Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien discusses being ‘freaked out’ due to his insecurity when hanging out with Eddie Vedder and other rock legends in a new Music Radar interview.
“It’s like in life in general. For centuries, people have been calling those moments ‘the dark night of the soul’. And I think the creative process completely mirrors it. You have those times when you think you can’t do it and you’ve got to hang on – that’s all you can do.
“I remember a time down in New Zealand, going down to play with Neil Finn, and that’s when I first met Johnny Marr and Philip [Selway] came down, Sebastien Steinberg, Lisa Germano and Eddie Vedder. I remember the first night I was a bit freaked out by the musical company I was keeping. I was pretty insecure – it didn’t help that I’d smoked a big spliff either [laughs].
“But it didn’t matter with those first two days of hanging on. Rather than the self-doubt, the ‘shit, I can’t do this’ thing. I think everybody gets that. You understand that you grow from those moments and those big challenges. As long as you don’t give up. That’s the key. It’s a test to hold on. Be open, don’t feel sorry for yourself and know that’s just part of the process. It doesn’t make it any easier and you might not sleep that night, but it’ll all be okay. You’ll look back on it and you’ll only remember the good bits.”
