Creativity Quote by Peter Garrett

Garrett’s line lands like a refusal to play the expected part of the rock-star myth. “The roar of the crowd” and “the smell of the greasepaint” are classic shorthand for showbiz intoxication: the addictive feedback loop of applause, lights, backstage ritual. He names the clichés plainly, then undercuts them with an almost clipped admission: “no I don’t feel that.” The power is in the deflation. It’s not a grand anti-fame manifesto; it’s a shrug that punctures a whole economy of performative gratitude.

As a Midnight Oil frontman, Garrett was never selling escapism. The band’s identity leaned on urgency, politics, and a kind of athletic severity; their performances felt less like seduction than dispatch. In that context, the quote reads as an ethic: performance isn’t a narcotic, it’s a vehicle. He’s distancing himself from the idea that the artist’s primary job is to crave adoration, to be “fed” by the crowd. That’s a subtle form of credibility-building, but it’s also risk-taking: it denies fans the comforting fantasy that their devotion completes the performer.

The phrase “greasepaint” matters, too. It evokes theater, costumes, an older world of fabricated personas. Garrett’s denial suggests discomfort with artifice itself, as if the trappings of entertainment are beside the point, maybe even a little suspect. Subtext: if you’re here for spectacle, you’re missing the message. The real charge isn’t glamour; it’s conviction, momentum, and the work beyond the stage.