The am-I-going-to-soil-myself nerves and subsequent elation of arriving onstage to headline your own arena gig is something that only a small minority of the human race will ever experience. The closest most of us will get is probably this article, in which we get to peer into Matt Bellamy’s brain as the Muse frontman breaks down exactly what it feels like to be a rock superstar. Please do not veer away from the guided tour whilst we are in there – there are parts of Matt Bellamy’s brain that are not suitable for public consumption. Take it away, Matt:
“Literally in the space of a few seconds, you transition from feeling like ‘I don’t know if I can do this’, ‘I don’t know if I’m worthy of this’ or ‘I don’t know if I can do what people want me to do’, you transition from being that to being ‘I am the fucking king of the world!’,” the Muse singer and guitarist told this writer back in 2016. At that point, the Teignmouth trio had just come off the back of a triumphant tour to support their 2015 album Drones, a jaunt that included a record-breaking show at London’s O2 Arena. The band broke the venue’s attendance record with their performance on April 15th 2016, playing to a crowd of 21,000 people.
