Creativity Quote by Edwin Starr

There is a particular kind of awe that only arrives when your audience is thousands of miles away. Edwin Starr is describing the moment a working soul singer realizes he has become, almost by accident, an export product - not just heard, but claimed. The line is modest on its face, but it carries the quiet calculation of survival in the music business: he knew he had "a following" in England, so he considered moving to "cultivate it". That word choice matters. Cultivate suggests labor, care, and strategy, a recognition that fandom is not a natural resource but something you tend through touring, visibility, and consistency.

The surprise is in the scale. "I never dreamt it would be as great as it has been" reads like genuine gratitude, but it also reveals how unpredictable cross-Atlantic taste can be, especially for Black American musicians whose careers were often constrained at home by radio gatekeeping, label politics, and the fickle churn of trends. Starr's biggest hit, "War", became a blunt anthem with a hook you can't un-hear; in the UK, that kind of protest energy, packaged in danceable soul, traveled well and stuck.

Underneath the humility is a portrait of cultural migration: England as a place where an artist can be revalidated, where nostalgia circuits and live audiences can turn a catalog into a livelihood. It's not just fame; it's refuge, and the startling relief of being wanted on purpose.