Las Vegas Weekly

March 22, 2010 · 10:01 AM

Smokey Robinson offers advice to aspiring musicians at SXSW

By Robin Leach

Smokey Robinson and Australian group Human Nature.

Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Legendary singer and music mogul Smokey Robinson said that “showbiz is a life of hard knocks” and that he still goes through “ups and downs,” but he doesn’t let the hard knocks discourage him.

The Motown entertainer, who lives here in Las Vegas and currently presents Human Nature at Imperial Palace, was invited to give the keynote address to the prestigious South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Music Festival in Austin, Texas. The festival, which premiered in 1994, serves as an incubator of cutting-edge technologies involved in the convergence of original music, independent films and emerging digital Internet media.

The film screenings began March 12 and ended Saturday, while the music portion began last Wednesday and ended last night. Variety describes SXSW as the only festival in the world where there’s no rope to separate showbiz industry experts from the event’s enthusiastic audiences.

Here’s the official YouTube video of Smokey’s advice to the festival participants. He said: “You see the success stories. You see the glitter. You see the accolades. Even if momentary and no matter how fleeting -- but doors do get closed in your face. I’ve been doing this for 50 years, and I still go through its ups and downs. My life has been a bunch of peaks and valleys. You have to let time in the valley be a lesson to reach for the top again and not let it discourage you.”

Smokey added: “I can’t think of anything else I would rather have done, and I’m glad I didn’t let the hard knocks discourage me.”

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

Follow Robin Leach on Twitter at Twitter.com/Robin_Leach.

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