Barry Manilow recently shared how destructive criticism of his music during the early days of his career impacted his state of mind.
The Guardian interviewed the 82-year-old American singer-songwriter, where he revealed that his music was severely criticised when he started his career and even Phil Collins once called it “spineless” in a 1986 Playboy interview.
Manilow said, “It was as if I’d hurt somebody in their family. It lasted for so long — from putting me down for the songs, and then putting me down for what I looked like.”
“If you wanted to get a big laugh, you would mention my name. It was 15 years of relentless, horrible reviews,” he stated.
The Here Comes the Night hitmaker once read some of the negative things written about him that pushed him into “self-pity” so much so that he used to “pull the covers over my head.”
“And then I would get dressed and go to the sound check, and that was that. Because I didn’t agree with them,” he quipped.
It is pertinent to mention that it was not the first time Barry Manilow opened up about receiving criticism over his music; he has been sharing the pain, as he told PEOPLE magazine in 1984, that all of the name-calling he received hurt “so badly because I call myself all those names before they do.”
