“So I can only assume that, if you’re here tonight, then music helps you when you’re having difficult times, that maybe you had some difficult times in your life, whether it was that you didn’t feel like you fit in, or you didn’t know where you were going with your life, or you fell in love with a habit or a person who was bad for you, but you couldn’t put it down.
And all of those things can make you feel like you’ve lost yourself, or you’ve lost your way, or can make you feel like you’re going nowhere. And it’s never a good feeling to feel like you’re standing still, but, when you’re feeling like you’re standing still, I want you to look in the mirror and remind yourself what you are, and what you are not, okay?
You are not someone else’s opinion of you.
You are not damaged goods just because you’ve made a few mistakes in your life.
You are not going nowhere just because you haven’t gotten where you want to go yet.
On the other hand, you are wiser for the mistakes that you have made.
You are brave because you were bold enough to put yourself in a position to take risks and make mistakes.
And you are someone who has walked through a bunch of rainstorms and kept putting one foot in front of the other.
And I think, I think I keep learning every day, but after learning for 25 years, the one thing I do know is that pain does make you a stronger person. And I do know that walking through a bunch of rainstorms, and continuing to put one foot in front of the other, makes you
-T.S. (1989 World Tour - Baton Rouge, LA)