Whether or not you're conscious of this, chances are that you've heard at least one James Blunt song during your lifetime. And there's a very, very high possibility that the song you've heard, some way, some how, is the English singer-songwriter's hugely successful worldwide hit single You're Beautiful, which topped the charts in both the UK and US in 2005, and helped propel its parent album, 2004''s Back to Bedlam, to over 12 million sales worldwide, and basically set the former British Army captain up for life.
But, in turns out that the 50-year-old Hampshire-born entertainer originally dreamt of pursuing a rather different musical path, and actually wanted to be a rock god.
“I’ve always wanted to be a rock star,” Blunt reveals in a new interview with The Guardian. “I wanted to have long hair and play the electric guitar and be in a band. But to be in a band, you need friends. So I’ve ended up with an acoustic guitar and a tear.”
Those of you who're at all familiar with Blunt's social media posts will be aware that he is a very, very funny man, with a wonderfully dry self-deprecating wit. This is also evident in his rather excellent, riotous and outrageous 2023 'non-memoir' Loosely Based On A Made-Up Story, which features some highly amusing anecdotes about The Darkness, Gene Simmons and Dave Grohl, which may or may not be true.
Potentially libellous banter aside, it appears that there is one thing that Blunt takes deadly seriously: schooling his two young sons in the art of classic hard rock.
Asked to reveal the song which gets him up in the mornings, Blunt replies, “Back in Black by AC/DC, because I am only playing my children 80s guitar bands.”
“They have a choice of Europe, AC/DC, Survivor and Alice Cooper,” he continues. “They don’t know there’s anything else out there. I just find it amusing on the school run.”
This is top class parenting, and we can only applaud Blunt's single-minded, purist approach here. Respect is due also for his fondness for Black Country glam rock boot boys Slade, specifically their 1971 single Coz I Luv You which, he says, is a staple of his live set purely because “it allows me to crowdsurf.”
