Leo Kottke on performing, 2002

There’s something about walking onstage that makes you think you’ve got to be good, you’d better not be a disappointment, and you’d better not make a mistake. All of that is horseshit. None of it applies. The opposite is true: you will be a disappointment; you will make mistakes; you will have nights that are just empty at best. And be happy with them.

There’s something automatically there when you walk on, by contract. It’s what “in concert” means. I think it starts before anybody is in the building. It’s something about people knowing that they’re going to meet as strangers or otherwise in a room and share this musical experience. You walk out and the motor’s running, and what you do is just follow that. That’s what’s doing the work. It’s really delusional to think you are what’s happening, because you’re not. You are kind of the excuse, maybe the focal point, or more accurately maybe the trigger. What’s really going on is just that curve, and if you pay attention to that, boy, it’s the most fun on earth.

From the book The Complete Singer-Songwriter: A Troubadour's Guide to Writing, Performing, Recording, and Business

Read Leo Kottke's notes on sadness, meeting Bill Clinton, and more