Soul star Maxwell will celebrate his birthday on stage in Nashville Dave Paulson , USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee
“It’s 21 years later, and here we are,” he tells The Tennessean. “I’m so grateful to everybody for making something that was just a hobby at 17 continue on into this lifelong passion.”
“I actually didn’t want to go on tour on my birthday, but then when I thought about it again, I was like, ‘You know what? What better way to celebrate your life than with the people who have made your life what it is?'”
Maxwell performs at Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday, May 23. The show starts at 7:30 p.m., and tickets are $36-$126.
His songs have taken on new meaning
“It’s interesting with songs. They begin a certain way, and then they grow based on people’s reaction to them,” Maxwell says. A good example is “Lake by the Ocean,” the first single from his 2016 album, “blackSUMMERS’night.”
“To me, initially, the song was a metaphor about being able to be happy with the smallest body of water next to the greatest thing. Finding goodness in the little things. That (idea of), ‘Yeah, there’s all that over there, but you know what? This is fine. We can be happy here.'”
But then it became something about water, and about Flint, Michigan, and Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It became about so many different things that are growing and growing each day.
Even the new single, “Gods,” was basically about a love affair, and how sometimes when you’re the one that’s more in love with someone, you can be the one that’s more vulnerable to being destroyed by them. But now, with our political climate, it’s another thing altogether. It’s become about the power that people have in office, and how they can shift and change the world.
Seeing ‘the big picture’ politically
“Whatever your political stances are, that’s not what I’m trying to get at,” Maxwell continues. “I’m very happy, as an American, that we have the democratic process. We’re not a dictatorship. We get to choose our leaders, and our leaders get checked by various other institutions, as well…I just hope that the people who are in leadership take more responsibility to the big picture, of how we all are on this planet together.”
For more go to: http://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/2017/05/19/maxwell/328928001/
