It’s a no from me, Simon
Musician says show has ‘lost its way’ over years
A SCOTS singer has snubbed Simon Cowell’s X Factor - telling talent scouts from the TV show that it has “lost its way.”
Singer songwriter Matt McAllister, a waiter who is trying to break into the music scene, thought it was a joke when he was asked to meet show reps.
Matt, 23, took the internet by storm when he released a single last year written in memory of a classmate, Scott Morrison, who died in a crash in 2013.
A video of Scottish Winds clocked up 90,000 hits on Facebook and thousands more on YouTube and led to an approach from Cowell’s talent team.
Matt, from Campbeltown, Kintyre, said: “Associate producers of the X Factor messaged me on Facebook. They said they heard my music online and were wondering if I would be interested in meeting them.
“I thought someone was winding me up, so I had to do a wee google search on the guy that messaged me and he was what he said.”
But at the meeting, Matt decided he didn’t want to lose control of his musical future.
He said: “I told them, ‘The X Factor has kind of lost its way’. They were really nice people but I’ve always been a bit unsure of The X Factor because it’s kind of lost its way through all the tabloid headlines and scandals.”
He added: “I sang Scottish Winds and played my guitar, then they wanted me to sing without my guitar and I said, ‘No, the guitar comes with me’.
“I’m happy to keep working as hard as I can to get my music out there the old fashioned way.”
Matt’s second single, Roaring Rain, is out soon.