MORRISON PICKS UP TORCH FROM GREATS
JAMES Morrison had flown high – charttopping albums, a 2007 best male solo artist Brit Award and sales of more than seven million.
But his career went into a dive following his underperforming 2015 album Higher Than Here.
He was dropped by his label and a crisis of confidence coincided with personal problems when his long term partner Gill faced difficulties in an unplanned pregnancy.
James, 34, said: “The problem was not knowing how the pregnancy was going to turn out. We were told the baby could have cerebral palsy.
“She could be deaf, blind, all of them. She could have a lung disease.”
Thankfully, Ada-Rose, the couple’s second daughter, was fine. “She’s a little legend,” said James. Now his career is working out again too – but he admits he felt he had been “cast on the heap” after his label cut him adrift. He said: “I quietly worked away on my songs. After nine months, I started thinking, ‘I’ve enough tunes to make an album’. So I joined up with three people I’ve known my whole career who were creating a label. “They want to release the music I want to make. We’re doing it for the right reasons.” Morrison’s confident comeback has been backed by soul legends too after sharing a bill with the greats at London’s Hyde Park.
He said: “It was one of the highlights of my career. I was singing with Tom Jones, Beverley Knight, Sam Moore, Eddie Floyd, William Bell.
“Floyd told me, ‘You’ve got what I had.’ He was like, ‘I’m passing the baton on to you.’”
You’re Stronger Than You Know is out today. He plays Glasgow Fruitmarket on April 1.