Creativity Quote by Steve Brown

There’s a particular kind of heartbreak in calling something “a big shame” and then immediately pivoting to a love letter. Steve Brown isn’t just mourning Trixter’s fortunes; he’s mourning a version of rock culture that feels increasingly hard to locate: the band as a gang, a live-wire unit, a shared identity louder than any one member’s brand.

The phrasing is doing quiet work. “In my mind” signals both conviction and defensiveness, like he knows this definition will be contested. By framing Trixter as “what a real rock n’ roll band is all about,” he’s drawing a border around authenticity - not with genre theory, but with vibe: camaraderie, sweat, big hooks, and the unglamorous professionalism of showing up and delivering. That’s a pointed counterargument to the late-80s/early-90s narrative that wrote bands like Trixter off as disposable hair-metal product, casualties of timing once grunge became the culture’s new moral order.

The subtext is also self-protective. Praising Trixter isn’t only about them; it’s about validating a whole scene’s values. “Real” becomes a shield against the idea that commercial aesthetics or glossy presentation negate sincerity. Brown’s intent reads like reclamation: don’t confuse a shift in fashion with a lack of substance. The shame isn’t merely that Trixter didn’t “make it” bigger; it’s that the cultural memory shrank their meaning to a punchline, when, to him, they represented the job description of rock n’ roll itself.