Blues Traveler’s John Popper – HuffPost 2.29.12

Mike Ragogna: What advice do you have for new artists?

John Popper: Wow, well, do it your way. Looking back, that’s the thing that I value most about what we’ve done. You’re going to make mistakes, you’re going to do things right. We could not have done it if we didn’t approach it like a family. That’s not something I’m not sure that I can tell you to go out and do. We were really lucky in that we met in high school and we were really lucky that we happened to be good musicians and good business partners and people we could trust. I think that was the irreplaceable asset and that was just luck. But, I would say, the advice for what you can go out and do, hold to what you care about and try to have that be something that really matters. A lot of young bands won’t go do their song on David Letterman because David Letterman wants them to do it in three minutes. That stuff is silly. Do the three-minute version, it’s an ad for your song, think of it that way. But, when it really comes down to it, when you really see why you’re fighting for it, it’s probably a good fight. I think anything artistic, anything anyone cares about, a business that you love, pick the battles that you really care about and fight those battles. More often than not it shows, even your adversaries, that you care about it and I don’t think there’s anyone that would object to that.