I was a kid who loved hard rock. I loved Bon Jovi and Guns N’ Roses. The big guitars and big choruses. The sound made sense to me.
I was eleven the first time I heard Cult of Personality by Living Colour. A lot of it felt familiar. The guitars were heavy, just like the rock and metal I already loved. But there was something else in it too. The groove moved different. It had funk. It was familiar, but it wasn’t.
And the band. A black heavy metal band?!?! I had not seen that before. It stopped me. I had been living inside a very white world in rural Maine.
I didn’t understand the lyrics yet. But I could tell that they carried weight. The closing quote from FDR, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” stuck with me. Even if I didn’t know why.
Around that same time, I was also watching the comedy show In Living Color. Between the music and the TV, I think I was starting to reach for culture beyond the bubble I was raised in. It all felt like a door to something bigger.
Fast forward almost forty years and something pulled me to watch the video again. I’m in a very different place now. I’m paying close attention to where love and fear show up in men’s lives, and in mine. Same song. Same guitar riff. Same words. But a whole new meaning.
The voice in the song says, “Look in my eyes, what do you see? The cult of personality. I know your anger. I know your dreams. I’ve been everything you want to be.” The voice is speaking straight to the listener. It shines bright lights. Collects prizes. Holds up mirrors. It tells you that you don’t have to follow, while making it almost impossible not to.
The song also throws leaders side by side. Gandhi against Mussolini. Kennedy against Stalin. One ruled by fear. One pulled by love.
As I was listening, I couldn’t help but think:
Were these all men with high testosterone levels?
And if so, did their environments and conditioning, the worlds they grew up in, the stories they believed, the cultures that shaped them, steer that same hormone in different directions?
Did it amplify fear in some and love in others?
You might be asking, what does this have to do with testosterone? Fair question.
I recently read the book, “T: The Story of Testosterone, the Hormone that Dominates and Divides Us” by Carole Hooven. So, I am thinking a lot about testosterone. How it shapes us. How it might pull us toward love or push us toward fear? If you want to dive deeper into T, here is as recent essay I wrote reflecting on the book.
In the book Hooven says, “T is not a potion that turns the meek into warriors or that causes rampant bellicosity. Its effects depend heavily on environmental factors…T tends to do what the situation requires.”
Testosterone doesn’t create character out of thin air. It doesn’t decide if you’ll be Gandhi or Mussolini. It acts more like a volume knob. It turns up what’s already there. In one man it makes domination louder. In another it makes courage louder.
Listening now, the song feels like it’s doing two things at once. It’s a warning about how easily we hand our power to a voice that shines bright. It’s also a mirror, showing how much we project onto leaders, expecting them to set us free. The truth in the song, though, is simple. “Only you can set you free.”
That line lands different now. Fear looks for a strong voice to hide behind. Love asks us to stand up as ourselves. Fear wants a savior. Love asks for responsibility. Fear hands over agency. Love builds a life aligned with what matters most.
I don’t hear this song as a relic from the late eighties anymore. I hear it as a question that’s alive right now. Who are we giving our power to. And what path are they amplifying, fear or love.
I invite you to listen with me and try this simple experiment. Put the song on, I recommend the video. Notice what shows up in your body. Notice who comes to mind when you think of a leader. Notice whether your chest tightens or opens. Then ask the question the song asks without saying it out loud. Which path am I feeding, fear or love?
Music from another generation that speaks to our current times = powerful!