Ruven AfanadorYou’d think selling millions of albums and winning an Oscar and four Grammys would be enough to convince any singer that they’d finally “made it.” But Sam Smith says until just recently, he was scared that his success was just “a gigantic fluke.”
Speaking to Australia’s Daily Telegraph, Sam says, “I became famous and it scared me and I ran into a hole and hid from it..my personality changed in good and bad ways constantly.”
He adds, “There was so much that happened, and finishing on the Oscars, there was a part of me that thought, ‘Is this one gigantic fluke?’”
After Sam scored an Academy Award for his James Bond theme “Writing’s On the Wall,” he dropped out of sight to work on new music, and finally emerged late last year with his latest hit “Too Good at Goodbyes.” He says that was when he finally realized that he wasn’t just a flash in the pan.
“After ‘Too Good At Goodbyes’ came out, I really felt deep down I am going to be OK,” Sam explains. “My dream is just to do this for the rest of my life. I’m not trying to beat every album; I’m playing the long game. I want to be here like the Elton [Johns] of this world. I want to be here when I’m 60, still singing and still performing.”
While he feels more secure these days, Sam says he doesn’t want to get too comfortable.
“I have to be scared,” he tells the paper. “I don’t like the idea of this ever becoming easy. I always want to be a student of music and of performing…I still have singing lessons as much as I can. It’s important to me to always learn — you are never bigger than the craft.”
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