Julian Lloyd Webber is undoubtedly one of the country's greatest living musicians – the man who, perhaps more than anyone of his generation, took classical music out of the concert hall and into the mainstream. But in October 2013, ten minutes into a recital in a Suffolk seaside town, the power drained from his right arm and he found he could barely draw the bow across his cello.Within six months, at 63, he was forced to retire – unemployed overnight and stripped of the thing that had defined him since he was a boy of thirteen.For half a c...
Julian Lloyd Webber is undoubtedly one of the country's greatest living musicians – the man who, perhaps more than anyone of his generation, took classical music out of the concert hall and into the mainstream. But in October 2013, ten minutes into a recital in a Suffolk seaside town, the power drained from his right arm and he found he could barely draw the bow across his cello.
Within six months, at 63, he was forced to retire – unemployed overnight and stripped of the thing that had defined him since he was a boy of thirteen.
For half a century, the cello had been Julian's whole life. He toured the world, playing with everyone from Yehudi Menuhin to Elton John, took an Elgar recording to a Brit Award and his brother's Variations to number two in the pop charts. He was the first officially licensed busker on the London Underground and the only classical soloist at the London Olympics closing ceremony.
Then, at 64, he sat the first job interview of his life and went on to lead the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire into a £57 million new home, winning it royal status along the way. On his 75th birthday – and while quietly managing a prostate cancer diagnosis – he walked back onto the Wigmore Hall stage and played again. And now, twelve years after the power drained from his arm, Julian is touring – a full run across Ireland this autumn with his cellist wife, Jiaxin.
His memoir, Bows & Arrows, is out now, and this conversation is about the abuse he survived as a boy, the instrument he loved and lost, and how you rebuild an identity when the thing that made you who you are is taken away.
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FOUR LESSONS FROM JULIAN
- Talent and hard work aren't enough on their own – you need passion, because that's the only thing that gets you up to do it all again after a bad night.
- A second string to your bow can end up saving your life. When you lose the thing that defined you, throw yourself into whatever else genuinely moves you – even if it's nothing like what you did before. Find something that truly absorbs you, and the healing takes care of itself.
- When a setback knocks you down, picture the alternative. For Julian, the fear of ending up disappointed with his life was the fuel that kept him going.
- Healing is not forgetting; it's reaching the point where the trauma you carry doesn't drag you down.
CHAPTERS
04:01 – Growing up in a chaotic, bohemian home
09:12 – The day on the Tube that took his childhood
11:03 – Why some things you don't get over – and shouldn't have to
15:21 – His father's warning that lit the fire
17:39 – Fifty years at the top: how he kept the flame alive
27:25 – The longest relationship of his life
33:12 – A football bet, a number two record, and a gold disc
35:01 – The night the power drained from his arm
39:02 – Losing your job, your income and your identity overnight
39:59 – The first job interview of his life, at 64
44:22 – The daughter's remark that brought him back to the cello
47:57 – Facing a cancer diagnosis
51:32 – Why he refuses to slow down, even now
BUY JULIAN'S BOOK
Bows & Arrows – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bows-Arrows-Julian-Lloyd-Webber/dp/1837360588
SEE JULIAN LIVE
Julian's Irish tour with his wife, Jiaxin – https://julianlloydwebber.com/events/
FOLLOW JULIAN LLOYD WEBBER
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/julian.lloydwebber/
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This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio), Jasper Cullen (video)
