Creativity Quote by Smokey Robinson

There is a quiet pragmatism in Smokey Robinson admitting he was "stockpiling" Gospel songs, as if faith were also a catalog, a workflow, a future pitch. The verb matters: stockpiling suggests discipline and patience, but also the music-industry instinct to bank usable material for the right moment and the right voice. It frames Gospel not as a sudden conversion narrative or a publicity-flexed piety, but as craft: songs written with purpose, held back until the proper vessel arrives.

The second half - "planned to submit them" - pulls the curtain back on how spiritual music often moves through very earthly channels. Robinson isn’t describing a private devotion so much as a professional pathway: Gospel has its own gatekeepers, its own expectations of authenticity, its own audience whose trust can’t be faked. By saying these songs were meant for "other artists", he positions himself as a songwriter first, ego second - a Motown-trained builder who understands that emotion travels best when the messenger fits the message.

The subtext is legacy management. A pop-soul icon navigating the late-career question: what does your voice mean now, and where do the songs go when they don’t belong to your brand? Gospel becomes both an artistic homecoming and a strategic extension of his songwriting life, a way to keep creating without forcing every confession through the familiar frame of Smokey-as-frontman. It’s humility with an arranger’s precision.