Great Pieces of Advice from Nile Rodgers and Paul Williams

Nile Rodgers was the focus of a fireside chat conducted by his friend Paul Williams at CMW.

It was a fantastic conversation loaded with stories, jokes and many nuggets of wisdom.  Here are a few that stood out to me.

1.  How do you get to be a rock star?  Get better.

2.  Any song that sells a million copies is amazing because it means it connected on an emotional level with a million strangers. Think about that the next time you feel like trashing a super-successful pop artist.  You may not like the song yourself, but a MILLION PEOPLE did.  Are you smarter than a million people?

3.  You will become what you are as the result of trying to become many different things. It will just sort of happen.

4.  Every song is non-fiction.  The success comes when the listener is convinced to enter the reality provided by that song.

5.  An artist has to be true to themselves. Don’t let anyone tell you that your art is wrong.