[originaltext] I have stage fright. I’ve always had stage fright, and not ju

I have stage fright. I’ve always had stage fright, and not just a little bit—it’s a big bit. And it didn’t even matter until I was 27. That’s when I started writing songs, and even then I only played them for myself. Just knowing my roommates were in the same house made me uncomfortable.
    But after a couple of years, just writing songs wasn’t enough. I had all these stories and ideas, and I wanted to share them with people, but physiologically, I couldn’t do it. I had this irrational fear. [16]But the more I wrote, and the more I practiced, the more I wanted to perform. I knew I had to get past this nervousness.
    [17]And that’s when I had inspiration. And I remember it really well, because I don’t have a lot of inspiration. All I had to do was write a song that exploits my nervousness. That only seems authentic when I have stage fright, and the more nervous I was, the better the song would be. Easy. So I started writing a song about having stage fright. First, admitting my problem of fright, the physical performances, how I would feel, how the listener might feel. And then accounting for things like my shaky voice, and I knew I would be singing higher than normal, because I was nervous. By having a song that explained what was happening to me, while it was happening, that gave the audience permission to think about it. They didn’t have to feel bad for me because I was nervous, they could experience that with me, and we were all one big happy, nervous, uncomfortable family.
    By thinking about my audience, by embracing and exploiting my problem, I was able to take some thing that was blocking my progress, and turn it into something that was essential for my success. [18]An having the stage fright song let me get past that biggest issue right in the beginning of a performance. And then I could move on, and play the rest of my songs with just a little bit more ease. And eventually, over time, I didn’t have to play the stage fright song at all. Except for when I was really nervous, like now.
16. What did the speaker realize when he wanted to sing on the stage?
17. What does the speaker’s inspiration refer to?
18. What helped the speaker overcome his problem?