Creativity Quote by John Fahey

Fahey’s warning about fame isn’t moralizing so much as self-defense: a musician talking about an occupational hazard that can quietly wreck the very instincts that made the work good. “It can go to your head” frames ego as something almost chemical, like a gas leak you don’t smell until the room is filled. The follow-up clause, “and you can become full of yourself,” lands with a plainspoken sting. No metaphors, no glamour. Just the image of a person crowded out by their own self-regard.

Coming from Fahey, the line reads as a critique of celebrity culture’s feedback loop, especially in music scenes that treat authenticity as currency. Fame rewards performance, not only onstage but off it: the persona, the myth, the quotable legend. “Full of yourself” is what happens when the audience’s projections start sounding like your own inner voice. The subtext is less “stay humble” than “stay porous.” If you start believing you’re the main event, curiosity shrinks, risk feels unnecessary, and the music turns into brand maintenance.

There’s also a classically Fahey-ish suspicion of reverence. His career sat at an odd intersection of cult acclaim, genre gatekeeping, and late rediscovery; he knew how quickly adoration can become a trap, especially for artists marketed as singular geniuses. The intent is practical: keep your head clear enough to keep listening. Fame isn’t the achievement; it’s the distortion field around it.