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How did it take this long?
I’ve toured several times in Europe, all across Canada, and down to the Mexican border and back as Sarah Smith’s touring drummer, and somehow it’s taken nearly a year for us to do a podcast episode together (her cameo on the first roadisode notwithstanding).
That’s what it goes sometimes. It’s hard to schedule guests, even if they’re riding in a van beside you for 14 hours.
But in the end, I think the reward is worth the wait. You get to know somebody pretty well under the circumstances that we’ve shared over the past three years. In some ways that makes interviewing a person more difficult. I mean, I know so much of Sarah’s story that it can be difficult to decide what to talk about. We could certainly have talked about her career and her music and how she got started and all of that standard stuff, but I wanted to go deeper with Sarah. That’s the really cool thing about knowing your subject well – you know where the dark corners are.
And so we talked about Sarah’s history with drugs and alcohol. We talked about anger. We talked about some of the things that people in the public eye usually don’t want to talk about, but Sarah is one of the most open people I’ve ever met. As she says in the episode, she spent a lot of time and energy fooling herself and fooling everyone else about who she is and she finally decided to stop. She decided to share herself as completely as possible as a way of helping other people recognize and deal with their own issues and their own shame.
That is the true power of platform.
I admire Sarah very much not only for her sobriety, but for her genuine desire to help other people with her story.
Sarah’s new album, Unveiling, is all about raw honesty. We didn’t talk about it much, but it’s a reflection of this new focus in her life. You can hear it in her words and feel it in her music. I hope the fans who tune in to the episode will appreciate the direction we’ve taken with it and be even further inspired by what she’s doing with her life and talent.
If you’re a fan, you know about Sarah’s prodigious work ethic. She’s been on the road for 20 years and still plays around 300 shows annually. She’s an independent artist making a living and touring all over the world. As I said when I interviewed her the first time four or five years ago, she should be an absolute inspiration for every indie musician out there. I say good things happen when you put yourself out there. She’s the living proof.
She’s also the living proof that good things happen when you get real about yourself and take control of your life.
And so, at long last, the Sarah Smith interview.
Enjoy!
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And here’s a little taste of Unveiling: