We sat down with James blunt for this weeks In Conversation series to discuss living with Carrie Fisher, new book 'Loosely Based on a Made-Up Story', finally receiving his NME award for 'Worst Album' and more
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00:00 You know, I always raise this in an NME interview,
00:01 the album got worst album from the NME,
00:05 and I thought, cool, do that.
00:06 But I wasn't invited to the awards ceremony,
00:08 they never gave me the award, so it was a little mean.
00:11 - You mentioned this.
00:12 (laughing)
00:14 You should see what I've got behind me.
00:15 - No way.
00:16 (laughing)
00:18 - Belatedly. - Oh my God.
00:20 - I feel a bit embarrassed giving it to you,
00:21 but it's worth the album. - I'm so thrilled.
00:23 I'm so thrilled.
00:25 (upbeat music)
00:29 - Hi, I'm Nick, and I'm joined by James Blunt
00:31 for the latest in NME's In Conversation series.
00:34 How's it going today?
00:35 - Good, thanks, Nick.
00:36 Thanks for having me along.
00:37 - Oh, very welcome.
00:38 First thing I wanted to ask is,
00:39 the album's called Who We Used To Be.
00:41 Why did you call it that?
00:43 - Well, it's kind of a nostalgic throwback
00:45 to my years when I started off as a musician,
00:49 you know, with that kind of dream and aspiration,
00:51 not with the questions, the big questions of life,
00:54 of, you know, who are you gonna be?
00:56 What are you gonna do?
00:56 Who are you gonna meet?
00:58 And now I'm at a stage in my life
01:00 where I've answered some of those questions.
01:01 You know, I've met the person who I'm married to
01:04 and hopefully will live out for the rest of my life.
01:05 I've been a musician for a few years now,
01:08 and at the same time,
01:09 it's kind of thrown up some new questions.
01:10 As my parents get older,
01:12 my position amongst the family changes,
01:15 and I've got young kids.
01:16 And so, yeah, so I've got perhaps just as many questions now
01:20 as I had then,
01:20 and so that's why it's this kind of nostalgic look back.
01:23 - Do you find in a way you've got even more
01:25 to write about than you had in the past?
01:26 - Yeah, definitely.
01:28 I think when you're, as you say,
01:30 a young man or woman stepping out in the world,
01:32 you have so many questions,
01:33 and that's why in our teenage years,
01:35 it's so inspirational to write songs.
01:37 And then you go through these kind of,
01:38 the comfort years where you're kind of,
01:41 where you're just gliding.
01:42 And then, as I say, you know,
01:44 my stage of life having just started a family
01:46 and worried for kids and my position changing
01:50 because my parents,
01:51 I'm now looking after my parents,
01:52 rather than them looking after me.
01:55 Yeah, suddenly it's definitely a kind of inspiring time
01:57 where you, yeah, where, yeah,
01:59 just your position's changed
02:00 and loads of questions that come with it.
02:02 - There's a couple of tracks on the album,
02:03 "Some Kind of Beautiful" and "Beside You,"
02:05 which are quite kind of dancey,
02:07 in a way we maybe haven't heard from you before.
02:09 What inspired those songs?
02:10 Is it, you know, being on Ibiza, amnesia?
02:12 - Yeah, I mean, you know,
02:13 I know I'm famous for dreary songs on guitar,
02:16 but I live in Ibiza, I love dancing,
02:20 but I live in Ibiza, I love dance music.
02:23 And also, I suppose, I'm writing songs about my wife,
02:28 the, you know, the person I've aspired to be
02:30 with all my life, but I've been looking for all my life.
02:32 And so rather than write a song about a second in time
02:35 of seeing a girl on a subway,
02:37 the song about, you know,
02:38 who you're with has to be bigger than that.
02:40 So there has to be bigger statements.
02:42 And so that's why, you know,
02:42 they're upbeat and fun songs.
02:46 - I did wonder with "Some Kind of Beautiful,"
02:47 did you have to think twice
02:48 before writing a song with "Beautiful" in the title again?
02:51 - Definitely.
02:51 I think, you know, 'cause legally I'm obliged
02:53 not to use the word anymore, aren't I?
02:56 (laughing)
02:57 - You mentioned, obviously, you live in Ibiza,
02:58 but you've got kids now.
02:59 Are you still able to go out clubbing?
03:01 I mean, we'll get onto the book later,
03:02 but there's lots of tales of going out clubbing Ibiza
03:04 in the book, but can you still do that very often?
03:06 - Yeah, I'm high on babysitters.
03:08 (laughing)
03:11 I mean, you know, I love clubbing,
03:14 and I built one at the end of my garden,
03:16 and I've played in a shwire.
03:20 Ibiza's one of my favorite clubs in the world,
03:22 and I wrote a song about Pasha called "1973,"
03:26 which is when it opened that year.
03:28 Pete Tong remixed it and played it there
03:29 when he had a residency there as well,
03:31 so it's, you know, it's definitely in my blood.
03:33 - What's the door policy for the club
03:35 at the end of your garden?
03:36 - You can get in, definitely.
03:37 (laughing)
03:38 I have a mannequin on the door whose name,
03:40 her name is Svetlana.
03:42 She has a clipboard with my mate's names on it,
03:43 your name's, I'll put it on for you.
03:45 And you know, you speak to her and you come.
03:48 - Would you say that this album's
03:49 one of your most eclectic?
03:50 'Cause there are, as we said,
03:51 there's these kind of upbeat dancing tracks,
03:53 but there are also some really emotional songs on there.
03:55 - Yeah, you know, and for me at least, "Misery Cell,"
03:58 so I've got to chuck a few of those on there.
04:00 And I suppose it's just a diverse album in that way.
04:03 It's got a bit of everything, as you say,
04:05 dance songs, because I'm, you know,
04:08 I'm having a pretty amazing time in life, generally.
04:12 But of course, you know, I'm on this kind of rollercoaster
04:15 of life too, and there have been some highs
04:19 and there have been some lows.
04:20 And you know, along the way I've lost friends.
04:23 Some friends struggle with their things
04:25 and it's very hard to help them.
04:26 There's a song called "Saving a Life."
04:28 We've had aspirations as a family in some of those things
04:31 we've succeeded in and others we haven't.
04:33 So there's a song called "The Girl That Never Was."
04:36 And I've written a song for Carrie Fisher,
04:38 who I lived with for many years.
04:40 And it's just, it's been a few years since her death,
04:42 but it's taken me that long to write a song
04:46 that justifies her life.
04:47 - That's some dark thought.
04:49 - Exactly.
04:50 - Why is now the right time to write it?
04:51 Why did it feel okay?
04:52 - It's taken me, I think it must be about seven years
04:54 since she died, I'm not entirely sure,
04:55 but it's taken me all of that time to write a song for her
05:00 because she's just an incredible human being.
05:02 And I just, as a songwriter, you, you know,
05:07 the most honest song is normally the easiest song to write
05:11 because it just flows out of you.
05:12 The words just come and I've been overthinking the song
05:15 for so many years because, as I say,
05:17 she's such an incredible human being.
05:19 And so what I did with the song is I just described
05:22 the moment I went back looking for her after her death.
05:25 I went back to her house on a whim, drove up to her gate,
05:29 put my hand on the gate just to feel a little bit of her
05:31 there and I wrote the song about that moment.
05:35 Ironically, as I did that and sort of, you know,
05:38 had to put my hand on the gate and said,
05:40 "God, I miss you, Carrie," and shed a tear as I did that,
05:42 a star map van full of tourists pulled up outside the house,
05:47 you know, an open top van,
05:49 they show people where different celebrities live
05:51 and the tour guide said, "And on your left,
05:54 you'll see the late, great Carrie Fisher's house."
05:56 And as you can see, some fans are still deeply moved
05:59 by her passing and that was me.
06:01 - I think people may not realize until they read the book
06:06 just what a big impact on your life and career
06:09 Carrie Fisher had.
06:10 I mean, in the song you sing, "Goodbye to my best friend ever"
06:14 and in the book you talk about how you, you know,
06:16 you lived with her for a long time.
06:18 Like, how would you describe her kind of impact in life?
06:20 Yeah, do you think of it,
06:21 was she like a mother figure, a best friend?
06:23 - Yeah, a best friend, a mother, my greatest confidante,
06:26 really, you know, she, yeah, any and every secret
06:31 I've ever had in life, she would know about.
06:33 And, you know, when I met my wife, she was the first person
06:36 I, you know, I told that this is the one
06:37 and she and I looked for engagement rings together.
06:39 She's an amazing human.
06:41 I just had this amazing moment where I left the army
06:45 and met Carrie Fisher and she said
06:46 I was gonna live with her.
06:47 And so having gone from this kind of very disciplined,
06:50 structured way of life as part of, you know, an institution,
06:55 I find myself living in Los Angeles,
06:57 living at Carrie's house, in this bizarre house
07:00 where she had, you know, a Christmas tree
07:02 out 365 days a year and just, you know,
07:05 chandeliers in the trees outside and fairy lights everywhere
07:08 and, you know, incredible madness within the house physically
07:12 and I suppose in her madness too
07:14 'cause she's an incredible creative soul.
07:16 And so the juxtapositions of my life were completely changed.
07:20 But if you've had a dream to be a musician, you know,
07:23 then that's really enabling that dream, suddenly.
07:26 She really enabled that dream to become a reality.
07:29 - I guess the culture shock from going from like military life
07:31 to living with Carrie Fisher must mean that you can cope
07:34 with anything on tour now.
07:35 - Yeah, definitely.
07:36 And I suppose it just really, you know,
07:38 allowed the naivety I had that I was gonna be a musician.
07:42 I'm gonna be a successful musician
07:44 and she really kind of enabled that in the way that,
07:46 you know, of course, if you leave the army,
07:47 you suddenly end up living with Carrie.
07:49 Of course, the world's gonna be your oyster at that point.
07:51 You can surely do anything.
07:53 And yeah, and what you're saying, I suppose, is yeah,
07:55 you're just used to anything.
07:56 You can hang out with anyone once you've been in the house
07:59 because everyone's passing through it from Joni Mitchell
08:02 to, you know, sons of, you know,
08:04 of John Lennon were there, were passed through.
08:06 So, you know, it could be anyone, Meryl Streep,
08:09 Courteney Cox, Courtney Love, any, you know,
08:11 anyone can be passing through it at any stage.
08:13 - And Debbie Reynolds calling down every morning.
08:16 - Debbie Reynolds was there, you know,
08:17 basically lived on the property.
08:18 She'd shout at me every morning,
08:19 asking me if I wanted a drink.
08:22 - Something that really struck me in the book
08:25 is that you wrote about being turned down
08:28 by about 15 record labels.
08:29 I think you said every record label in the UK, essentially.
08:32 When you kept getting turned down,
08:34 where did your self-belief come from?
08:35 How did you keep sort of getting back up
08:37 and thinking, "No, I'm meant to do this"?
08:38 - Well, I think I was very lucky to be very naive
08:41 and that naivety gave a great sense of confidence
08:45 that, you know, of course this was gonna achieve
08:47 and, you know, you can be turned down
08:49 by however many, 30 record labels,
08:51 but there's gotta be more, haven't there?
08:52 Be positive.
08:54 And, you know, the UK is a small place,
08:57 so let's go and get signed somewhere else.
09:00 I guess, you know, that's the thing.
09:01 And also, you know, like anything in life,
09:05 you need to go down a few wrong turns
09:08 to know where the right road is.
09:11 So all of them were a lesson
09:13 and every knock back I'm grateful for
09:16 because it pointed me in the right direction.
09:17 - The person who actually signed you in the end
09:19 was Linda Perry, who was from Four Non-Blondes
09:21 and then she became a huge songwriter.
09:22 Why do you think that you and her worked well together?
09:25 Why was that the right fit?
09:27 - I sing songs in a very, very open, honest way.
09:33 There's no bravado, there's no shell.
09:36 I am not a cool human being.
09:38 I'm not trying to be cool
09:39 'cause I could never achieve that.
09:40 But so what I am is very, very open
09:43 with my emotions, my fears, my frailties and my failings.
09:48 And that deep sense of honesty
09:51 she really could see and relate to
09:54 and was excited by someone standing on stage
09:56 and not afraid to sing about those things.
09:59 And yeah, so that's what she picked up on
10:03 and she didn't care about anything else.
10:05 You know, in the UK we're married
10:06 about perception and image
10:08 and those things that didn't matter to her.
10:11 - The book's called "Loosely Based on a Made-Up Story
10:14 and Non-Memoir".
10:15 What should we take from that title?
10:16 Like what should we glean from it?
10:17 - Well, I'm legally obliged to tell you
10:19 that it means that nothing's true in the book.
10:21 (laughing)
10:22 As to whether that's the case, again, I'm unsure
10:26 because it's a non-memoir
10:28 'cause I can't really remember very much.
10:30 It's been a long time
10:31 and a lot's gone down the throat since then.
10:34 (laughing)
10:35 - Well, 'cause when I was reading it, I was thinking,
10:37 "Is this completely true?"
10:38 Is this, I mean, in my mind,
10:39 I'm taking away that most of it is completely true.
10:41 - It's super hard to say, isn't it?
10:43 (laughing)
10:43 - What made you want to write the book?
10:45 And did you enjoy the process?
10:46 - I think, you know, I'd been, I was signed in 2000.
10:51 I left the army in 2002.
10:52 I think I got signed in 2003 and put my album out in 2004.
10:57 So it's been, you know, 20 years really in the business,
10:59 which seems like a good time
11:01 that hopefully I won't get into trouble
11:03 for the things that I've written.
11:05 But I can't leave it another 20 years
11:06 because otherwise the people in the book,
11:08 you know, myself and Jedward, will no longer be relevant.
11:10 (laughing)
11:12 Or known, you won't know who they are.
11:13 So that's probably why now is the time.
11:16 - Do you have to contact the people in the book
11:18 to tell them they're gonna be in it
11:19 or is that not how it's done?
11:20 - You know, most of the civilians I have.
11:24 - Okay.
11:25 - Yeah.
11:25 - But not Jedward?
11:26 - No, I, you know, are they in the book?
11:31 I've forgotten about that.
11:32 - I don't want to spoil it for people who haven't read it.
11:34 There's a really good story involving Jedward and Tara Reade.
11:37 - Right.
11:38 You know, they are, as they are in the book,
11:42 they are the heroes of the moment.
11:43 So I don't think I need to alert them to that
11:47 because they come out shining.
11:49 Whereas me and my friends don't.
11:51 I mean, I think, you know, most of the,
11:53 I'm the fool guy in most of the stories.
11:56 - Yeah.
11:56 You don't seem to mind making yourself the kind of punchline
12:00 or have a bit of self-deprecating humour at the end of a chapter.
12:02 - It's not that I don't mind, it's just that I've got used to it.
12:04 - There are more serious bits in the book.
12:07 I was really struck by how you wrote about the publishing
12:12 for "You're Beautiful" that Amanda Ghost has 10%,
12:15 which maybe she doesn't fully warrant.
12:18 Was it important for you to put your side of that story out there?
12:21 - Well, I just think it was important to be factual about what's gone on
12:25 because I suppose, you know, along the media journey,
12:29 it just sometimes it hasn't been clear.
12:31 - Does it still rankle that that happened to you
12:33 or is it, you know, it's 20 years later, you kind of...
12:35 - I think it's 20 years later.
12:36 And it's just a kind of lesson, I suppose,
12:38 when you start out in the music business,
12:40 you can meet all sorts of people
12:42 and, you know, you hope you meet the good ones.
12:46 - There's some really...
12:48 The book is really full of fun stories
12:50 and we touched on this a bit earlier with "Now You Have Kids".
12:53 Are your tour after parties still as fun as they used to be?
12:56 - Yeah, they are.
12:57 You know, it's a different game now.
13:00 As the book will tell you,
13:01 three of my bandmates have married people from the audience
13:04 and we're all happily married,
13:06 but, you know, we've married really fun people.
13:08 So they come on the tour and it's, you know,
13:10 and yeah, it's a different beast,
13:13 but it's probably a healthier one.
13:15 - Well, that suggests it's a very kind of, like,
13:18 fun welcoming party
13:19 if people want to kind of come and stay for the long run.
13:21 - Yeah. Our main thing is, you know, what we did is,
13:24 you know, the whole purpose of being a musician
13:26 in the first place is to have a fun life, isn't it?
13:28 You know, and so when we did start on tour,
13:30 we just made sure we had an after party
13:32 after every single concert.
13:34 Whether we were, you know,
13:36 close to death, or from a hangover or not,
13:38 we would still have another after party.
13:40 And the point of that was quite important, really,
13:42 because otherwise we were doing 260 concerts a year
13:44 at that stage.
13:45 And if we didn't invite people back to have a party,
13:49 we'd literally just be sitting around as a band
13:50 talking about chords,
13:52 and, you know, who played the wrong chord when,
13:55 or, you know, or discussing music.
13:57 And that gets, it gets really boring
13:59 when musicians just together,
14:01 just obsessively talking about music.
14:02 You know, I'd start pulling my hair out and say,
14:04 "We've got to invite other people backstage here
14:06 so that you guys stop talking about whatever ASOS 7."
14:09 - When you went back to Bedlam, went supernova,
14:13 and I think we should say it's the 18th best-selling album
14:15 in the UK ever, which is insane.
14:17 How long was it after that that you actually got a day off?
14:20 You mentioned you were playing that many gigs.
14:21 Was it like three years before you actually managed
14:23 to kind of take a step back from it all?
14:25 - Yeah, I mean, I did,
14:26 I do remember saying to the record label,
14:28 you know, "You're definitely going to break your toy
14:30 at some stage,"
14:30 'cause I was just, you know,
14:32 up at five or up at 4.30 to go and do early radio,
14:35 and still working through till, you know,
14:37 one o'clock or two o'clock at night
14:39 doing shows and late night performances.
14:42 And you think, you know, "Wow, there's, you know,
14:44 there's not much downtime here just to recharge a battery."
14:47 But at the same time, it was incredibly good fun.
14:51 I mean, you know, and it still is.
14:53 I'm very, very lucky to have this job.
14:55 It's an absolutely amazing job of,
14:57 I do my passion in music.
14:58 I'm lucky enough that people turn up in their thousands.
15:01 I'm just about to go out on a tour,
15:02 and we play arenas off France,
15:04 starting in Europe and through the UK.
15:06 And, you know, this is, I mean, how lucky am I?
15:09 - Yeah, I mean, I think I took away that
15:11 from the book that you really are,
15:13 you love your life on a personal level
15:14 and a professional level.
15:16 And I thought it's amazing that you're still
15:18 on the same record contract with Atlantic.
15:20 I mean, how many artists have that after 20 years?
15:21 - Yeah, and it's a strange thing too, isn't it?
15:23 Because we see so many artists fall out
15:26 with their record labels,
15:28 and then the fallout from that.
15:30 And I've been very lucky.
15:31 Atlantic Records have looked after me really well.
15:33 I really am a huge fan of theirs.
15:35 They're a family, and of course,
15:37 some of the faces change, but they're, you know,
15:39 the young people within that label bring its energy
15:42 and new ideas to it.
15:45 But really, they've looked after me really well.
15:47 And, you know, and I'm here with them.
15:49 And we have our highs and our lows.
15:51 You know, they forgive me my mistakes,
15:52 which I make plenty of.
15:54 And, you know, and even right now,
15:57 you know, we've had a huge debate in their records
15:59 with the label about which single to put out.
16:01 You know, I don't like the singles they choose.
16:03 I always think they're the ones,
16:05 they say this is good for radio,
16:07 but they like that song,
16:08 but they're going to choose that one
16:09 that they don't like so much
16:10 because it's good at radio.
16:11 And it's an internal debate, which I struggle with.
16:14 And I've said this time, "Hey guys, look,
16:15 I really want to put the one that we all like on
16:17 and instead choose that as a single."
16:19 And they said, "Okay, you know, we'll give it a go."
16:21 And it might be a huge mistake,
16:23 but they're willing to let me give it a go.
16:26 - Have you disagreed with them
16:28 about singles all through your career?
16:29 - Well, not always, but you know,
16:31 it's a conversation and it's a relationship.
16:34 And we care for each other and we respect each other.
16:37 And it's, you know, and I'm still here.
16:39 So thank God for them.
16:42 - How important would you say humor has been in your career?
16:46 Like, I feel like on several levels,
16:48 it seems to have been really important for you.
16:50 One, in getting through all the madness
16:52 that you've experienced along the way.
16:53 And B, maybe in the last few years,
16:55 it's kind of changed people's perceptions of you
16:57 in this country, at least.
16:58 - Yeah. You know, I put out quite serious, earnest music,
17:04 but I'm not a very serious person.
17:07 And I think what I struggled with
17:08 at the beginning of my career
17:10 is that I would talk about the music in a serious way
17:13 and then be asked questions
17:14 that are kind of more tabloid type questions
17:16 and I'd make a joke about them.
17:17 But the journalist would never put the ha-ha in the article.
17:21 And so the jokes came across as very serious too,
17:25 or just weird in some scenarios.
17:27 And so then I guess people just thought,
17:31 "Wow, this guy's just earnest and odd."
17:33 And that was a bit of a struggle.
17:35 And then with social media,
17:36 then I think at least the idiot was revealed to people.
17:41 The clown that I am was revealed.
17:43 But yeah, it's hugely important for me
17:44 because it's a silly business
17:48 based on such pretension really on the whole.
17:50 And so, yeah, I don't think it's worth
17:54 taking oneself too seriously in that business.
17:56 Because if you do,
17:57 you'll only get knocked down at some stage.
17:59 - When your career was really going like this
18:02 and everything was happening for you back in sort of 2006,
18:05 that was the time when it felt like
18:07 you were getting the most criticism, both in the tabloids,
18:10 I mean, the bookends with some press clippings
18:12 from that period, which are, I mean, brutal.
18:15 I don't think they'd be written now.
18:16 But also a lot of fellow musicians were criticising you,
18:19 a weird kind of disparate mix of fellow musicians,
18:22 everyone from like Charlotte Church to Paul Weller.
18:24 Like, how did you deal with that at the time
18:26 when you must have also just been exhausted basically
18:29 from your touring schedule?
18:30 - I think, you know, I'd just come, stepped out of the army.
18:34 And so what I suppose was a surprise
18:35 was the childishness of this industry.
18:38 And so that was a surprise in itself.
18:43 And so there was a juxtaposition.
18:44 I mean, just having this incredible time.
18:46 I was touring the world,
18:49 I'm playing to tens of thousands of people.
18:51 My album is just absolutely everywhere.
18:54 And yet within the media and from some musicians
18:59 getting, you know, just having this terrible, terrible
19:02 kind of backlash for it.
19:04 So it was always a little bit bittersweet in that way.
19:07 And I guess it was a little bit of a confusion as well,
19:11 because it's just a song and an album and a person.
19:13 It just doesn't seem to be the aggression with which it came
19:17 was sometimes a surprise.
19:18 And there were just, yeah, it seemed childishness.
19:22 You know, I always raised this in an NME interview.
19:24 The album got, you know, worst album from the NME.
19:27 And I thought, cool, do that.
19:29 But I wasn't invited to the awards ceremony.
19:30 They never gave me the award.
19:32 So it was a little mean.
19:33 - You mentioned this.
19:34 - So, you know.
19:36 - You should see what I've got behind me.
19:38 - No way.
19:39 - Belatedly.
19:41 - Oh my God.
19:42 - I feel a bit embarrassed giving it to you.
19:43 - I'm so thrilled.
19:45 I'm so thrilled.
19:47 - Well, belated congratulations
19:49 and thanks for taking it in such good humor.
19:50 - Oh, that's the best thing ever.
19:53 Really, genuinely.
19:56 - It got couriered to me yesterday
19:58 and I kind of wanted to keep it,
19:59 but obviously it doesn't belong to me.
20:00 - I'm deeply, deeply touched.
20:02 Thank you so much.
20:03 That's going beside every other award in the world
20:07 and probably be the one I'm most proud of.
20:09 - Where will it go in your house?
20:11 - Thank you so much.
20:12 - Where are the awards kept in your house?
20:16 - I keep them in the loo.
20:17 - Okay, perfect.
20:18 I mean, that's great.
20:19 - Yeah, exactly.
20:20 Brilliant.
20:21 Thank you so, so much.
20:22 - Why do you think that you were treated
20:25 as like such a kind of punchline at the time?
20:28 Like, is that something you want to analyze
20:29 or do you just not want to think about it?
20:30 - Well, you know, it's tough and I was really, really naive
20:37 and I'd come from this very protected organization
20:41 of the army and, you know, boarding school before that.
20:45 And so whilst I was, I was just, you know,
20:47 and very, very open
20:49 and I think other people who'd come
20:50 from a tougher experience probably just felt like saying,
20:53 you know, "Fuck you, what are you talking about?
20:55 You don't really know and you've had it easy."
20:57 And in some respects I've had some things easy, absolutely.
21:00 You know, and as I said in the book, you know,
21:03 looking back at certain interviews
21:05 and certain ways I responded, you know, my jokes,
21:08 the way I was, yeah, just, you know,
21:11 occasionally I looked at myself and thought, you know,
21:12 I'd punch myself in the face too.
21:13 I really kind of fell that way too.
21:16 - I guess no one taught you how to do an interview
21:19 back in the day.
21:19 You were just thrown into it.
21:20 - Yeah, exactly.
21:22 It's, yeah, you know, it's a funny old thing
21:25 and you learn, you have to, it's an industry
21:26 where you have to learn when you're on the fly, don't you?
21:30 You know, the questions come in
21:31 and that's the first time you're asked the question
21:32 and sometimes you learn when you're on the stage
21:34 and sometimes you're in an award ceremony
21:35 and you're suddenly, you know, in the public eye
21:38 in a way that you've never been taught, never experienced
21:40 and no one's guiding you.
21:42 And again, a record label can only,
21:45 and a manager can only do so much really, so.
21:47 - I should say that there are fellow artists
21:50 who've supported you a lot, like that comes across
21:52 in the book, Elton John's very supportive.
21:54 - Yeah, only the smaller ones,
21:55 - Ed Sheeran, so if you've got two people on your side,
21:58 that's quite a good two to have.
21:59 - Yeah, I was very lucky, you know,
22:00 Paul McCartney said something very, very positive
22:02 very, very early on that was incredibly sweet.
22:04 And then, you know, when you bank that,
22:06 then versus Charlotte Churchill, you're kind of okay.
22:09 (laughing)
22:11 And of course, Elton took me out on tour
22:15 around South America and around the UK
22:17 and was a phenomenal support.
22:19 So, you know, but I suppose more important than,
22:23 you know, those guys and girls within the industry
22:25 who are nice, you know, I've been very lucky
22:28 that I've had people turning up to concerts.
22:30 And so whilst I've always been asked
22:33 about the negative in interviews,
22:34 there are tens of thousands of people
22:35 who are buying the album, millions of people
22:37 are buying the album and turning up to concerts.
22:39 Perhaps that should be a better measure
22:41 rather than just focusing on the negative.
22:43 And I suppose that's what I've learned to do.
22:45 - Are you proud of yourself in your career?
22:47 - As a person individually, that I am not damaged goods.
22:55 Because this industry is, you know,
22:57 it can pick you up and swallow you up
23:01 and then spit you out and it can damage you.
23:05 And I've been very lucky that I've got friends
23:07 and family who've just told me to buck up
23:08 and get over it whenever it's been difficult
23:12 and appreciate the good bits
23:13 'cause the good bits have been awesome
23:15 and the bad bits, they're not too bad.
23:18 And as a result, I think I've got my feet on the ground.
23:20 - Ask us one more question.
23:22 In the book, a few times you described yourself
23:24 very self-deprecatingly as a national pariah,
23:27 but in the press release for your new album,
23:29 you're described, which I guess was not by you,
23:31 but someone at your label,
23:32 as something of a national treasure.
23:34 Do you feel like a bit of both now?
23:35 Do you feel like you're in this mid place?
23:38 - I mean, I'm certainly embarrassed
23:39 that they should have said that in any way,
23:41 but because, yeah, 'cause I certainly don't think
23:45 it's true in any way, but I think we've made good,
23:49 you and me.
23:51 - I think it's national treasure.
23:52 Everyone I've said that I was interviewing today
23:54 was so excited.
23:54 - Well, that's sweet of you to say, but you know,
23:57 but I think we've all come full circle.
23:58 The enemy and me, we're friends.
24:02 - Well, yeah, thanks so much for your time.
24:04 Let's end it there.
24:05 Cheers, thank you so much.
24:06 - Such a pleasure.
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