What My Walk-Up Speaking Music Says About What I Actually Believe
It doesn’t always happen. But at some events…
There’s a moment before a keynote where the AV tech asks, “What do you want for walk-up music?”
This is never how I look. But I am starring in a new sci fi series where I am a high-tech pirate who attacks data centers, and we have to supply our own wardrobe because there’s no budget.
Most speakers say something safe. Something motivational. Something that says I listened to a lot of podcasts about peak performance.
(Probably Eye of the Tiger, or Thunderstruck, or that Whitney Houston song about Kevin Costner.)
I have a different approach.
The song playing when I walk out isn’t just atmosphere. It’s a compressed argument. It’s me telling the room something true before I’ve said a single word. And since I spend most of my time on stage talking about AI, generational dynamics, leadership, and what actually makes people tick — the playlist matters.
I am that powerful.
So here’s a breakdown of my walk-up rotation, what each song is really about, and why it connects to the work.
“Tricky” — Run DMC
On AI: it’s not magic, it’s fluency
Run DMC were the first rap group to go platinum. First on the cover of Rolling Stone. They made hip hop undeniable to mainstream America not by dumbing it down, but by being technically brilliant and culturally fluent simultaneously.
That’s the whole AI conversation?
“It’s tricky… to rock a rhyme, to rock a rhyme that’s right on time” — that is prompt engineering. That is knowing your tool well enough to make it look effortless. Companies that are struggling with AI implementation aren’t struggling because the technology is bad. They’re struggling because fluency takes practice, and most organizations skipped that part.
This is true with any innovation, really. We need bravery… and good timing.
The walk-up message: This isn’t going to be an AI hype talk. We’re going to actually learn something.
“Kickstart My Heart” — Mötley Crüe
On energy: you have to feel something first
Here’s what most people don’t know about this song. Tommy Lee wrote that riff the day after Nikki Sixx was clinically dead — brought back by adrenaline shots after an overdose. The song is literally about being shocked back to life.
Which is, not coincidentally, what a keynote is supposed to do.
But I don’t bring live wires.
I don’t even juggle fire, though I may threaten to.
I’m not interested in giving audiences information they could have gotten from a white paper. Information doesn’t change behavior. Emotion does. A room that feels something — curiosity, urgency, recognition, a little bit of joy — is a room that actually does something differently on Monday morning.
Harvard research doesn’t matter if everybody can’t understand it, and enjoy it. So I turn it into a joke - with a hidden explosive message.
(Ok that sounded way too grandiose. My bad. But I still think it’s cool.)
The walk-up message, nonetheless: We are about to wake up. And you don’t even have to DO COKE with a metal band to DO IT.
“Mama Said Knock You Out” — LL Cool J
On resilience: don’t call it a comeback
LL recorded this album after critics declared him finished. His label was ready to move on. “Don’t call it a comeback, I been here for years” is one of the most defiant lines in music history — and it came from a real place of being counted out.
I get it. I’m always too early.
(2022 business owner, “Hey have you heard of SEO?” Yeah, I quit doing it in 2012 because it was no longer the most effective thing.)
But that’s why I’m always teaching.
Most of the audiences I work with are navigating some version of this. A merger. A market shift. A disruption. A generation of new employees who seem to operate by completely different rules, if we’re being nice, and seem stupid and crazy if we’re being honest.
“No, YOU tazy.”
The instinct is to feel behind. Or justify old methods.
The reframe I keep coming back to: disruption isn’t the end of your story, it’s just a chapter. The organizations that treat upheaval as information rather than verdict are the ones that come out ahead. LL didn’t argue with the critics. He just made the record.
The walk-up message: We’re not done. We’re just getting started.
“I Wish” — Stevie Wonder
On generations: nostalgia is data
Stevie wrote this dong as a grown man looking back at childhood. It’s wistful, joyful, and just a little bit aching — which is exactly how most people feel about the past, secretly.
That emotional pull is the whole engine of generational dynamics. And why the old disco clothes you gave to the Sally are suddenly being worn by some roadie in an alley.
People don’t resist change randomly. They resist it from somewhere — from a formative experience, a set of values that got baked in during their most impressionable years, a version of the world that made sense to them once.
A secret, deep inside yourself, something you once knew to be true… but chose to forget.” Sorry that was just an excuse to quote Inception. I’ve seen it over 50 times.
When a Boomer manager can’t understand why a Gen Z employee won’t just “pay their dues,” or when a younger team member thinks their senior colleague is hopelessly behind — neither of them is wrong. They’re just emotional about different worlds.
Understanding that doesn’t make the friction disappear. But it makes it navigable.
Also: Stevie was blind, black, and a child star who negotiated creative control from his label at 21. He understood that systems weren’t built for him — and rewrote them anyway. That’s a leadership story worth knowing.
The walk-up message: Where you come from shapes what you see. Let’s figure out what everyone in this room is actually seeing. Then maybe we can create a vision together.
“Fuel” — Metallica
On execution: what actually drives you
Metallica aren’t puppets. They own their masters!
Built their own studio. Fired their label. Sued Napster before anyone else had the nerve. They are one of the greatest case studies in fiercely independent, self-managed creative enterprise in music history — and they did it by being relentlessly, almost unreasonably intentional about what they would and wouldn’t compromise on.
“Gimme fuel, gimme fire, gimme that which I desire” sounds like a car commercial. And we’d probably buy it. But as a leadership question, it’s actually pretty serious: what’s the thing you won’t trade away? What’s the non-negotiable that keeps you in motion when everything else gets hard?
**That’s the WHY. **
Not some fancy brand motto- but the fire that burns in you.
Most high-performance conversations focus on systems and habits. Those matter. But underneath all of it is something more fundamental — the reason the system is even worth maintaining. Metallica never forgot theirs.
(I think it might be loudness? I’m not sure.)
The walk-up message: Let’s talk about what actually drives you.
“Pride (In the Name of Love)” — U2
On leadership: what are you building that outlasts you
This is one of my favorite all time songs. And listen, I’m a music nerd. I have 5,000 favorite songs. But this one is near the top of that.
Prie was pretty much the most rockin song on the radio when I was growing up in the 80s. I love the sound.
But more than that, I love the meaning.
Bono wrote this about Martin Luther King Jr. — specifically about a man who died for something larger than himself, and whose work kept mattering long after he was gone. “One man caught on a barbed wire fence” is an image of sacrifice in service of a cause.
It never fails to choke me up.
U2 built a 40-year career by making their values the brand. Not just the music — the values. That’s actually rare. Most organizations treat values as something you put on a poster in the break room. U2 treated theirs as a strategic asset. And it’s one reason Bono seems so annoying.
But the leadership question underneath this song is one I come back to constantly: are you building something, or are you just running something? There’s a real difference.
Running something requires competence.
Building something requires a reason.
The walk-up message: Legacy is a choice you make now, not a label someone puts on you later.
(By the way, if you like this kinda song, check out Biko by Peter Gabriel, too.)
“Going Down” — Freddie King
On depth: range you haven’t seen yet
Freddie King was a Texas blues titan. Clapton learned from him. Stevie Ray Vaughan learned from him. Generations of guitar players owe him a debt most audiences will never know about.
Walk into a corporate conference room to Freddie King and most people won’t recognize it — which is exactly the point. It’s a little dangerous, a little swaggering, completely confident. It signals range before you’ve said anything.
I also love the self-aware opening it sets up: “Don’t worry, that’s not the theme of the talk” — which gets the laugh, establishes that I don’t take myself too seriously, and transitions cleanly into whatever comes next.
Then I say, “But I tell you, if you don’t listen to what I say, you’re GOING DOWN!”
It’s a real threat, and I back it up with wrestling.
Not really.
Some of the best ideas in business, leadership, and life come from places most people never look. Freddie King is a reminder that influence doesn’t always announce itself.
The walk-up message: There’s more going on here than you think.
The Through-Line
Looking at these seven songs together, there’s a common thread that I don’t think is an accident.
Every one of them is about people who were underestimated, misread, or working against a system that wasn’t built for them — and who figured it out anyway. Not through luck. Through fluency, resilience, self-knowledge, and a very clear sense of what they were actually for.
UNDERDOGS with heart.
That’s the keynote. Every time.
Whether I’m talking about AI adoption, generational friction, leadership under pressure, or what makes teams actually work — the underlying question is always the same: do you understand what’s actually happening here, and do you have what it takes to meet it?
The song just says it faster.
Brian Carter is a keynote speaker, nerd, and secret musician working with organizations including Microsoft, Salesforce, and NBC on AI implementation, generational dynamics, and leadership. If you want to talk about bringing this kind of weird-ass power to your team or event, the best place to start is http://keynotespeakerbrian.com/.
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