Could it be that Mark the man is consideably less interesting than Mark the artist? Or is it obvious and inevitable and not smth he would disagree nd unhappy about anyway? Mark the artist is what will endure, the man will perish
The fame part never interested him so he never played that game.
For me that makes him more interesting.
He is an intelligent man,very talented and has a sense of humour.
He's a happy family man which is what we all strive for.
He didn't sell out his soul to remain relevant and does things his own way.
I find this much more interesting than someone full of themselves thinking they are a gift from God.
His reserved interview style has held him back in some respects but it enabled him to live HIS life.
Most of us struggle with that,at least from time to time,so I have nothing but admiration for his approach to incorporating his immense abilities into a successful home life.
Perhaps if enough dug beneath the headlines they would be equally as impressed.
👍Well put!
For me it's the same: Mark the human being comes first, and his music is of course the result of it. I know I may be opening a can of worms here, but all art is imho directly connected to its creator and the circumstances it was created in. The more you know about the background, the more interesting a piece of art will become. So, as soon as the creator is forgotten, the art will lose a lot of its meaning (with the exception, maybe, of instrumental music and abstract art). I mean, if you look at a 3000-year-old Greek statue, you may think it's beautiful but it doesn't mean a thing, but if you look at a sculpture by Michelangelo and you know the story behind it, it will somehow come alive.
But quite apart from that, Mark the man has always been at least as interesting as Mark the musician. He's intelligent, educated, open-minded, responsible, resilient, always trying to improve, ready to help others, and with high moral standards, but no saint. And just the sheer amount of work that he's done in his career makes me dizzy - how on earth did he find the time and energy to do all these things? Amazing!
I don't know who brought up the "boring guitar nerd" myth in the first place (was it MK himself?), but for me it clearly doesn't apply.
Every human being, a janitor, a peasant, doctor or astronaut, is interesting, if you (are able to) look at him close/careful enough. I'm sure MK has, had (?) many volcanoes in him, many contradictions, struggles, regrets, fears, anger, hatred, jealousy, mistakes, guilts, yearnngs, missed opportunites, girls he couldn't forget etc. We sometimes see glimpses of them in his songs, both in words and the music. It's mostly very beautiful, often sublime. He pours most of the things like in the list above to his art... and the result is magnifico. That's why we are all here. But the "public" man ... he is evasive, private, kind of shy, hides himself behind cliches, tired anecdotes etc. He doesn't (want to) reveal himself, does not open those "interesting" stuff about himself. Does he have to? Of course not. The artist is supreme and very interesting. I think that will live "forever." The mn behind that art is of course interesting, he must be, becoz his art is not something happens without him, it's not God's art, not nature's art, it's not the almighty speaks to us thru MK. No, it's MK speaking, he distills his life, thoughts, philosophy, observations, talent, study, hard work etc and gave us his own thing. That man cannot be not interesting. But the public persona is. At least compared to the artist. And I'm OK with that. In fact that's preferable.
Otherwise the puzzle would be easier to decipher, it will lose some part of his magic. Art springs from the artist subjective experience, perspective but it must be to a degree at least univrsal. Of course I'd love to be privy to his most inner thoughts, emotions, experiences etc but that's a selfish thing. One last thing, I have the feeling that if I spend, say, two years with MK in a desert island, I'm not sure I would know much more about his inner self than I already do.
