We’ve helped each other through the DARKEST OF TIMES

Classical superstars Aled Jones and Russel l Watson are breathless with boyish disbelief today. They’ve just heard that their new duets album, their first recording together, has soared straight to the top of the Amazon Best Sellers – a first for both of them.

You’d think this might be water off a duck’s back for powerhouses like Russell, the self-styled People’s Tenor, and Aled, a household name since the 1980s thanks to his huge Christmas hit Walking In The Air. But they’re genuinely elated. ‘I’ve never been on the top spot in the Amazon charts,’ booms Russell, as largerthan-life as you’d expect. ‘Nor me,’ pipes up Aled. ‘We were both taken aback. I had to double-check it.’

They’re relishing the moment because they’ve been through their fair share of ups and downs, both in what they describe as the ‘merciless’ music business and in their personal lives. ‘After each knock-back, you’ve got to try to find a way of bouncing back,’ says Russell, 52. ‘I’ve had more comebacks than Rocky Balboa. Anyone who’s lasted more than ten years in the music industry deserves a pat on the back.’

Aled’s tasted failure too. ‘I’ve made 34 albums and a lot of them haven’t sold that well. You can never tell. So when an album resonates with the public you have to make the most of it. I’m savouring the success.’

The pair have moved in the same circles for more than 20 years, yet although they’re ostensibly rivals they’ve always been mutually supportive, which is how the album came about. ‘Classic FM, where I work as a presenter, celebrated its 25th birthday last year and Russell turned out to be the biggest-selling male classical artist in the past quarter of a century,’ explains Aled, 47. ‘So I sent him a text saying, “Well done, you s*d!” And he texted back, “Thanks – we should do something together.”’

The result is a moving album of hymns, arias and modern classics. It features the singles Bright Horizons, written for the duo by renowned Welsh composer Sir Karl Jenkins, and Where Have All The Flowers Gone/ Here’s To The Heroes, a tribute to mark both the centenary of the end of the First World War and the 70th anniversary of the National Health Service.

Their delight in their joint triumph is all the more poignant because both Russell and Aled must have wondered if they’d ever appear in public again. Perhaps it’s the unlikely combination of the rumbustious Russell and the quieter Aled, who says he still suffers from stage fright, that has struck such a chord with the public.

Russell Watson had two brain tumours, Aled Jones was suspended by the BBC. But their traumas brought them together and now they’ve made a hit album

The key to their chalk-and- cheese friendship is that they’ve helped each other through their bleakest days.

Aled’s darkest time came in October last year, when the Songs Of Praise host was suspended by the BBC over claims he’d sent inappropriate messages to a female colleague more than ten years earlier. Aled apologised for the ‘hurt’ caused by his actions and was reinstated in January this year. Naturally last Christmas was a stressful one for Aled, his wife Claire, 42, and their children Emilia, 16, and Lucas, 13. ‘If you’re in the media spotlight it’s tough on both you and the family,’ he says. ‘But I’m very lucky, I’ve got an amazing unit at home. We got through it. I just listened to Walking In The Air a lot – it always makes me feel better. I don’t dwell on it all now. It’s lovely to be focusing on the music again.’

Russell was among the first to give his support to Aled. ‘I contacted him and said, “You’re having a c***py time but I hope you’re OK,”’ he says. Aled smiles. ‘I appreciated that.’

Russell’s had his own traumas too. He fought for his life as he battled two brain tumours back-to-back just over a decade ago. In 2006 he was recording his fifth album when a tumour the size of two golf balls was found on his pituitary gland at the base of the brain. A year later he was rushed to hospital after it was found the tumour had regrown and he had bleeding on the brain that nearly killed him.

‘The first tumour had grown over time and I’d just ignored all the signs,’ admits Russell. ‘I remember standing on the balcony of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in LA just after I’d been diagnosed, and my headaches were so bad I thought, “F**k it, I just feel like jumping off.”

‘After the operation on the first tumour we thought we’d got rid of it, and I was on Michael Parkinson’s chat show. I told him, “I’m feeling loads better now.” Then three weeks later I went to bed and didn’t wake up the next morning because the tumour had haemorrhaged. My vision had gone and my temperature was 42ºC. My assistant called an ambulance because I was semi-conscious. All I could hear was a bloke saying, “Stay with us, Russell, keep your eyes open pal.”’

Russell says he reached his lowest point in 2008 when he had a course of 25 radiotherapy treatments. ‘By the end I was totally exhausted. And I was on steroids so I’d bloated up to 18½ stone. I looked in the mirror and my face was grey and hanging down.

‘I was on the hotel balcony and just felt like jumping off’ RUSSELL WATSON

Superstar pals Aled and Russell