My advice would be if you want to pursue a career in the music business, don’t.
I think America is a hard nut to crack. But once you get a toehold, it’s a great place for an entrepreneur because people are so enthusiastic, and you have the most enthusiastic audiences in world.
I think if you’re an unhappy person, you’re always going to be an unhappy person. You’re probably going to be less unhappy if your business is doing well, if I’m being honest.
I think of stress as the creator of cancer and heart attacks, like a tiny little ball you feed. I believe that one of the reasons I’ve never got ill is that I’m not stressed.
I work out three or four times a week, I have Botox, take tons of vitamins and vitamin infusions – if you believe that these things work, you will feel better.
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.
If I said to most of the people who auditioned, ‘Good job, awesome, well done,’ it would have made me actually look and feel ridiculous. It’s quite obvious most of the people who turned up for this audition were hopeless.
If I went to a psychiatrist, it would be a long session. I’ve always thought that I do have a number of issues that probably need dealing with, because I am quite odd in some ways.
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.
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.
You didn’t beat the compotition you crushed the compotition!
I met someone the other night who’s 28 years old, and he hasn’t worked a day since he left college because he’s pursuing a dream he’ll never, ever realize: He thinks he’s a great singer. Actually, he’s crap.
I could just sit back and get someone to spin my achievements, I suppose, but when I see others do it, I always think, ‘Why are you telling me how successful you are?’ I am always suspicious of those kinds of boasts.
I don’t have sophisticated tastes. I have average tastes. If you looked in my collection of DVDs, you’d see ‘Jaws’ and ‘Star Wars.’ In the book library, you’d see John Grisham and Sidney Sheldon. And if you look in my fridge, it’s, like, children’s food – chips, milkshakes, yogurt.
I don’t like kids that are pushed into things by stage mums, but when I can see they are having a good time, they’re excited and enjoying the process, then I think it’s wrong to discriminate.
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.
I have always hated celebrities lecturing people on politics. So forgive me. But I am passionate about this country. I am equally passionate about the potential of the people who live here.
I have total respect for anyone who discovers a band like Snow Patrol. I would be hopeless at signing a rock band, or anything alternative, cause I don’t know what that audience are into and I don’t particularly like that kind of music.
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 love TV. I love being behind the scenes on a TV show but there’s something about, I don’t know there’s something very special when you’ve signed an artist and that first record comes in and it’s a good record. It is an indescribable feeling.
If I go into a relationship with an artist, which at most is going to last five years, we have a 100-page contract covering every eventuality. Whereas with marriage you go into it with no contract, with laws that date back hundreds of years, and I don’t think that’s right.