Time & Perspective Quote by Leo Kottke

Kottke’s barometer for a “right musician” isn’t virtuosity; it’s survivability. The windowless-room test strips collaboration down to its least glamorous reality: hours of repetition, tiny annoyances amplified, the same two bars played again and again until they’re right. By swapping “What will they play?” for “Can I stand them?” he’s quietly arguing that music-making is less an exchange of talent than an exchange of nervous systems.

The intent is practical, almost domestic. Kottke came up in a world where the romance of the lone guitar hero coexisted with the grind of touring, soundchecks, van rides, late-night problem-solving. In that ecosystem, technique is table stakes; temperament is the multiplier. A brilliant player who drains the room can sabotage a session faster than a mediocre one who listens, adapts, and keeps things light.

The subtext carries a gentle rebuke to audition culture and résumé worship. “Musically” becomes a narrow category, even a distraction. Kottke’s standard is intimacy under pressure: humor, patience, curiosity, the ability to be bored without becoming cruel. “Fun” isn’t frivolous here; it’s an operational definition of trust. If the vibe holds in sensory deprivation, it’ll hold on stage when the monitors fail, in the studio when a take collapses, in the long stretches where creativity depends on not hating the people beside you.

It’s also a quiet flex. Only someone secure in his own musical identity can prioritize companionship over flash, betting that the best sound often arrives as a byproduct of a workable human room.