SXSW 2010: Smokey Robinson keynote
Smokey Robinson speaks at a music workshop for high school at the White House on February 9. (Saul Loeb, Getty Images)
AUSTIN, Texas -- Smokey Robinson had a few words of advice for the aspiring musical stars in the audience: "I would encourage you not to take yourself so seriously."
Robinson was as articulate in his South by Southwest keynote address Thursday as he is in song.
He cautioned against a false sense of entitlement that he sees corrupting the entertainment industry. A lot of performers, he said, think "the world knows me now, they cannot possibly do without me. ... Don't kid yourself."
Robinson's career, he said, was a testament to working hard and staying humble, and listening and learning from the best, whether it was studying what made a hit song work or taking advice from a master songwriter only a few years his senior, a man named Berry Gordy, in the days before he ran Motown Records.
The centerpiece of the 24th annual conference began with a eulogy of sorts from creative director Brent Grulke, who dedicated the festival to the late Alex Chilton. The singer, 59, died Wednesday. He was scheduled to hop on a plane Friday from his New Orleans home to participate in a panel Saturday dedicated to his band, Big Star, and to play a festival showcase later that night.