Creativity Quote by Wes Montgomery

There’s a quietly radical humility in Wes Montgomery calling the guitar “the 6 string,” as if the instrument is less a vehicle for genius than a piece of equipment that forces you to clock in. The line lands because it refuses the romantic myth of the jazz virtuoso. Montgomery frames artistic reinvention as “going into business” - not selling out, but committing to the daily logistics of craft: learning a new vocabulary, finding gigs, building a sound people will pay to hear.

The subtext is pressure. Montgomery was famously a working player who held day jobs, learned fast, and played hard; his career wasn’t a straight shot of inspiration, it was a grind with stakes. By likening the guitar to “starting all over,” he’s acknowledging how an instrument can rewire your identity. In a culture that treats talent as innate, he points to the scary, energizing truth: mastery often begins with embarrassment, with being bad again, with the ego hit of beginnerhood.

It also hints at jazz’s mid-century economy, where innovation and survival were tangled. A new instrument (or a new approach) isn’t just an artistic choice; it’s a market decision. The phrase “gone into business” carries the musician’s double consciousness: you’re chasing beauty, but you’re also chasing rent. Montgomery makes that tension sound almost matter-of-fact, which is exactly why it resonates - it’s the voice of someone who understands that authenticity is built, not bestowed.