I’m reading Keith Richard’s book “Life” and came across a passage that really speaks to me.  It’s about how one needs to walk the walk before they can be authentic and talk the talk. Keith Richards is writing about the early days of  the Rolling Stones when he and his band were still teenage nobodies dreaming of creating the epic blues sounds of their idols, Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howlin’ Wolf and Robert Johnson.  The passage goes like this:

“The drive in the band was amazing among Mick, Brian and myself. It was incessant study. Not really in the academic sense of it, it was to get the feel of it. And then I think we realized, like any young guys, that blues are not learned in a monastery. You’ve got to go out there and get your heart broke and then come back and then you can sing the blues. Preferably several times. At that time, we were taking it on a purely musical level, forgetting that these guys were singing about shit. First you’ve got to get in the shit. And then you can maybe come back and sing it.”

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