My Morning Jacket’s Jim James – HuffPost 9.7.11

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

Jim James: I always tell people just to listen to their gut, listen to their heart, and don’t listen to any naysayer’s that tell you that you can’t do something or tell you what you’re doing isn’t good or isn’t correct. You’re always going to have a lot of naysayer’s–we always had a lot of naysayer’s–when you’re starting out, with people telling you that you’ll never make it. There are so many people in the world that have dreams, and I feel like those dreams pop into our heads for a reason, and it’s our sacred duty to listen to our dreams and follow those things. That’s my biggest thing–don’t let anyone talk you out of anything that you believe in.

MR: Would that be the advice you would have given yourself, as you first started out with My Morning Jacket?

JJ: Definitely. Not to me, necessarily, because I was pretty stubborn. I just wanted to do what I wanted to do, and I thought that anybody telling me not to do that was an idiot and I didn’t listen to them. So, I was kind of lucky in that aspect. Maybe my advice to myself would be just to be more self-aware–I don’t know–take things in more, and don’t be as easily rattled by things. There are just so many things that happen over the course of life, and it’s easy to be rattled, especially when you’re in a semi-public world, being in a band or being someone that is putting themselves out there.