"When you get successful, you can do pretty much whatever you want"
About this Quote
The phrasing is doing quiet work. “When you get successful” frames freedom as conditional, almost transactional, not moral. “Pretty much” is the tell: he’s acknowledging limits without pretending the limits matter. In the music industry, those limits are rarely artistic. They’re logistical and political: label interference, radio gatekeepers, studio budgets, who gets the good tour slots, whose “weird” idea is indulged rather than laughed out of the room. Once you’re a proven earner, experimentation reads as vision instead of risk. The same behavior that gets an unknown act labeled “difficult” becomes “legendary” in a star.
There’s also an older-rocker subtext here: a weary awareness of double standards. The quote can be read as celebratory (finally, autonomy) or faintly accusatory (the system rewards outcomes, not ethics). It hints at how artistry and privilege braid together - and how quickly the industry’s talk about “authenticity” collapses into a simple rule: the hitmakers write their own rules.
Quote Details
| Topic | Success |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Bachman, Randy. (2026, January 15). When you get successful, you can do pretty much whatever you want. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-you-get-successful-you-can-do-pretty-much-144867/
Chicago Style
Bachman, Randy. "When you get successful, you can do pretty much whatever you want." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-you-get-successful-you-can-do-pretty-much-144867/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"When you get successful, you can do pretty much whatever you want." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-you-get-successful-you-can-do-pretty-much-144867/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.








