AR Rahman, the global music icon, has made it to headlines several times in the past few months for various reasons, but this time, he revealed an incident that changed his musical journey forever. The singer-composer recently revealed a little-known incident from his early years that became a turning point in his career, when a drunk guitarist’s remark left a mark on him and took him seven years to move on from that.
AR Rahman recalls an incident from his younger days that stung him
AR Rahman, speaking to O2 India, recently shared how a drunken remark by a guitarist in his band during the mid-1980s pushed him to transform his music and discover his unique style. Back then, he was just 19 years old, and was already part of a band. Talking about the incident, he recalled one night when a guitarist, visibly drunk, questioned his abilities. The singer-composer shared:
“I went through a phase where I was playing for a couple of composers and I was in a band. This one time, when I was young, the guitarist in the band was drunk and he turned to me and said, ‘What are you playing? You are playing film music.’ He made a very condescending comment about my playing.”