The Times Magazine 13Singer James Blunt, 47, served in the
British Army before rising to fame in
2004 with Back to Bedlam, the UK’s
bestselling album of the Noughties.
He owns the Fox & Pheasant pub in
Chelsea and a restaurant in Verbier
with former England rugby captain
Lawrence Dallaglio. He splits his time
between Ibiza, Verbier and London,
with his wife Sofia Wellesley and their
two sons, and is hosting a new series
about brewing on Amazon Prime.
Maybe I have a Napoleon complex.
I’m Tom Cruise-ian in size. I
joined the army, ride motorbikes,
got myself a guitar and play songs
to try to impress in some way.
I am following all the clichés.
Even if I am ‘musical Marmite’,
I’m still gigging. My music evokes
strong opinions. I’m in good
company – Coldplay have sold
millions and there are lots of
people who say they don’t like
Coldplay. But even if I’ve just
played a concert to 20,000 people,
I’m concerned about one negative
tweet about my music, probably
written by some guy who’s still
living with his parents at 40...
Human nature is weird – we
gravitate towards the negative.
Warming up food under my armpit
is the limit of my cooking skills.
That’s how we heated our army
ration packs on operations in
Kosovo. I loved the ration packs,
but then I also like aeroplane food.
Working with some Italians during
a bombing campaign we realised
they had much better rations than
us. We tried to trade with them,
but they wouldn’t accept ours.
One song is all you need. That’s my
Twitter bio, because I am most
famous for one song. It also says
“Cockney rhyming slang for the
good stuff”. My level of humour
is very, very base, but it seems to
appeal to people online.
You can always judge a place by the
loos. I thought the urinals were
fantastic in Soho House, so I took
a photo to get the same ones for
my pub. The man who walked in
and recognised me as I was taking
it probably says, “I met James
Blunt. He’s a urinal fetishist.” I
pull the occasional pint at my pub
- the staff are slightly embarrassed
What I’ve learnt James Blunt
INTERVIEW Georgina Roberts PORTRAIT Michael Clementby me. I’m not allowed in the
kitchen, because we don’t want to
get anyone poisoned or be sued.
The only ski lift I ride is the Verbier
one named after me. They have
given me a lifetime ski pass.
I should install a sound system
that only plays my music, to keep
the queues down. When I was
based there, Ed Sheeran came
out and we made a fair deal: he’d
teach me how to write songs and
I’d teach him how to ski. We’ve
become great friends.
Being an army brat defines me. My
father was posted to a new country
every two years, so I grew up in
Cyprus, Hong Kong, Germany
and places as exotic as Yorkshire.Only eating meat will give you
scurvy. Lots of people on my
sociology course at Bristol were
vegetarians and vegans, so I
became a dedicated carnivore,
because I am an idiot. It takes a
very short time to become quite
unwell if you just live off mince
and Chicken Tonight sauce.
My father becoming unwell was
a shock. I’ve idolised the guy all
my life. Seeing him become more
fragile and frail was very emotive.
When he needed a kidney, so
many people got in contact and
said they could donate one.
People think I played the organ at
Prince Harry’s wedding. I didn’t.
The great thing about Wikipediais you can add whatever you like.
I change my age on Wikipedia
all the time, because if you can,
you might as well. But then my
mother goes and changes it back.
How disloyal is that?
If you can play in front of a bunch
of soldiers, you can play to anyone.
War is the most deeply unpleasant
experience. We were dealing
with decisions based on life and
death. Then I moved into music
and people worried about whether
a musician seems cool, which
seems a slightly pointless thing to
be putting brain power towards. nBeer Masters is available to stream
on Prime Video‘I made a deal with
Ed Sheeran:
he’d teach me
how to write
songs and I’d
teach him
how to ski’