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“I’m 19 years old, I think I’m doing a pretty good job [...] it should really be about the music. It should be about the craft, the craft that I’m making. I’m an artist that should be taken seriously.” — Justin Bieber, 2013 Billboard Music Awards

Hate to break it to anyone who golf clapped this Justin Bieber speech, but just because you are an artist doesn’t mean we owe you a damn thing.

I’m sure it’s a very tough adjustment — and I say this in all seriousness: One day you are the manifestation of every single pre-pubescent girl’s dreams, and the next day you are nineteen and nobody gives two shits. That’s rough on a young person. I used to work with young people. They flip out at a zit on their nose on picture day. I can’t imagine being an international superstar and then just another Jonas/Hanson/Nelson/Osmond brother a few short years later after all the Bieber fever is gone.

But “being an artist”, that’s not an entitlement… It’s a privilege. And it could vanish just as quickly as it appeared.

When I was a kid, there was a pianist named Dino Kartsonakis. He was sort of the “Liberace” of the old-school Christian music scene. One weekend he played a concert at our church and I’ll never forget him, all dressed up in his Liberace Starter Kit: sequined coattails, piano with candelabra and a bear fleece-looking-thing spread out over the lid. I mean it was a production with a capital “P”. And as he’s closing the “show”, he starts plugging this book that he wrote, talking about how it’s a book on his life and how he came from nothing to be an internationally celebrated pianist who gets to travel all over the world and play in front of millions of people but that it’s hard and tough and long hours and not really a bed of roses all the time and being on the road takes a toll on your family and yada, yada, frickin’ yada….

The title? “Dino: Beyond the Glitz and Glamour”.

I almost puked on my shoes. He hung around after to sign autographs and take pictures. I wanted to wait in line just to ask him, “Who the hell do you think you are?”

Entitlement. Apparently that’s where Justin Bieber is now: He feels entitled. And entitlement is ugly, man. We’ve all seen before how this plays out. Entitlement is Kanye bum-rushing someone while they except an award on national television, grabbing the mic from their hand, and telling them “Imma let you finish, but…”. Entitlement is Elton calling a fellow entertainer a “fairground stripper” when she wins an award he was up for. And yes, entitlement is taking a Capuchin monkey into a country without any regard to their health laws or quarantine standards… Just because, hey… I’m Justin Bieber. There will always be attitudes of entitlement among us in the arts community because some people just have monster egos. The ego of an “expectant artist”. The artist who is owed the world simply because at some point that world looked up for a second and paid attention. They’ve got their own built-in Lifetime Achievement Award. They really don’t even need us, except to acknowledge what they already know about themselves… that they should be taken seriously.

“Being an artist” is not something that you get to do because you’ve declared that you are doing it. Being an artist is something that others call you when you do what you do really well, over and over again. Justin Bieber has accomplished a lot in the three or four or however many years he’s been at it. He’s had a lot of help, but let’s face it… the kid could sing and draw a crowd. Hats’ off to that. But to now be demanding that he be taken seriously? Has he done anything lately that demanded serious attention? Arguable. But regardless of whether he has or hasn’t, being taken seriously is an earned credit. You don’t even hear guys who could stand up there and demand such things being so bold! Ever heard Sir Paul sucking around for validation? No. He’d rather go into the back room for twenty minutes and emerge with another 10-song effort to win your love.

That’s what artists who get taken seriously do.

They don’t ask for pats on the ass.

They just make more art.