The legendary musician joins the show to talk football, Full Ride, his career, and why creating art gets complicated when money starts driving the decisions.
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I’ve had a lot of fun conversations doing Show Pony Live, but today’s guest was a special one.
John Oates joins the show.
Yes, that John Oates.
We obviously talk music and his incredible career, but one of the things I loved about this conversation was getting to know John the sports fan.
John has a genuine love for college football, and, much to my delight, he’s also a fan of what Rick Neuheisel and I do every day on Full Ride. We talk about why he enjoys the sport, what draws him to college football and the connection between sports, entertainment and the people who devote their lives to a craft.
But the conversation eventually gets into something even more interesting: What happens when you’re successful enough to create simply because you want to create?
John is at a fascinating point in his career. He’s still making music, but he talks about how much fun he’s having making the music he wants to make.
There’s freedom in that.
And it led us into a bigger conversation about something I think applies far beyond the music industry: the relationship between art and money.
There is nothing wrong with making money from your work. Artists have to make a living. Musicians have to sell records and tickets. Broadcasters need ratings and advertisers. Writers need subscribers.
But John talks about how money can begin to dictate the way art is created.
That’s when things get complicated.
When the question changes from “What do I want to make?” to “What will sell?” the creative process changes with it.
John has lived through enormous changes in the music business, and hearing someone with his career and perspective talk about creativity, commercial success and the freedom he feels making music today made this conversation much more than an interview about his greatest hits.
We talk college football, Full Ride, his remarkable music career, creativity, money and why he’s having so much fun making music at this stage of his life.
It’s one of my favorite conversations we’ve had on Show Pony Live.
Listen to the full episode here on Substack or wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
And as always, thanks for supporting Show Pony Media.
Presented by AR’s Hot Honey
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Show Pony Live — conversations about sports, media, culture and the people who make them interesting.
