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Think about being one of the biggest stars on the planet, but on your first night, you’re secretly terrified because your song list is shorter than a grocery list.
In a classic sit-down with Katie Couric, Neil Diamond spills the tea on his own “fake it till you make it” moment. He laughs about how, at the very beginning of his career, he only knew about five or six songs total.
He talks about how he landed his first job over his viral song “Solitary Man.” He said that the audience demanded so much from him, but he didn’t have a secret vault of hits to pull from! He only knew some of his own songs that he kept playing on repeat.
Neil Talking About His First Concert
But what did that “five-song” era actually look like? And you may ask, what does the birth of the Solitary Man live performance look like?
It looks nothing like the glittery superstar he became later. He’s raw, he’s serious, and he’s focused. He only had a handful of songs in his pocket, but the second he opened his mouth, everyone watching knew he was going places!
Neil Diamond – Solitary Man (1966)
He’s on stage for his first national TV performance, and he looks like a man with a heavy secret. Dressed in a pitch-black suit with a collar so sharp it could cut glass, he isn’t dancing or jumping. He’s standing perfectly still, gripping his guitar like a shield.
Neil went from repeating the same seven songs to having a career spanning 60 years. But did you know?
| Fun Fact: Even though he felt like a total amateur, that “short list” included songs that would eventually change music history! But before changing history, he was just a nervous, terrified man. He was so used to being a “behind-the-scenes” songwriter that he almost chose the stage name Noah Kaminsky just to hide his true identity! He only kept “Neil Diamond” at the last second, deciding that if he was going to fail, he’d fail as himself. |
