What I would argue in my defence is that shows like Britain’s Got Talent and The X Factor have actually got people more interested in music again and are sending more people into record stores.
I love producing shows. And so when you’re on a show where other people are making decisions you don’t necessarily agree with it, after a while you start to feel like a passenger.
I get very anti-social, depressed and irritable with people. I don’t have time for them. I can’t make phone calls and stuff. I just sit on my own for days.
Of course I have an ego, but you have to have an ego. You have to be incredibly competitive. I can get competitive at times, way too much, and it becomes a little bit obsessive.
Harshness to me is giving somebody false hopes and not following through. That’s harsh. Telling some guy or some girl who’ve got zero talent that they have zero talent actually is a kindness.
They understand what their market is and who they should be selling records to, and most importantly, they know the kind of artist that they want to be, but they have to do it themselves. You don’t want a 13-year-old singing some awful song from a musical.
I suggest we bring some normality back to this country and say if you are carrying a knife, there must be zero tolerance. If it was up to me, everyone caught with a knife would get an automatic ten year sentence.
