Today's powerful masterclass features conversations with three exceptional artists - legendary music producer Rick Rubin, acclaimed musician Hozier, and spoken word poet IN-Q. Each shares profound insights about creativity, authenticity, and the intersection of art and mental health. From Rick's intuitive approach to producing music and emphasis on artistic truth, to Hozier's journey of self-discovery and presence, to IN-Q's exploration of vulnerability through poetry - this episode offers a rare glimpse into the minds of master creators and their paths to artistic freedom.In this episode you will learn:Why being concerned with others' opinions is the biggest barrier to creativity and how to overcome itThe delicate balance between vulnerability and confidence required for authentic artistic expressionHow meditation and mindfulness can enhance creative flow and stage presenceThe importance of creating art as a "gift to the universe" rather than chasing external validationWhy processing emotional pain through creative expression can lead to profound healingFor more information go to https://www.lewishowes.com/1703For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:Rick Rubin – greatness.lnk.to/1536SCHozier – greatness.lnk.to/1596SCIN-Q – greatness.lnk.to/1617SC Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy!Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX
Chapter 1: What holds people back from being creative?
Welcome to this special masterclass. We've brought some of the top experts in the world to help you unlock the power of your life through this specific theme today. It's going to be powerful, so let's go ahead and dive in. What do you see is the thing that holds people back the most from being their most creative and best self?
Chapter 2: How can artists overcome the fear of judgment?
I think it's being concerned what other people think and a feeling of the people who make great things are somehow special and that they're not special. And that's just not true. We're all, everyone has the capability to make great things and none of us are special.
It seems like a lot of people, they're focused on what other people think, like you said, and it almost, it blocks them into this kind of rut feeling, I guess, that they feel like they're stuck in a rut. I don't know if you've heard this before with a lot of your artists, but with With me as a writer and an author, I've heard so many people come to me and say, I want to write a book.
And I ask them, how long have you been, had this idea that you wanted to write this book about this thing? And some people will say five, seven, 10 years, but they've been worried about what people think, or they feel creatively stuck in a rut. Do you ever feel stuck in a rut? And if so, how do you personally get out of that?
I think taking action is a really great thing and not, not setting up barriers of entry. Like, um, I can imagine a musician saying, I can't play this song because I don't have the right guitar or I don't have the right equipment to do it. And there are no barriers to entry. There's always a way. I come from a punk rock background. So in punk rock, it was a do-it-yourself mentality.
And, you know, I started my first record company not knowing that was something you can do. It just really happened automatically. I wanted to start making records. I wanted people to hear them. I never knew that you could get signed to a label. I just thought, well, if you want to make a record, you make a record.
So I made records and, you know, print up 500 copies of a seven-inch single, for example. So I think there's always a way. You don't have to wait for permission from someone else. I think that's a big part. People are waiting for permission. To actually make their art. To make their art.
Someone has to say, you know, I'll hire you to do this or I'll publish your book if you write a book or set the stage to allow you to do it. But I don't think that's the way great things are made.
When you printed those first 500 singles... What was your dream or your vision? Was it, okay, now I'm going to, how do I sell these? How am I going to give them away for free? What was the process for you?
Combination of giving them away for free and selling enough to be able to make another one. That was always, any of the things I've made, it's always been about sustainability. As long as I can make another one, it's a success.
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Chapter 3: What role does vulnerability play in artistic expression?
He would play me the songs he loved, either from childhood or songs that he thinks he'd like to sing, or a song he wrote. And it was just a very honest experience. And then we went into the studio. We picked some of those songs. We went through hundreds of songs.
and then picked a handful to try to record and we went when we went into the studio with the band it didn't sound it didn't have what the living room recordings had there was some intimate honesty and we'd never heard johnny cash that way before Um, so that led to the first album, which was a solo acoustic album.
Again, we didn't set out to make a solo acoustic album, but it revealed itself as that's the most interesting thing to do. And that ended up being very successful and very successful with young people, which he had not experienced since the 1950s. Um, so that was a.
And after that, after the success of that album, we made five more albums together and he had confidence based on the experience of the first one, which he'd expected nobody to care about really, uh, took to cold with people. And then on, I think it was on our fourth or fifth album, um, he did a cover of hurt the nine inch nail song.
And that ended up being probably the biggest, you know, maybe the biggest hit of his life, certainly of his later life. Wow. And, um, and that was a real revelation.
How important is confidence for an artist in your mind to have? Because I've, I've been around some of the greatest athletes in, that are freaks of nature athletically, that are gifted beyond anything physically, who can do anything in practice, but then they lacked the confidence in a game and they looked like an average player.
Is that the same thing with artists, singers, guitar players, musicians, where they could be so gifted, but if there's a time when the pressure is on to record, then on the confidence, does that hold people back? Have you seen that?
I'll say it's not as simple as that because there's a vulnerability required for the artist. that if you're confident to the point that it disguises your vulnerability, that doesn't work. So it's like a dance between being wildly open and vulnerable and commitment to do whatever it takes to get your work through. That combination, which is a difficult combination.
It's almost like what I'm hearing you say, this is really interesting point. It's almost like you just have to have courage to be vulnerable, which is not really confidence. It's more of like, you just got to, if you're unwilling to be courageous with your vulnerability, you just won't be able to share your art.
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Chapter 4: How can meditation enhance creativity?
Everybody has a facade. People put on, you know, airs or a performance. A mask.
Yeah.
Or the politician talks and we don't really know who they are. They say these things that are often written for them. We don't know. So there's this like performative aspect of the world. that wrestling, that's what the world's really like. We say that, you know, wrestling is fake. It's like the world is fake and wrestling is real. That's what it is.
wanted to go back into what you talked about what you know you mentioned transcendence and i think you mentioned you know the universe having your back when you asked for an answer uh with this you know particular song with system of down what's your thoughts on manifesting and manifesting something you want and alchemizing it into the world do you believe in manifesting do you believe in a uh you know artists should be thinking in that way or what's your thoughts on it i believe in it a million percent
It's something that I've experienced before I knew what it was. So when I say it's like... I feel like it has to do with the purity of the intention behind what you're doing. If your intention is pure and you're doing it for the right reasons, it seems like things tend to work out. And that ends up being a manifestation mindset, but it didn't start for me that way.
It just was like, I really believe in what I'm doing. I really care about it. I want it to be the best it could be for me, and I'm excited to share it. And the results have shown me that you can manifest things. It happens. But I'll say when I do it, it's never based on the outcome. Ooh, what do you mean? I'm never asking for a result. What are you asking for?
I'm asking to rise to the occasion, to make the best thing that I can, for the thing that I make to be great. Great is a vague word. I don't know what great means. I came to realize recently what great means, but I didn't know. Most of my life I was aiming for great, but I didn't know what that was. And I've come to realize that great means it's a devotional kind of greatness.
It's a gift to the universe. It's a gift to God. Wow. If you're making a gift to God, there's no greater gift. You can't put more into it than that. You know, you can't. What about the single? What about, what about what someone's going to say? Who has anything to say if we're making a gift for God? You're putting all of your purest intention into this thing for the universe. Wow.
That's where it's at. I didn't know that. I came to realize that recently. Again, my word was greatness. Greatness. That was the word of what I was shooting for. But I've come to realize what it is.
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Chapter 5: What is the importance of artistic intention?
And we're all living in the same, similar societies. So a lot of parallel thinking comes in because we all have very similar simulaces, whatever it is. You have to, I don't know, there is a resource that you pull from that needs to be made.
What was it like when you came out with your first song that was a mega hit? What was the feeling before that launched versus the most recent, Unreal on Earth? Is the feeling still the same?
you know 12 years later is there a different feeling at this season of life of an artist um you know before you launched the recent album and the feeling on the first song i was so like i was such an unknown and that i just was watching its its uptake slowly but surely there was these moments where okay it was reaching another audience so it's like oh my god it's like that the video has been seen by 10 000 people oh my god that was a huge deal for me at the time
I think it was like it got it was like on the first page of Reddit or something which at the time was like you know huge it was huge you know and then it was then it was starting to be played I think some of the earliest I think the first one of the first radio stations that played it in the States was like Alabama Mountain Radio and like it was being shazammed and we were watching like somebody was telling me oh yeah it's just been shazammed in like parts of the world parts of the States that I I'd never been to the States I'd never thought that it would I would be
where the music would be heard. At this point, people in Ireland didn't know that I was an Irish artist, you know? Really? Yeah, honestly. I think the song had started to be played on Irish radio, but they assumed that I was like an American import, you know, that I wasn't. They didn't know that I was from Ireland because I hadn't been releasing music all that long.
And then there was this kind of dark sort of gospel rock sound, you know, in that song. this kind of swampy sort of vibe. And, yeah, so it's different, you know? I think there's sometimes you miss being the underdog a little bit, you know? There's a lot to be said for having... Some to that feeling, right? Yeah, having nothing to lose. The naive, like, oh, this is really exciting.
It just... Yeah, yeah, exactly. And feeling like every inch you gain is a huge deal and is a big win and you've nothing to lose and you...
you have you can prove everything but also if nothing happens it's like it's okay you know go away come back when you're when you're ready you know what i mean but it's so it's trying to maintain that maybe there's there's something to be you can still maintain that sort of mindset a little bit of like i think when you and this is also maybe something that you can
it's good to practice or to investigate or think about is when the stakes seem higher or you've like on your second or third release, you feel like if it doesn't do something for you that it's somehow, you know, it could be a success by the metrics of what you would think beforehand or anyone else's, but you create this idea of like, I don't know, you just, you want more from it or, you know, so that's... How do you navigate that?
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Chapter 6: How do you maintain confidence as an artist?
a million people or a billion billion times or it's listened by a thousand thousand people or a hundred people or ten people the quality of the work doesn't change wow so i just try to bring it down to am i happy with the with its quality that's beautiful i think that's a good uh lesson for any artist yeah author or anyone it's like are you happy with the quality yes
If you have a career or a business around it, sure, you want to figure out a way to make money and survive. But I think you have to be proud of the quality of work, no matter if it sells millions of copies or one copy. Totally, totally. Does it represent you? That's beautiful. Yeah. Man, Andrew, there's a lot I would love to talk more about with you. We'll have to have you back on another time.
But I want people to check out your new album, Unreal on Earth. I want them to come to watch you live on tour, man, which I'm going to do one of these days. Please do.
They can go to hosier.com for your tour dates and everything like that, is right? Yes, yeah, tour dates. Unfortunately, not many shows left. Left. Then you get notified when you do do more. Exactly, exactly.
I'm curious, in the last decade, what has been the biggest transformation you've seen within yourself through this journey of success and experience and making all this art? And what is the biggest thing you still struggle with today?
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Chapter 7: What does it mean to manifest as an artist?
stuff I've learned about myself is, I mean, I've, I've done a lot of personal, personal work. I used to think that realizing that creating, maybe this is one thing I can offer that being creative and creating and my relationship with, with myself was also, you know, My relationship with the work is very often dependent on my relationship with myself. What do you mean by that? That it's a thing.
It's like whether it's self-doubt or it's self-criticism and an internal monologue that is largely negative. Something I took for granted my whole life. It didn't catch up with me until a couple of years ago when I realized I honestly felt I was never going to write another song. Really? Yeah, sometime during the pandemic. I hit this kind of wall where I couldn't move forward anymore.
And I felt I'd written my very last song. And I had to come round to, okay, no, this is, this is, this is just, it's the same voices, but they're just louder now because there's nothing to distract me, you know? So I think that was, you know, in the pandemic, that was part of it.
You weren't able to tour, you weren't able to go out and...
distract yourself not that tour is a distraction but you weren't able to you had to sit still now yeah and hear everything coming in yeah and in some ways tour is a magnificent distraction and it's a job in which you're constantly putting out fires you know and every day is another little crisis you know and you know i still get i won't say would you call it stage fright but like i'm still having to regulate my body constantly i'm terrible you know what i mean every day is like really
Oh yeah, 10 minutes before stage. Yeah, I'm like, I can't do this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on. Yeah, yeah. There's an element of like nerves and like, I'm not able to do this. It's so funny. I was joking with some of the band and this is maybe a magician thing. We had a few weeks break. I was a month into, a couple of weeks after break and I was trying to think
This is maybe because a lot of playing is muscle memory. You don't think about when it's automatic. But I was trying to think to myself, how do I play that song on guitar? I couldn't visualize a fretboard. I couldn't visualize finger movement. But yeah, there is always this creeping voice that's... You know, and it's, look, it's immaterial.
You, you, you find your way around it, find your step over it, you know, and you, and you ground yourself and stuff. But, um, yeah, but in, in, so, but creatively, I think when you are exactly as you described, there was no distractions like in during the pandemic.
So, but tour is, there's plenty, there's always something to do, whether it's press, promo, you know, meetings, I'm oftentimes releasing music at the same time. So it's looking at artwork, video edits, mixes, mastering. And I'm constantly, I'll be honest, like constantly a little bit overwhelmed, like just a little bit under overwhelmed, you know, and like, I'm just,
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Chapter 8: How do artists navigate the pressure of expectations?
I can't recall exactly if it was a feeling of fear. There was a feeling of maybe sorrow that came with it and sort of... It's just a lowness, you know what I mean? Just a sort of a very... And I think... I think anybody who's maybe prone to sort of depressive episodes or is, you know, will be familiar with it, but it's this kind of... I just slowed down in all forms and I just felt no route.
I saw no ability to write. It was... And any attempt to make it seemed impossible. I also fully believe... And this is a funny thing about when you're in that mindset, I fully believe that I could not, I did not know how to write a song despite all evidence against it. I was like, oh no, I actually don't know how to do this. Um, so. How many songs have you written at this point?
Oh, like, you know, probably, you know, over 100 or, you know, obviously ones that don't get released. Right. Like, yeah, but like, it's something I do all the time. But there's something enters into the mind. And then I realize it's like, oh, no, this has nothing to do with this. This is something else. So, again, it's about relationship itself, you know. And so that was something I learned.
What was your relationship with yourself like? I think I don't have much of one, you know, so and it was more just realizing, OK, I'm going to have to cultivate a very positive relationship with myself, you know, and actually kind of put, you know, begin to address the root of some of this stuff and put an arm around myself. Wow.
So that was the beginning of one of the more significant changes in my life I would say is tending to actually you know by the time I was 30 actually like tending to let's say mental health and a relationship with self and which I had just avoided doing, you know, because I could sort of, I felt maybe I could work my way around it or I could, you know.
But once you can't run anymore, you know, it's, I'd sometimes describe it as the hamster wheel had to stop spinning, you know what I mean? And so then you're forced to sit in your little cage, you know what I mean? Wow. Kind of look around and take it in and go, okay, something's not right about this thing.
what is the thing that you realized about your identity with yourself or your relationship to yourself when you no longer were chasing or on tour or distracted by facing yourself? I think it was
I'd say you could say it was defined by, I had largely a combative relationship with myself. So I was absolutely at war with myself constantly. Really? Yeah, yeah, for sure.
How did that look like on a daily basis? What would that have been?
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