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Creativity Quote by Steve Marriott

"I reached the stage where I was afraid to wiggle my leg, but then I thought 'why shouldn't I?' It's what I do and now I know how to turn an audience on again"

About this Quote

There’s a peculiar kind of rock-and-roll terror embedded in “afraid to wiggle my leg”: the moment when the body that used to feel like an engine suddenly feels like evidence. Steve Marriott isn’t talking about stage fright in the abstract; he’s naming the fear that your trademark moves have calcified into parody, that the very thing people came to see has become a cliché you can’t outrun. For a performer built on kinetic swagger, even a small gesture can start to feel like a confession: I’m doing the act. I’m repeating myself.

The pivot - “why shouldn’t I?” - is the quiet rebellion. It’s not denial; it’s a decision to reclaim habit as craft. Marriott frames performance as something you practice, not something you either authentically “have” or lose. That’s why the line lands: it refuses the romantic myth of effortless charisma while still insisting charisma can be rebuilt.

“Turn an audience on again” is blunt, almost workmanlike. The subtext is technical: you can read a room, find the voltage, and push it. It’s also a little vulnerable, because “again” admits there was a time he couldn’t. Coming from a British rock singer whose career moved through peaks, reinventions, and the punishing expectations of live circuits, the quote reads like survival advice from inside the machine. Marriott isn’t chasing novelty; he’s choosing ownership. The leg wiggle becomes a philosophy: don’t apologize for your signature - sharpen it, mean it, and make it hit.

Quote Details

TopicMusic
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Marriott, Steve. (2026, January 16). I reached the stage where I was afraid to wiggle my leg, but then I thought 'why shouldn't I?' It's what I do and now I know how to turn an audience on again. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-reached-the-stage-where-i-was-afraid-to-wiggle-110523/

Chicago Style
Marriott, Steve. "I reached the stage where I was afraid to wiggle my leg, but then I thought 'why shouldn't I?' It's what I do and now I know how to turn an audience on again." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-reached-the-stage-where-i-was-afraid-to-wiggle-110523/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I reached the stage where I was afraid to wiggle my leg, but then I thought 'why shouldn't I?' It's what I do and now I know how to turn an audience on again." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-reached-the-stage-where-i-was-afraid-to-wiggle-110523/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

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Steve Marriott (January 13, 1945 - April 20, 1991) was a Musician from England.

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