Creativity Quote by Noel Redding

It’s a shrug disguised as a résumé line, and that’s exactly the point. Noel Redding’s “and that” turns a potentially grand statement about artistic identity into something deliberately small, almost incidental. In a rock era obsessed with mythology and genius, he frames songwriting less as destiny than as practical habit: you have songs, you need somewhere to put them, so you start a band. The phrase “writing outlet” is tellingly workmanlike, closer to plumbing than poetry.

The context matters: Redding is eternally orbiting Jimi Hendrix in the public imagination, often reduced to “the bassist in the Experience.” By invoking Fat Mattress - his own group, formed in 1968 - he quietly asserts authorship and autonomy. Not a bid for the spotlight, but a reminder that he wasn’t merely a hired hand holding down the low end while the fireworks happened up front. The casual tone functions as self-defense. If you downplay your ambitions first, nobody else gets to mock them.

Subtextually, it’s also a comment on how rock careers get narrated. History loves clean arcs: before the legend, after the legend. Redding offers messier reality: overlapping projects, restless creative needs, and musicians who want to be more than their most famous gig. The line reads like someone refusing to audition for his own biopic, insisting - in the plainest language possible - that he was working, writing, and living in real time.