"My goal was to play drums, but my father made me take piano lessons. He told me I needed to learn to read music first, so I took lessons for six years. I thank God that he made me take those lessons, because it taught me a tremendous amount"
About this Quote
Green's phrasing does a lot of work. "My goal was to play drums" sounds like a simple dream, almost naive. Then the turn: "but my father made me" introduces coercion, the universal childhood reality that talent is often routed through someone else's plan. The justification, "needed to learn to read music first", is practical, almost bureaucratic. That's the point: creativity gets institutionalized early, made legible before it's allowed to be loud.
When he says, "I thank God", he's not just being pious. He's retroactively baptizing authority, converting what could have been resentment into gratitude. That move is common in celebrity self-narratives: it smooths the rough edges of control into a lesson, a cornerstone. In the entertainment world especially, where success can look like accident or charisma, this anecdote insists on craft. It reassures the audience that behind the image is training, and behind the training was someone willing to be unpopular for the sake of competence.
Quote Details
| Topic | Father |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Green, Brian Austin. (2026, January 15). My goal was to play drums, but my father made me take piano lessons. He told me I needed to learn to read music first, so I took lessons for six years. I thank God that he made me take those lessons, because it taught me a tremendous amount. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-goal-was-to-play-drums-but-my-father-made-me-140738/
Chicago Style
Green, Brian Austin. "My goal was to play drums, but my father made me take piano lessons. He told me I needed to learn to read music first, so I took lessons for six years. I thank God that he made me take those lessons, because it taught me a tremendous amount." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-goal-was-to-play-drums-but-my-father-made-me-140738/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"My goal was to play drums, but my father made me take piano lessons. He told me I needed to learn to read music first, so I took lessons for six years. I thank God that he made me take those lessons, because it taught me a tremendous amount." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-goal-was-to-play-drums-but-my-father-made-me-140738/. Accessed 8 Feb. 2026.


