All creators — whether musicians, writers, artists, coders, or entrepreneurs — would freely give a critical organ to be more prolific and successful. Which is why we now have the modern productivity industrial complex. It gives us all kinds of complicated tips and techniques to do produce more.
But I recently uncovered some evidence that suggests we’re overthinking the topic.
I was working out in my garage with music blasting when a Glen Campbell came through the speakers. Galveston. It’s one of the greatest country songs of all time. I’d forgotten how good it is. It sent me down a Glen Campbell Spotify rabbit hole. What I learned about him floored me.
The guy released eight albums between 1967 and 1968. Seven of those albums went platinum or gold. Campbell outsold The Beatles in 1968. Re-read this paragraph. It’s mind-blowing.
Today we have more productivity and creativity advice and gurus than any time in history. Yet who is our modern Glen Campbell? Most successful musicians today take years to create and release an album. Same goes for most other creators. Including myself. My second book will take me more than two years.
Campbell didn’t have all the hacks that creative workers deploy today. No meditation, mushroom coffee, fasting, keto, microdosing, online courses, those tomato timer things, or the like. So I wanted to understand what sort of voodoo Campbell was using. Because that information might help us draw a line between advice that’s useful and distracting.
Campbell died in 2017. So I reached out to his oldest daughter, Debbie. “Honey, I don’t know,” she told me. “But I know who will give you some answers.”
Enter Kevin Lemons, who Debbie described as “having a master’s degree in Glen Campbell.” He grew up listening to Campbell and met the man as a young fan at a backstage event in the 1960s. Lemons impressed Campbell with complex questions about music and the two became friends. Lemons ended up spending a lot of time with Campbell, especially towards the end of his life.
Here’s what Lemons told me:
Pay Your Dues
“Glen could put out so much quality stuff in such a condensed time period,” said Lemons, “because of all those years he spent with The Wrecking Crew.”
The Wrecking Crew was a group of studio musicians in the 60s and 70s who are generally agreed to be the greatest and most prolific musical unit ever. They played and helped write music for all the biggest artists on all of their biggest albums (here’s a great documentary about them).
“He played for everyone ranging from Phil Spector’s acts to the Beach Boys — Pet Sounds was a big album he was on — to Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra to Merle Haggard,” said Lemons. “He played non-stop. On everything.” Think: 40-plus weekly hours playing guitar, singing backing, and embedding himself with genius.
No, Campbell didn’t get much credit for the work. But his time in the trenches shaped him into the artist he’d become. “The Wrecking Crew played on so many different kinds of music, with so many different producers. Glen developed an ear for what a hit was,” said Lemons.
The lesson: Do enough work to know good work. In our work, we can often get antsy trying to break out and be seen. And we can spend a lot of time looking for fast ways to do this (hence productivity hacks). But we can’t do more, better work until we’ve put our head down and done enough work to know what better work actually is. Campbell transcended because he logged thousands upon thousands of hours of great work before he broke out.
Find A Collaborator
Steve Jobs had Steve Wozniak. Sherlock Holmes had Dr. Watson. Bert had Ernie.
Glen Campbell had Jimmy Webb. “And this was a match made in heaven,” said Lemons.
Webb was a 16-year old Oklahoman working a plow and listening to a transistor radio when Campbell’s song “Turn Around, Look At Me” came on the radio. He went out and bought the album and a handful of years later was writing songs for Campbell.
Webb was a hell of a songwriter. “But not many other artists could sing Jimmy Webb songs because of the challenging chord progressions and notes,” said Lemons. “Glen could hit the notes, but he had also developed the guitar playing skills.” Campbell is now considered one of the best guitarists ever. In this video, for example, his talent floors a room full of the greatest country musicians of all time (fast forward to 1:20 for the insane solo).
Campbell and Webb’s collaboration was characterized by honest feedback and give and take. “Webb once jokingly complained, ‘Glen is always changing my songs,’” said Lemons. “But Webb acknowledged that they were all the right changes.” For example, Webb wrote Galveston as a slow ballad. “Glen listened to it and said, ‘God, I never thought that song would end.’ He sped Galveston up and made it a hit,” said Lemons.
The Lesson: Find a person that pushes you to create and gives you honest (even brutal) feedback. I’m no Glen Campbell. But when I was writing my book, The Comfort Crisis, I’d feed chapters to my wife, who I married for her refusal to bullshit me (among many other reasons). “Well this is pretty f*cking boring,” she said of one chapter. She explained why. Then I did a full, painful overhaul. That chapter ended up becoming my editor’s favorite.
Be Someone You Like
While other big acts of the era positioned themselves as “stars,” creative geniuses, or outlaws, Campbell approached fame differently. “He truly always thought of himself as no better or different than the fans who came to see him,” said Lemons. “He never changed who he was or what he believed — he never tried to put on airs as ‘an artist,’ never projected phoniness or trying to be someone he wasn’t.”
For example, many artists at the time tried to gain fans in the hippy crowd by growing out their hair and writing protest songs. But that just wasn’t Campbell. He wasn’t necessarily for the Vietnam war, but he supported all the soldiers fighting in it. “He was pro-American,” said Lemons. “There’s a fun story from the war … The supply ships USS Wichita and USS Galveston would meet in the Gulf of Tonkin. And the USS Wichita would be blasting Wichita Lineman and the USS Galveston would be blasting Galveston. And Glen just thought that was the coolest thing ever.”
The takeaway: Put yourself — not the version of yourself you think will sell — into your work. Campbell’s approach reminds me of some of the best writing advice from William Zinsser’s classic guide to writing, On Writing Well:
Don’t try to visualize the great mass audience. There is no such audience — every reader is a different person. Don’t try to guess what sort of thing editors want to publish or what you think the country is in a mood to read. Editors and readers don’t know what they want to read until they read it. Besides, they’re always looking for something new. Don’t worry about whether the reader will “get it” if you indulge a sudden impulse for humor. If it amuses you in the act of writing, put it in … You are writing primarily to please yourself, and if you go about it with enjoyment you will also entertain the readers who are worth writing for.
And if no one likes your stuff? Oh well. At least you like it and enjoyed the experience of creating it.
