Joan Osborne
Joan Osborne
Joan Elizabeth Osborneis an American singer, songwriter, and interpreter of music, having recorded and performed in various popular American musical genres including pop, soul, R&B, blues and country. She is best known for her recording of the Eric Bazilian song "One of Us". She has toured with Motown sidemen the Funk Brothers and was featured in the documentary film about them, Standing in the Shadows of Motown...
pain trying remember
I try to bear pain and not panic. I try to remember that it's got an expiration date, even if I don't know when that expiration date is. And I try to use it as fuel for my work.
real mean people
Even if I'm doing a show and there's five people in the audience and the sound system is terrible - I mean, it's been a while but I've certainly done those kind of shows where it's just every conceivable thing is against you - you still have music. It's still something that's real whether there's five people in the audience or a hundred thousand people in the audience. And that's always been there for me.
artist risk frightening
Being an artist is not exactly the most universally respected, or secure thing to do with your life. It can be frightening and you can feel that you're taking a lot of risks just with your own life, and your family's security. But the rewards outweigh those things.
doubt suffering
I make myself suffer with a lot of self doubt.
realizing painful unfair
If you're stuck in a situation that's painful or there's something that makes you angry, it can enable you to step back from your own experience of it and realize that this is just a part of what it is to be human. It can allow you to accept it a little bit more and make you feel like it's less unfair.
real
Music has always felt very real to me.
pain thinking perspective
This is something I think that blues music, or folk music, and all those particular genres that have a perspective about life deal with - where the difficulties of life are seen as something that are very natural and nothing to be embarrassed about, and something that we all go through; something that's part of our share of humanity. And it accepts those difficulties and pain as such. I think there's a wonderful forgiveness that can come over you, if you have that perspective on it.
thinking people challenges
I do think that it's a challenge for me or for anybody who has had certain iconic things happen to them in their career to re-engage people and say that there's still more to discover. And also to have that confidence in yourself that you still have more to bring.
people get-better hopefully
I feel like I'm getting better as a writer and as a singer and that there is more to discover there, so hopefully other people feel that way too without having to disassociate with the earlier work.
vulnerable
Oh, deeply vulnerable as a woman - to love someone not knowing whether they love me in return.
pain trying
I try to use pain as fuel for my work.
dark thinking mind
I think I had a tendency to get stuck inside my head and go to some very dark places in my mind, and get stuck there. I couldn't see a way to get out.
mind emotion
It's not just something that you do intellectually when you do music. You do it with your body, and you do it with your emotions, and you do it with every part of yourself. It engages your mind as well, but engages all parts of yourself.
religious religion what-if
What if God was one of us, just a slob like one of us?