24/7, you just have to have your antenna up and dial into them. There are great ideas in every conversation you have, there are great ideas in the passing traffic, and there are great ideas when you are watching or reading autobiographies. Instead of sitting in a coffee shop and playing with your mobile phone, take a look around and observe what’s happening. When you’re sitting on a bus a plane or a train, look around, ponder and let your imagination go. When you’re watching a movie or listening to music, tune into the message. Keep a journal close by and jot down thoughts, quotes and ponderings that could turn into an idea. Listen to what your friends are talking about or what’s happening in their lives, what they’re up to, what they’re experiencing, what they love, what they hate, and how that can relate to you or your company. A true competitive edge happens when you have your antenna up and you dial into what’s going on around you. If you’re not paying attention, you’re essentially shutting off your creative spirit.
Earlier in the book I mentioned billionaire entertainment magnate Sumner Redstone and his observation that all the creative people that he’s met have been creative in more than one way. The example he used was his friend singer Tony Bennett. He said Tony Bennett not only had a beautiful voice but he also was an excellent artist. Another great example is Ronnie Wood, the guitarist from the Rolling Stones who is also a very accomplished artist. While working in London I went to the Drury Lane Theatre where Ronnie Wood has an exhibition of several hundred drawings and paintings in the foyer. From rock artists to portraits, his drawings are extraordinary. He is an enormously talented guitarist as well as artist and song writer.
LESSON: Quite often we are creative in more than one way but perhaps we don’t know it. Many business people are very harsh and do not consider themselves creative, yet when you go to their homes they have designed beautiful gardens, they are amazing poets or painters. Remember if you’re creative in any aspect of your life then you can be creative in all aspects of your life. Just because you’re creative away from the work-place doesn’t mean you’re not creative in the workplace. The only thing stopping you from being creative in the workplace is you.
One of my favourite songs of 2008 is All Summer Long by Kid Rock. I’m a bit of a Kid Rock fan and when he played this track on David Letterman’s show I loved it. He told Letterman that he wrote it after a friend of his brought over a track that had this funky riff running through it. He identified the riff as the same one that ran through Steve Miller Band’s Take the Money and Run, the Werewolfs of London and Lynyrd Skynyrds’ Sweet Home Alabama. Kid Rock explained to Letterman that a trend in songwriting now is to take different songs and mash them together. He took the riff into the studio, mashed it and added a brand new lyric. The most extraordinary thing about this track is that it was played on just about every radio format across America and Australia—quite an accomplishment.
LESSON: There’s nothing wrong with taking existing ideas and mashing them up. You may think that to be truly creative or innovative you have to have a brand new idea that has never been done before, but many excellent ideas have come from combining existing ideas to make a better outcome. In Alex Osborn and Sid Parnes’s model for brainstorming, they recommend combining ideas and piggybacking on other people’s ideas. Don’t be afraid to keep your eyes open for things that can be taken, mashed together and made better.
He may not be a rock artist but when I have stuck by the rules? In my defence he is a movie director with rock and roll style, and you’d have to agree that his movies rock! As the creator of successful films like Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill, this guy really knows his stuff. In an article in the UK’s Sunday Times in 2007, Quentin Tarantino talked about his attitude to directing his movies:
‘I remember talking to some of the guys I worked with at the video archives store and saying… Man I’d love to do an opening like that in a movie sometime, that would be really cool. And then somebody said Yeah, they wouldn’t let you. People have said little things like that to me all my life. But who’s they? I’ve given nobody the authority over me to say I can’t do anything. I can do anything I want or can achieve. It’s up to me. I don’t ask permission. I might ask forgiveness but I don’t ask permission. There is no they, there is no they.’
How often do we let other people’s opinions of our ideas either prevent us from saying something or even dissuade us from thinking in the first place? If in your mind you even think that ‘they’ won’t like it, you are in fact creating a ‘they’, and as Tarrantio said, ‘There is no they unless you create a they’. Tarantino’s achievements and the high esteem to which he’s held in the movie industry is testament to his rock and roll attitude.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gary Bertwistle is Australia’s new pioneer in creative thinking. Not only has he built the country’s first true creative thinking venue, The Ideas Vault, at the Entertainment Quarter in Sydney, he is changing the way people think about thinking.
Gary’s books and keynote speeches have encouraged audiences all over the world to think differently about innovation, brand, strategy, problem solving, creativity and personal performance. His down-to-earth, straightforward approach enables everyone from the CEO to the secretary to think differently about their approach to thinking and unlocking great ideas.
Gary has also co-founded Australia’s Tour de Cure, a cycling foundation which raises significant funds, awareness and support for a cure for cancer.
In today’s fast-paced and competitive environment we are faced with a multitude of problems and issues on a daily basis that need to be addressed in a timely manner. These issues range from choosing where to have lunch or how to process the payroll, to improving conversion rates on sales or developing a new product. Quite often the thinking behind the solutions to these problems is reactionary. We tend to grasp at the first thing that comes to mind in order to quickly fix the problem and move on, instead of taking the time to find the best possible solution.
The better you become at problem solving, the more successful you will be and the more valuable you will become to those around you. Businesses today are in fierce competition for market share, staff, shelf space, distribution, and even store windows (hence the prevalence of terms such as ‘marketing warfare’, ‘the supermarket wars’ and ‘guerrilla tactics’ in our business vocabulary). The people and companies that will prosper in the future are the ones who are able to challenge the status quo and think differently. There is a saying, ‘If you do tomorrow what you did yesterday, you’ll be beaten. If you do today what others are doing today you’ll be competitive. To win you must seek to do today what others will be doing tomorrow.’
The difference between you, your business, product or service of today, and that which will exist tomorrow is you, your people and their ideas. So it is vital for you to have the right people with the right thinking and the right processes to support an environment of thinking differently. As a member from the Clinton administration stated, ‘The work of the future will be thinking work.’
Once we have covered the basics of ‘thinking differently’ in this chapter we will then move on to exploring the concept of rebuilding your creative identity both personally and for your company. Later in the book we’ll talk about leading innovation and how you can foster an environment of creativity. I will then outline some tips and tools which will help both you and your staff think differently, before finally touching on ways to maintain that level of creative spirit into the future. Firstly though, lets get started with the definition of creativity.
Not long ago I was listening to the Managing Director of one of Australia’s leading advertising agencies address his team about the philosophy of creativity and innovation within the agency and it’s associated subsidiaries. Although he made a point of saying that creativity was a core driver and differentiator of their business, he also admitted, ‘I’m not really sure what it means.’ Now you may find this hard to believe, but personally I’ve found that many people, both in and out of traditionally creative fields aren’t quite sure how to define creativity. They recognise that it is vital to their business but even the experts can’t seem to put their finger on exactly what creativity or innovation are really all about (and they are the ones who are doing it every day!)
If you’re someone who thinks that creativity is only for those select few who work in creative or innovative industries such as advertising, then think again. Every day we’re faced with many problems, choices and opportunities that require us to think creatively, and many of us are already doing it without consciously being aware of it.
When I speak to an audience, I find that people typically see those who work as artists, musicians, creative directors, architects or designers as ‘creative’. But its important to know that creativity has many faces. Creativity is in the face of an accountant who is looking for a way to balance the books and provide a healthy cash flow for the company’s presentation to the Board. This accountant has to think differently about how to solve the many problems hidden within the numbers, graphs and figures of a corporation. Creativity is also used by an account director who is looking for an innovative way to solve problems for his client in order to secure a large order.
Prior to addressing an audience in Queenstown I happened to read an article in a New Zealand newspaper about five of the best lawyers in Auckland. Naturally this caught my attention given that being a lawyer, accountant, solicitor or financial controller, automatically has you destined to a world of left brain, systematic, analytical and logical thinking. Lawyers are a classic example of people who don’t see themselves as being creative and certainly aren’t considered by the general population to be so, yet they are the masters of thinking differently. What separates the best lawyers from their peers is simply how they go about thinking, the standards they set, the questions they ask, the people they surround themselves with and the options they explore for their clients. Lawyers and accountants can quite happily think differently inside the box with the outcome automatically being creativity and innovation. However if you asked most of these lawyers, financial controllers or tax consultants, ‘Are you creative?’ most would say, ‘Heck no.’ What they do however, is think differently to others and that is why they earn the big bucks. Some of the greatest entrepreneurs I know are former accountants or lawyers who have adapted their typically logical approach and combined it with imagination to create a new product, service or financial structure, to enormous success.
When the former Chief of Australia’s Macquarie Bank, Alan Moss, retired from the bank in 2008 he walked away with an estimated $100 million in cash, shares, options and bonuses and was reported to be Australia’s richest retiree. Just prior to his departure, I was fortunate enough to work with a team from Macquarie Bank. As we discussed creativity, innovation and thinking, one of the senior executives commented that they had worked with Alan Moss on a regular basis. They said if you asked anyone who worked with him or indeed asked the man himself whether he was creative, the answer would have been ‘absolutely not’. However the one thing no one in the organisation could deny was the fact that Alan Moss thought differently about everything he and others did. His colleague said that Moss was known for walking around the office asking ‘quirky’ or ‘strange’ questions about things. He was inquisitive, curious, and intrigued enough to question things constantly—in fact it was almost habitual. Take a leaf out of Mr Moss’s book and just think differently, don’t focus on creativity as an end result. It’s looking at things differently and always asking questions that will yield the great results.
Discussions about creativity focus on left and right brain thinking. The left brain is generally regarded as the logical, analytical, mathematical, systematic and process-driven side of the brain, whereas the right side is more about imagination, creativity and dreaming. As a result, the general perception is that people are primarily either left brained or right brained and this is often reflected in the field or profession they work in. Often I hear people working in the financial, business or service industries saying ‘We work in a very left-brain industry and consequently lack creativity or innovation.’ As a result those in more process-driven occupations are generally perceived to be less creative than those in more traditionally ‘creative’ roles.
There has been much written about left and right brain thinking with regards to creativity including ways to encourage people to be more right brained and even much discussion about the benefit of whole-brain thinking. I am not going to go into any more detail about this here as there are many excellent books already published on this topic. I will say that I believe this focus on underlying left or right brain ability has distracted us from, or created barriers to, fostering innovation and creativity.
Even methods that promote whole-brain thinking or encouraging individuals or corporations to focus on a more right-brained approach, still tend to anchor people in a belief about themselves and their creative ability—or lack thereof.