I picked up this book to explore the notion of creativity - 'It's not only Rock n' Roll ; Iconic musicians reveal their source of creativity'. The author has quite a fascinating life journey - Jenny Boyd was married to Fleetwood Mac's bassist and later to Bob Dylan's drummer, with family ties to George Harrison and Eric Clapton who were both married to her sister at one point or another. After two decades of global travel with bands, she pursued psychology, from bachelors right up to PhD with a focus on creativity. This book is a culmination of 75 interviews conducted between 1987 and 1991.

The concept of creativity posits that talent and creativity are distinct, with creativity being a universal trait requiring nurturing. According to interviews, 95% of successful musicians attribute their traits to nurture, not nature or genes. This part of the book explores how childhood shapes creativity of George Harrison, Keith Richards, BB King, Eric Clapton and more

‘Neither of my parents were musicians, but they did have an upright piano in the house, and my dad, who was a merchant seaman, bought a lot of records and a wind-up gramophone from the States. There was always music about the house, and they also liked to dance. My mum was often singing. Since they really appreciated music, they encouraged me. When I was 12, I wanted to buy a friend’s guitar, and my mother gave me the 3 pounds and 10 shillings to buy it. My mum really liked the idea of me playing, because Dad was always out working at night or doing shift work.

There was a friend of my father’s who, he remembered, used to play guitar when they were on the ships together. My father had sold his guitar because he needed the money, but this guy had continued playing. So my father called him up and asked him if he would show me a few things. This guy owned a liquor store, and whichever evening of the week he closed the shop, I’d go down there and he would show me how to play the guitar. I’m sure that set a certain pattern in my music, because he taught me all those old songs. He taught me all the chords to what you would call “dance band music”, and that stayed with me until this day. He was a great help to me, showing me where to put my fingers and how different chords follow each other, just by playing songs, really. In retrospect, I think he had an enormous influence on me.’

George Harrison, The Beatles

‘My father was an engineer, a foreman in a moulding company in Blackpool, England, and my mother took care of the family. I had friends who played guitar and seemed to have talent, but they were dissuaded from their destiny by their parents who said, “You’ve got to get a real job; this will never last. Go to the factory like your grandfather did and his father and your father and get a gold watch at 65.

I think my parents recognised something in me that they encouraged instead of deflated, and I’ll always be grateful to them for that. I was always encouraged as a boy to follow my natural instincts; my mother and father instilled in me that if I followed my heart, I’d come to no harm. Neither of them were musicians, although I found out about six months before my mother died that she was living her life [vicariously] through me. She had ambitions when she was a young woman of going on the stage and performing.”

Graham Nash, The Hollies

‘For some reason I was always crazy about the guitar, and most families in the area had some type of old guitar – that’s the one thing families in the area I grew up in could afford. When we went to church, the preacher, who was my uncle’s brother-in-law, played the guitar.

After church the preacher would come to our house, and all the adults would have dinner, and the kids would have to wait until the adults had finished before we could eat. Usually when the preacher would visit, he would lay his guitar on the bed. He always had a nice guitar; the electric guitar was coming in then, and he had a guitar that was amplified with pickups. So when he laid his guitar on the bed and then went in for dinner, I would crawl up on the bed and start playing with that guitar. One time they caught me, and I thought I’d surely get it. But the preacher didn’t scold me; he showed me three chords, which I still use today.’

- B. B. King

‘I think I wanted to be a musician from the minute I was born. I wanted to play anything my grandparents would get for me, which included violin and drums. When I was really young, my grandmother used to encourage me “to do a turn”. It was a big thing that everyone would have their own song. My gran would have a certain song if it was Christmas or if people had come round to visit. As a tiny tot, I was inevitably put up in the big bay window, they would pull the curtains, and I would sing “I Belong to Glasgow”. That was before I was aware of show biz. It was a very musical family background. Rose played the piano very well.

When my mother came back [to the Clapton household], she introduced jazz into the house. She was a big jazz fanatic – things like Benny Goodman, Harry James, or swing and big-band jazz. This was all very prevalent in my home when I was nine or ten. I clicked on that, especially Glenn Miller.’

Eric Clapton

‘I first started holding guitars and bashing away on pianos when I was a little kid. My grandfather used to run a dance band, and he turned me on to the playing of music. We were very close to each other. He had seven daughters and lived off the Seven Sisters Road in London, which was pretty ironic. He had this incredible sense of humour – for one guy to live in a house full of eight women, you’ve got to have a laugh!

When I used to visit him, a guitar would be on top of the piano, and I thought that’s where the guitar lived. Just a few years ago I found out that he used to put the guitar there especially for my visits. He’d take the guitar out of its case, polish it up, and leave it there. He never asked, “Do you want to play?” He would just let me look at it, and slowly I would ask if I could touch it.’

Keith Richards, Rolling Stones