And, where you found a question about long-term ambitions, you’d more than likely find one stock standard answer - To become an all-round entertainer.
The cynics among us would probably be smelling a rat here, since, in all likelihood the performer’s aspirations would have involved quantities of illegal substances, a river of expensive liquor and an array of compliant, nubile sexual partners. Those peccadilloes were no the sort of thing that could be admitted to within earshot of the gutter press.
In reality, the responses had probably been put together by the artist’s management or press agent, who would’ve had definite ideas about the direction of the performer’s career.
No one would have predicted that, for example, the Rolling Stones would still be touring in 2005. And, following their legendary appearance on the Dean Martin Show in 1965 (Don’t you go away and leave me here with these Rolling Stones...) if you’d suggested that the Stones would have been absorbed into the mainstream to the point where they’d be half-time entertainment at the Super Bowl there would have phone calls made to arrange for a visit from the men in white coats who’d be carting you off to join Napoleon XIV of They’re Coming To Take Me Away, Ha Ha fame....
In the English press, becoming an all-round entertainer would have involved following the same career path as, say Tommy Steele, Rolf Harris or perhaps Nana Mouskouri. TV shows, stage work, the odd recording while the new kid on the block tried to maintain a high enough profile to stay in the business and avoid having to go out and get a real job.
Pre-Beatles, I doubt that anyone would have predicted that rock & roll would have provided any sort of career path that didn’t involve an early grave or a permanent spot in the queue at the local soup kitchen.
Regardless of anyone’s dismissal of overrated lightweights who aren’t as influential as certain punk bands who are to blame for all that soft rock I have a suspicion that if those overrated lightweights hadn’t burst on the scene we’d be surveying a substantially different musical landscape.