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G2: ?: Is it true that he sold his sister on eBay? Did he really prevent the third world war? And does he listen to You're Beautiful all the time? Pop's Mr Nice Guy looks himself up on the internet, with a little help from Sam Wolfson(Guardian (UK) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) James Blunt's nice-guy reputation precedes him. Sure, he's had four platinum albums, with his breakout hit You're Beautiful going to No 1 in 10 countries, including the US. where it sold over three million. But it hasn't gone to his head: he's "free of ego" (Evening Standard), "friendly and easy to talk to" (the Telegraph), "impressively unselfconscious" (the Independent), just an all-round "good bloke" (Metro). When I mention I'm going to interview him, people offer stories of how charming he is. Yes, they all say, his music isn't to everyone's taste, but he's self-deprecating, a good egg, just a BLOODY NICE CHAP. As I travel to Braunschweig in Germany to meet Blunt in the middle of a year-long world tour, I am steely in my insistence not to indulge in sycophancy. He might have charmed some journalists in the past, but I will force him to do the only thing that can reveal someone's true narcissism: Google himself. I arrive at a basketball arena - Blunt fans are already queueing up outside - and am ushered into his dressing room. He is, it can't be ignored, exceedingly posh. But he also has that knack posh people have of being shamelessly self-deprecating while totally in control of the situation, making you feel welcome by taking himself to pieces. The first time he makes a dig at himself - "I'm a short, fairly plain person who's bluffing his case and getting away with it" - I try to say something reassuring ("Oh, you're not too bad") but it happens so often that I realise he's not looking for reassurance. Does he often look himself up on the internet? "I generally read everything about me. Based on my army experience, I think it's the right thing to do. Saddam Hussein didn't read his reviews and thought he was winning the war." Google Googling yourself isn't what it use to be. Instead of funny Blunty fansites, we simply get the same story 300 times: James Blunt, say news outlets across the world, has apologised for You're Beautiful, admitting that it was annoying. "That is entirely made up," he says. "It's all based on a misquote." In the original Hello! story, he didn't apologise, but he did say the way the song was marketed became annoying. "But they're clearly enjoying misquoting. So what I take from it is a journalist isn't necessarily a truth-teller, but a storyteller. Maybe I should consider being insulted by the fact I've been forced to apologise for my song, but I'm rather enjoying myself too much to get worried about it." Does he listen to his own music? "No!" he says, "I have better taste than that." You've never put You're Beautiful on in the past five years? "I swear on my life, no." What if it comes on Magic FM in the cab home after a night out? "I hope, if it did, I would have the embarrassment or humility to ask to turn it over." Blunt is largely relaxed about his unfavourable write-ups, admitting that he's "in the entertainment industry rather than the music industry," and so some tabloid hackery is inevitable. But, he says, he thinks people come after him, "because I make music that is very easy to judge - about weaknesses and failings and fears, and I perform those songs under a spotlight stared at by thousands of strangers every night. If you turned that spotlight on the people who like to critique it, they'd shit themselves." Reddit (c) 2014 Guardian Newspapers Limited. |