573 Keep Your Head Up with Andy Grammer

"IT’S A SWEET DEFIANCE TO FOLLOW YOUR PURPOSE.” Music is something that’s always been in my life. I love it. I used to sing in school, and I’m fascinated with people who pushed through the toughest times of the art to make their dreams become a reality. I had the pleasure of interviewing Andy Grammer on a past episode and there’s a lot he’s said that has stuck with me. When the universe seems like it’s telling you to stop and give up, that’s when you have to push even harder and let it know your serious. That’s exactly what Andy Grammer did. His dedication brought him from busking on the streets of Santa Monica to being a multi-platinum artist. I hope you’re as inspired by his story as I was, on Episode 573. Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This is Five Minute Friday!

• 0:11Speaker 00

  Oh, we've got a big one today, guys. I was enamored with our guest today and the adversity that he overcame to achieve his dream. Now, for those that don't know who Andy Grammer is, you are in for a beautiful treat. He is an American singer-songwriter and record producer. His debut album, Andy Grammer, was released in 2011 and swamped the hit singles "Keep Your Head Up" and "Fine by Me." He became the first male pop star in a decade since John Mayer in 2002 to reach the top 10 at adult pop radio on his first two singles. And that is just the beginning, my friends.

• 0:58Speaker 01

  Like "Keep Your Head Up," even just the title, you're like, "Hmm, I don't know." And what was funny is that was, I think people could feel the reason that that one did well. "I just lost my mom. She passed away about eight years ago." And that song came from being on the street without getting any real, like, acknowledgement, success. No one's seeing you for what you think you are. That period of my life, I remember just like, I was rehearsing in my Santa Monica apartment, and there was a knock on the door, and I went out, and there was a little sticky note that said, literally, it said, "Give up the dream." Your voice is terrible. And I remember, and there was nobody even there.

• 1:37Speaker 00

  Oh, my gosh.

• 1:38Speaker 01

  There wasn't even someone that I could be like, "Oh, well, you're just, you just suck. Like, you're just the worst person ever." It was just like the world being like, "Uh..."

• 1:45Speaker 00

  Give up.

• 1:46Speaker 01

  Like, stop. And so I was out on the street doing my thing, and there was a whole day that went by where I didn't get any, any dollars. And I was like, "Wow." This is really intense. And I have my little cart. Zero dollars. Zero dollars, the whole day. I don't know if it was like overcast or something, or no one was coming. But it's such a funny thing. Such like a sweet defiance to follow your purpose, even when you're... The only reason you're allowed to be there is because it's freedom of speech. Right? So you're there. And you have a permit. Yeah, you have a permit. I've paid. You pay like a... Like thirty-five dollars for the year to be able to just have freedom of speech with my guitar. And I'm singing to the... to no one. Wow. And people that are there are just not interested and they're walking by.

• 2:27Speaker 01

  I like packed all my stuff up, just like, man, amazing. Wow, okay. And I'm leaving and I looked up at the sky and I was like, your move. Whatever's up there. I literally will never leave. So if you want me to be here in fifty years, just like singing, because this is the only opportunity that I have, I'm going hard at it, then I'll be here. Like, it's your call. And I do believe there is something about like, once you state your intentions and once you put it out there into the universe of like, where you're going, then some things go like, the secretary at the desk of the universe is like, ah, no, he's serious. We can give it to him now. Right, right, right. Like, he's not gonna leave. Like, we should probably give to this guy. He's just gonna be annoying. Right. And he's gonna be annoying until something.

• 3:10Speaker 01

  And so I, after that, I went home and then I wrote that song. Wow, man. And I, but I do believe, you know, my mom had passed away. I had zero dollars. I was living in a pretty crappy apartment. And so out of that, if you hear that guy sing Keep Your Head Up, then you're like, oh, I'll listen to what you have to say. Hmm. Go ahead. What do you got? It wasn't like everything in your life was good. Yeah. It wasn't like some sort of trust fund baby that was like, everybody, it's cool. Yeah. Yeah, there's, there's... Pain is, is something that grounds a lot of, a lot of the positive stuff. Of course. You need them both to make it feel real. Wow. I, I do love to talk about this because I would, I don't know if I heard enough of this when I was coming up.

• 3:51Speaker 01

  So like, in any business or art form, oh, one of my favorite quotes is, "The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind the scenes with everybody else's highlight reels." So like, you go through your life and you're like, man, I'm on year three out here, and did Prince do this? You know, like, was Prince on the street? I don't, all I've seen of Prince is on the cover of Billboard. And I feel like maybe he just like was born on Billboard. Right. I like to try and be as open as possible because I think there's probably a lot of people out there that are really good and have something awesome to share with the world and need to know that I didn't just go like, "Oh, it's working."

• 4:31Speaker 01

  I went, "My cover of this band that I think I like makes people stop for 30 seconds." And then I slowly was like, "I'm gonna write 10 songs that sound like that one." And out of those 10, none of them are good, but the 10th one is like kind of intriguing, so I'm gonna write another 10. Like that one, yeah. Yeah, I like this one. So then you write another 10, and guess what? Number 7 of those 10, you're like, you're getting people to like at least take a look, you know? And just over and over and over and over again. So, there's a relentlessness to whatever greatness that I think is really, really important.