Yoko Ono, Miley Cyrus, John Mayer, Justin Bieber, Nickleback and Courtney Love.

These wildly successful musicians are also some of the most hated creators of recent memory.

If you make money as an artist, you will still probably encounter someone who will hate you or your art. You don’t even have to Miley famous.

People have said some terrible things about me online and to my face. Last week, a guy said, “I’m a better piano player than you.”

Congrats, dude. You’re also a bigger asshole, clearly.

Yesterday, I received an email from the editor of a popular online magazine. He informed me he was pulling our review and firing the writer because the write-up on our record was so nasty. Fortunately, I hadn’t read the review.

I accept not everyone is going to get our music, or what I am trying to convey as a songwriter. People may take issue with a big old homo like me charging into their genre, guns blazing. Many people don’t like change.

The band has received some pretty homophobic messages. Some have been a little frightening.

So why do we open ourselves up to this? Is it really worth it?