Last night I spoke with a friend who’s a production guy, often traveling with big productions crews. Sometimes he and his colleagues might mingle with the backing band, but never with the stars of the show. He was part of the huge production crew of the European tour of Justin Bieber. When he described Justin Bieber as a spoiled prick I wasn’t surprised, it confirmed what I already thought. The friend continued with telling me, that all the people with close contact to Justin are supporting him in his childish behavior.
Well, I guess that most people don’t like to hear or talk about this part of the music business. Superstars are often treated by the music business as cash cows, as source of income instead of human beings. Justin is a teenager and as any teenager, he needs to be corrected when behaving badly. Another friend told it to me last night when talking about her two teenage kids.
We all need people in our surrounding who dare to tell what we don’t want to hear, even superstars. Usually you don’t have to look for them, your family and friends will be pleased to tell you when you behave like a prick. That’s different with super stars. Justin Bieber (and other superstars like him) has to take action himself, in searching for people around him who dare to disagree with him, who tell him what he doesn’t want to hear, who tell him about responsibility. If he fails in doing so, he will keep behaving like a spoiled 10 year old child, even when he’s looking like an old man.
There is no challenge when everyone agrees with you all the time. There is no grow in perception, creativity or personality. This might be part of the reason why Adele is taking a break of several years and why Stromae is planning to do the same. Both have said that they need to go back to their roots, to a normal life, in order to be creative again.
I would like to shout it out to Justin and to all super stars: “Search for people you don’t agree with, dare to be challenged!”