Creativity Quote by Ronnie Hawkins

Hawkins draws a bright, slightly bruising line between two kinds of audiences: the room that wants noise and the room that listens. The “drunks” aren’t just literal bar patrons; they’re a stand-in for any crowd that treats music as background anesthesia. By contrast, “the musicians” function like a jury of peers, the hardest audience because they hear the seams: the timing that rushes, the chord choice that’s lazy, the solo that recycles old habits. Calling that “more intellectually challenging” is Hawkins insisting that groove and brainpower aren’t enemies. In a club economy built on tipsy goodwill, he’s arguing for craft as a survival instinct.

The subtext is ambition without pretension. “Somewhere to put our energy” admits restlessness: young players with too much horsepower for the usual gigging treadmill. That line captures a common arc in rock and roots scenes of the era: bands start out feeding the room, then realize they’re being fed by the room’s lowest expectations. Hawkins frames growth as a deliberate shift in target, from pleasing to improving, from spectacle to discipline.

The last clause flips the usual fear that getting “too musical” will clear the dance floor. He’s describing an upside-down marketing strategy: build credibility with the insiders, and the outsiders follow. Not because the crowd suddenly becomes scholarly, but because excellence has a gravitational pull. When a band plays like it has something to prove to other musicians, even casual listeners feel the voltage.