‘They asked me to sing in a Rod Stewart voice... Rod wasn’t available’
AS HE MARKS 20 YEARS IN MUSIC, RUSSELL WATSON TELLS WHY HE’LL NEVER TAKE HIS LIFE IN SONG FOR GRANTED
AS ENGLAND goes into a second lockdown, many of us will be learning lessons from the first. For classical singer Russell Watson, it’s to stay away from his surprisingly roomy shed. ‘My wife has this list that she’s built up over the last 11 years of jobs that I’ve been meaning to do, but haven’t quite got round to. The first task in March was to sort out our garden shed – which is only ten foot by eight foot. You would think that might not take too long...’ he laughs.
‘It was like emptying the entire contents of Doctor Who’s TARDIS! No bulls****, we had three bikes in there, two kites that have never been opened, five sets of cricket bats all wrapped up in lovely plastic. I’m a hoarder.’
Russell has been strongly linked to appear in upcoming series of I’m A Celebrity... and one can’t help wonder if that’s his way of avoiding household chores. But he’s certainly kept busy during the pandemic, and managed to finish work on his latest album, 20 – to mark his 20th anniversary in music – and plans to tour the UK early next year. ‘My producer is from New Zealand, and he was about to fly out to start making the record with us when all the Covid thing broke out. We ended up actually doing it over Skype. I had an iPad in front of me and a set of headphones and it was just like he was in the room. The main benefit was he wasn’t asking for coffee and biscuits all day, so that was good,’ Russell says with a grin.
But it wasn’t without technical glitches. ‘It was funny because there’s a slight time delay, so we didn’t realise but every time we started playing I was coming in with my singing like two or three seconds late. He kept saying, “Sorry Russ, you’re late there mate,” and it took us ten minutes to figure out that, actually, I wasn’t late.
‘Imagine after 20 years singing Nessun Dorma and coming in three bars late for the big moment,’ he laughs.
The new album and tour documents many of his biggest hits and fan favourites, and Russell has many memories spanning an incredible career dating back to breakthrough album The Voice in 2000. But when did he first feel he had made it? ‘This is probably going back to 2002, I was probably at the peak of my fame and so pretty much
everyone of a certain age would recognise me,’ he recalls. ‘I was walking through Manchester and there’s group of young lads, one of them points at me. I thought, “Yes, kids are finally recognising me as a serious artist!” I hear one of them shout my name, I turned and raised my arm to wave graciously just as he shouts “Russell! You’re s**t!” Brilliant!’ he cackles.
Social media is always there to keep him grounded, too. ‘I did some video things for online and there were all these lovely comments about “Oh, you look great. You sound wonderful.” My ego was positively bursting at the seams. Then I came down to this one message that said, “I don’t like the facial hair... lazy!” I thought it was hilarious. It was so blunt. Forget about all the work that’s gone into recording some of the world’s greatest composers’ repertoire... “lazy!”’
His phone can be a scary place, admits Russell. ‘I know that if I do something on telly, I’ll receive 80 per cent positivity but that other 20 per cent I know will be terrors. I pick my phone up and sort of tentatively flick through... nothing... nothing... there you are! “Gosh isn’t he looking old now?” No, I’ve not had Botox,’ he yells with mock indignation.
Russell laughs, a lot, and says he never takes life for granted since his experience of surviving two brain tumours – admitting that surgery changed his voice as well as his outlook.
‘After the second surgery, I was really, really poorly. I’d gone to bed one night, the tumour had haemorrhaged and I basically didn’t wake up the next morning. I had to have emergency surgery, first of all to stop the bleeding but, secondly, to get what was left of it out my head,’ he explains.
‘One of the things that happened with the tumour was it got so big it had grown into some of the nasal passages, it was causing a bit of a blockage, it was making everything sound a bit nasally and thin, once everything had been cleared out, it opened everything up again.’
Russell says it has made performing some of his favourite songs even more emotional and has given them a deeper meaning. So, what can we expect from one of his tour performances? ‘I like to make a show,’ he says. ‘It’s a bit of storytelling, a bit of schmoozing, I very much like to make a connection with the audience. There’s always a bit of fun. I can do anything from bl**dy King Of The Road to Nessun Dorma in the same night,’ he says proudly. Maybe he’ll even sing the Star Trek: Enterprise theme, even though Russell says nobody ever believes it’s him. ‘We were recording with Paramount in Los Angeles, I started singing and the producer cuts in and says, “Hey Russell, can I point you in a different direction. Could you do it in that gravelly voice that Rod Stewart does?” I asked why they didn’t just book Rod and they said they didn’t think he was available!’ Cue more giggling. ‘That was tremendous though, when Star Trek comes on I’m like “that’s me!” and people think it’s Rod. I just point at the credits.’
Many performers may have been offended by that, or by being told that they’re ‘lazy’ on Facebook, or by errant teenagers shouting insults, but Russell takes it all in his stride as a characterbuilding exercise, despite his success.
‘The best piece of advice I was ever given in my life was from my dear old Gran, an absolutely wonderful lady. She said to me right at the beginning of my career, “Keep your feet on the ground, and you’ll do well, once you get your head in the clouds it’ll all go wrong for you. Stay true to yourself.” I’ve never forgotten that,’ he smiles. ‘Even when I was going through my difficult times with ill health, all the support that I received, it was just fantastic. I am incredibly grateful for the people that keep me up where I am and that allow me to sing in the venues I have, these beautiful locations and to some incredible people. I’ll never lose sight of it.’ Here’s to another 20 years.
Russell Watson is touring the UK January to March 2021, russellwatson.com
‘I like to make a show; it’s a bit of storytelling, a bit of schmoozing, a bit of fun’