LEWIS CAPALDI ON FAMILY, FAME AND FINDING A
Sunday Mail
But singer Lewis Capaldi still can’t wrap his head around his incredible fortune – and says he doesn’t deserve his success.
Lewis’s 2018 single Someone You Loved broke UK chart records and kept him in the top 10 for longer than any other British act in history.
He said: “That will never happen again in my career, I can tell you that now.
“I don’t deserve to have a No1 for seven weeks – no one deserves to have a No1 for seven weeks. It’s an anomaly.
“When a song does that, it’s so much bigger than you. I felt it was happening to someone else and I was just watching. I just happened to look like him and have the same small penis and all the same ailments. I just remember it feeling so surreal.”
Ever- humble Lewis has won himself an army of fans – and it’s not just for his catchy music.
His sense of humour and funny social media videos have also caught the eye of several beauties, including former Love Islander Paige Turley, 22, who Lewis dated when he was 18.
But you couldn’t meet a more down-to-earth megastar.
Lewis still lives with his parents in West Lothian, where his biggest extravagance appears to be his sunglasses collection. His mum Carol and dad Mark are Lewis’s biggest champions.
Earlier this year, the couple partied backstage with Lewis and his showbiz pal Stormzy at the Brits after their son picked up awards for
Best New Artist and
Best Single.
Lewis admits he couldn’t have made his debut album, Divinely
Uninspired to a
Hel l ish Extent , without the help of nurse Carol and
Mark, who runs a fish and chip shop. He said: “I found, maybe midway through writing the album, I just couldn’t finish anything myself and got into a position where I was like, ‘ Do I need someone else here to write this?’
“But it was just coming from a place of not having someone there to bounce it off.
“Even when I was younger, as soon as I wrote a song I would go straight downstairs and play it to my mum and dad. My mum has got this face where if she thinks something is terrible, she just can’t hide it.
“I got into a bit of a rut where I was like, ‘I don’t think I’m good at this any more.’ Then, by the end of the album, you have to go, ‘ Sit down, just finish something.’”
Lewis admits that finding fame overnight has been hard to handle – and his mum sometimes worries about him.
He said: “It just sometimes feels like it’s all happening a bit too fast and I have to kind of stop and go, ‘Right, it’s all good, we’re fine.’ I sometimes get scared. I sometimes feel like, ‘ I think I’m losing control of things here,’ like a wee go- kart going
down a hill. My mother shares the same concerns.”
However, the star is a dab hand when it comes to dealing with online trolls.
Lewis said: “I grew up very thick-skinned. My family take the p**s out of each other to show affection and I think it’s just part of being Scottish as well.”
While fans saw Lewis chugging a bottle of Buckfast wine at the Brits, he has since ditched the booze to save his voice.
He said: “The paranoia of, ‘ Is my voice going to sound good today?’ is always there. I don’t really drink on tour any more and it’s probably for the best. If I’ve got a day off the next day, it’s the only time I drink.
“There’s just that fear of, ‘How do you maintain this?’”
Lewis, who is dating student Catherine Halliday, 21, famously wrote Hold Me While You Wait about his ex, Paige. And he says his music has always been inspired by everyday life.
He added: “I like music about people – it’s about their lives, it’s a window to what they have. I’m exactly the same. Subconsciously, there’s a radar in my brain going, ‘ That’s a song!’”
Lewis recently opened up about having twice-daily panic attacks and spoke about the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) he has been doing.
He told how the attacks are triggered by a fear of dying and said: “I’ve always been a hypochondriac because my dad is. My big thing was I was convinced I had a brain tumour – from being a child right the way through.
“Looking back, it’s ridiculous but now I’ve dealt with it, I get it and it’s much better.
“I’d heard of anxiety but I thought, ‘It can’t make you feel that bad.’
“I never realised it was such a physical thing. I’m very lucky in that I’m not shy in going, ‘ Right, Mum, I think I’m having panic
issues and anxiety.’ I’m not shy about talking about it.
“I go to a CBT therapist and am learning about anxiety, learning how to manage it, how to breathe through it.
“If I drink a lot, I still get the odd one the next day but I’m much better at managing it.”
After having a panic attack live on stage in Manchester at the start of the year, Lewis is trying to help those who suffer with anxiety make it to his next shows, post-lockdown.
He said: “There’s going to be counsellors on site at the gigs who will be there to help anyone deal with anxiety issues.
“There’ll be an area for them – rooms people can go off to and decompress if it becomes too much.”