Ryan Adams’ incredible sophomore solo effort Gold turned fifteen years old over the weekend, following up one of the strongest solo debuts in recent memory in 2000’s Heartbreaker. There are a lot of things could be written about that album, most notably that it contains some of Adams’ finest songwriting contributions and marked a bit of a stylistic departure from Heartbreaker, but he summed it all up with a stirring Instagram post.

“I wanted to explore hope again,” Adams wrote about the preliminary sessions for the album as he recounts feeling drained after extensively touring around his debut. “I’m so grateful I stayed who I was and made this leap when all anyone wanted was Heartbreaker part two. You gotta be who you really are–not something people can sell.”

He also added later on, “For all those heartbreaking times, confusion, alcoholism, struggle with the label, I got up and made this. This and so so so many more songs that aren’t even on this. And I’m so proud I did.”

Read the full post below.