REO Speedwagon’s Kevin Cronin – HuffPost 7.22.11
Mike Ragogna: What advice do you have for new artists?
Kevin Cronin: Well, for a new artist–that’s a little bit different. For a new artist, the biggest advice I could give you is by sharing this story that I have. When I was a young songwriter, the publishing company I was working with in Nashville got me a meeting with Clive Davis. At the time, Clive Davis had just started his new record label, which became Arista Records, and Clive…he was it. He had signed Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. He was the god of music. Just to get a meeting with him was unbelievable, I could not believe my good fortune. So, I went in with my little demo tape and Clive put it on and kind of listened through it, and after about ten or fifteen minutes of listening to songs, he just said, “You know, I’m sorry. I just don’t think you’re ready yet. These songs are just not what I’m looking for. Good luck, but I’m really not interested. I’m going to have to pass on you.”
You would think that that would be something that would just crush your spirit. You know, my hopes were so high and I’m getting to meet Clive Davis, and then I get shot down like that. But my attitude was…I swear to God, when I walked out of his office, my thought was that there was something wrong with his tape recorder, that the demo didn’t sound as good as it should’ve. (laughs) And in a nutshell, that’s my advice. You have to believe in what you’re doing so strongly that no matter what anyone else says, you can’t be discouraged, because you’re going to be turned down by 99 people, and that 100th person might be the one who gets it. You just have to keep plugging, and you have to just have such an undying belief in what you’re doing that no matter what anyone says, you just keep plugging.
And you see that in our music. I mean, that’s kind of what REO Speedwagon is all about. We’re not the greatest musicians in the world, we’re not the flashiest dressers in the world…we’re kind of, you know, just your average guys who live in the neighborhood. But we’ve got something, and we feel like it’s something that people can relate to and that people react to. People have been reacting to my songs ever since I was twelve years old, and so I don’t care if Clive Davis doesn’t get it or not. It’s, like, I’m not going stop, and that’s my advice for young artists–don’t let yourself be thrown off track by other people’s opinions. You’ve just got to believe.
MR: Kevin, you might say that your advice is “Keep On Loving What You Do.”
KC: (laughs) Yeah.