It never got me down, because I felt that that was what I was supposed to do. It had nothing to do with whether it resonated with everybody or not. When I first did Headhunters, it was partly out of a curiosity about what would that be like, if I did something that was more funky or earthy at this point; who knew that there was a larger public out there that was dying to hear that? When I did it, I realized that it might awaken a new audience to my music; at the same time, it might not sit well with my own fan base, which I had developed up to that point. In other words, I might not gain anybody new, and I might lose the [fans] I had. [Laughs]
But it was something I honestly felt I needed to do. Some of the fans I already had loved it, and some didn’t. But the only ones who objected to me doing it were the critics. Musicians — even those who were not into jazz-rock or fusion or jazz-funk, for those that it wasn’t to their taste — they didn’t object to me doing it. It was only the press, the jazz press, that almost expressed that I didn’t have a right to do it. I said, “Well, how about getting the handcuffs off me?”
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