CLEVELAND — Songwriter and pianist Jim Brickman’s star shines so bright not just in Northeast Ohio but also around the world. Yet, Cleveland is his home.
And a lot of people who want to know how to be successful in music, ask him how he did it. How did he become this larger than life musical artist? He told me it took a "reset." And he gave me one word… authenticity.
"After many years of recording and writing songs, you get so much feedback that you start to think about that instead of just letting it flow. Well, will they like this or will the audience respond to that? And you start to second-guess, is this gonna be a hit song," Jim said.
Jim Brickman is known for those harmonies and melodies that melt into your soul. The music is his passion. But sometimes, the business of it got in his way. Couple that with the expectations of an audience and record labels, that’s when Jim knew he didn’t want to abandon who he is to morph into someone other people wanted him to be.
"Well, the most challenging thing for me is that after 25 years, the persona kind of takes over who you are," he reflected. "But nobody can be the thing that everybody sees for a couple hours. It's not realistic."
The music is what brought him back to himself. To find what he now values so much -- his authenticity.
"In other words, trusting your gut feeling about something. I also think age has to do with it. To be yourself, you have to kind of know yourself."
Jim says he thinks people struggle not only to find their authenticity, but also to keep it.
"Having people in your inner circle, like your work family, your tour family, in my case who understand you, support you, believe in you, but they're also they don't treat you like something different just because you happen to do something that is celebrated."
Jim, who grew up in Shaker Heights, believes in those inner circle people so much that two of them who run his organization are people he knew from high school. And he says, he always knew, this was what he was supposed to do.
"It isn't a choice. I have a friend, a collaborator who always said, 'it never occurred to me, should I go to medical school or should I be a songwriter'? It's not a choice, it just is. You have to want it so bad that it doesn't even occur to you to do something else."
In other words, don’t trade who you are for who other people want you to be. That’s the key to success."
"If I were like someone else, there would be no reason for me to have a recording contract," Jim said. "That's why when somebody comes to me at a concert and says, 'I want to play just like you,' I go, 'no, you want to play just like you'."
Join Jim Brickman & Chrissy Metz for “A Joyful Christmas" LIVE at Playhouse Square on Saturday, December 16 at 2:00 PM & 8:00 PM, and Sunday, December 17 at 2:00 PM. Tickets and more information can be found here.