I enjoy the abuse and I've learned to cash in on it
AS HE RELEASES A GREATEST HITS ALBUM, JAMES BLUNT TELLS ALEX GREEN HOW SPANISH VISAS, B-SIDES AND BANTERING WITH ONLINE HATERS HAVE DEFINED HIS LOCKDOWN
JAMES BLUNT has spent the past 18 months thinking: “What the hell just happened?”
Six albums and six world tours, he explains, have left him with little time to look back since he started his music career in 2005 with the release of the inescapable You’re Beautiful.
“It’s been really exciting to stop and reflect through this last year, when we were forcibly sent home, on what I’d been through,” he says.
“I’ve spent 17 years touring, or locked in a studio, and it’s been an incredible journey.”
The former Army officer, 47, spent this time re-connecting with his wife Sofia Wellesley, struggling to secure a Spanish visa (more on that later) and collating a greatest hits album.
“If you have ever wished that James Blunt only put one album out, well this is that album,” he says, with his trademark self-deprecation.
These songs, he explains, are not some top 20 ranked in order of popularity a la Spotify.
Yes there are hits – for example 1973 and the aforementioned You’re Beautiful – but they are positioned alongside previously unloved cuts.
These include Smoke Signals, which was only previously available on a deluxe edition of 2013’s Moon Landing, as well as live versions James believes outdo their originals.
Love Under Pressure is one of four new songs that feature. Written with fellow rough-voiced singer-songwriter Jack Savoretti, the track’s main lyrics began as something a little more prosaic.
Mid-lockdown James was at his property in Ibiza, while Jack was in Oxfordshire.
“It wasn’t meant to be Love Under Pressure,” he explains. “I was just talking about the pressures of trying to sort out some paperwork...
“Trying to sort out a visa for living in Spain.
“But he thought that was a bit of a niche subject that wouldn’t necessarily, you know, relate to a wider audience.”
James’s earnest songs are a contrast to his personality. He is quickwitted, deadpan and willing to skewer himself in the telling of a joke.
His record label must have noted this because they have encouraged him to join TikTok.
“Every album label says there’s a new platform and that you should be on this platform,” he says. “Like all these things, they are quite self-orientated and I do think that the real world has probably more to give.
“But at the same time, I feel very fortunate to have platforms like these which mean that I can have direct contact with people. “I’m only going to mess around.” His best ripostes to haters, however, have come on Twitter.
In May, for example, he shared an article announcing he was to become the first performer to play to a full house in a major venue since before the first national lockdown.
“The answer is no. You obviously haven’t suffered enough,” he commented in a re-tweet.
“I definitely think the real world is a nicer environment with more to offer,” he says when asked about his approach to Twitter.
“You meet a nicer person generally in the real world than you do in the world of social media.
“But I enjoy the abuse. And I’ve learned to cash in on it too.”
So how does he deal with the barbs?
“It’s a joke because I go on tours around the world and I am lucky enough to play arenas of up to 20,000 people a night.
“There are tens of thousands of people coming to the show – making an effort to come to the
shows, paying good money and travelling distances.
“It would be a joke to take the two people online who are being mean about me or my music seriously, rather than take the people who attended the shows seriously.
“They’re making the effort and they are the ones who deserve the recognition and respect.”
James’s return to performing live has been a joy. He admits, however, that the excitement of audiences might be making his job too easy.
“There are times in my show when I have thought I could sing them anything,” he jokes. “I could sing them Baa, Baa, Black Sheep and they would all go mental.”
In 2017, James and his wife Sofia became the proud owners of the Fox & Pheasant pub in west London, saving the 175-year-old institution from the risk of being snapped up by developers.
This, in turn, led to an invitation from Amazon Prime – to become the host of a beer brewing competition show.
“When I set out in music I thought, ‘What an incredibly fortunate job I have’. And then I bought a pub and I thought I couldn’t have any more fun with this. And now I’ve got a TV show about beer and I get to drink beer that other people have made.
“I think I’ve died and gone to heaven.” That is not to say owning a pub has been an easy ride as during the pandemic he found himself responsible for the welfare of his staff.
“It was very sad when my tour was cancelled only a month into what was supposed to be a very long tour,” he recalls.
“To send a band, crew, trucks and buses home was very sad.
“But I appreciated the time that I got at home. I went home and realised I had a family I hadn’t even properly met before.
“Of course, the pub was very sad too to just close.
“But that was a great realisation – that I bought the pub to save four walls, to stop it being turned into a house.
“I thought my job as a pop star was to save that pub but you quickly realise that it’s not the four walls you are saving.
“Your job and responsibility is the staff and to look after them becomes the priority, and that was a great realisation in itself.
“Maybe that was what I took from the pandemic too.” ■ James Blunt The Stars Beneath My Feet (2004-2021) is out on November 19 on Atlantic Records. For UK tour details, go to jamesblunt.com
I appreciated the (lockdown) time I got at home and realised I had a family I hadn’t even properly met before