Conan O’Brien and Coldplay leader Chris Martin had an entertaining and wide-ranging conversation of a recent episode of the Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend podcast, touching on topics like a nurse who didn’t recognize him, Beyoncé’s knees, Bruce Springsteen’s dietary habits, the kindness of Woody Harrelson, and singers’ place in the talk show hierarchy. Elsewhere during the chat, Martin admitted to feelings of professional envy when it comes to the success of musicians like Harry Styles and how he’s learned to better handle those feelings.
Martin explained (starting at about 4:11 into the video above):
“You realize in a way that maybe the drive that you had, or the ego, is to sort of rocket-boost you to place where you can actually be a bit more useful. It’s not about winning this and beating that person anymore. It’s just… make something that some people might like. […]
I have to consciously override… I mean, I have to consciously listen to a lot of weird feelings, and luckily have some tools to help me these days to not be owned by that feeling. And one of the hardest ones is like, ‘Oh man, Harry Styles’ new song is better than our new song,’ or something like that. Luckily, I’ve been taught how to very quickly be just inspired by it, be like, ‘Well, you know what? It’s awesome, and he’s awesome, and I love him, and I’m just going to work harder.”
Check out the interview clip above and find the full Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend episode here.
Coldplay is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.