But before that there will be the traditional family Christmas, the sort of festive occasion he could only dream of as a child. In the New Year, before he returns to touring, Morrison is planning a holiday in the Caribbean. But there are still times when I wake up wondering, “When is the landlord going to come round and kick me out?” ’ ‘It’s a sort of 1900 country gentleman’s residence,’ he says, ‘which is hilarious because I was always an urban kid. Sometimes I feel like I’m an estate agent.’Īnd then there’s the home he shares with Gill and Elsie. ‘Two for my mum, two for my brother and one for my sister. To date I’ve bought six houses,’ he laughs. Now I like the fact I can take my auntie to The Ritz, or pay off her mortgage. ‘But since my dad died I have viewed things differently. ‘For ages I was careful with money, afraid it would disappear as swiftly as it came,’ he says. Two years later he released Broken Strings, his duet with Nelly Furtado, which reached No2 – although it took him a while to accept that he was a success. He burst on to the music scene in 2006 with the top five single You Give Me Something, and from the beginning he was hailed as the new Otis Redding, the new Bob Dylan. He trained to be a carpet fitter before he convinced his first label, Polydor, he was worth signing. Much of the story of his tough upbringing in Reading is told through his lyrics: his alcoholic, absent father an erratic, hippy mother grinding debt a trail of dead-beat jobs a failed attempt at Fame Academy and, to his chagrin, a U in A-level music. Writing songs is my way of conquering them.’Īdjusting to fame and fortune has not come easily to Morrison. But overcoming my demons hasn’t been easy. ‘Because my childhood was impoverished I always felt I was this kid with no voice,’ he says. One poignant track on his new album, Demons, reflects on Morrison’s father’s constant refrain that it was ‘his demons’ that made him drink.įor the singer, his own demon is a lack of self esteem. I feel very lucky to have my beautiful Elsie.’ ‘But if it’s not meant to be, I’m content. And I very much believe in nature over an artificial process. ‘But when Gill, my partner, was pregnant with Elsie she discovered she has kidney problems which means another pregnancy may never happen.
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‘I would really love to have more kids, I’d like three,’ he says. My daughter Elsie is the utter joy of my life.’īut becoming a parent has been tinged with sadness too. But nothing, absolutely nothing beats being a dad. ‘Singing, song writing, they’re my passion, sure. ‘It’s the best thing ever,’ he says, his eyes aglow. He revelled in taking Elsie swimming, spending hours with his family and recharging his emotionally exhausted batteries.Īnd it worked.
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He moved to his mansion in a remote village in Gloucestershire and built that gate to hide behind. So Morrison simply exited the music scene. Morrison is reluctant to go into detail about the circumstances of his brother and nephew’s death, not wanting to reopen deep family wounds and sorrows.Īll he will comment is: ‘Let’s just say it is something that’s in the family, one of those things that run through families.’ ‘I had told him a month before, “If you don’t deal with this you are going to die.” When he did, I was crying in bed all day, just numb.’ Morrison was inconsolable after his father’s death, he admits. Lost in thought, the musician unconsciously fiddles with a silver St Christopher hanging around his neck. Only now has he finally emerged from that self-imposed exile with the release of a long-awaited new album Morrison gazes down at his lap, unconsciously tapping his knee.
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I’ll never know now what he wanted to say to me.’ I’d left my mobile in the recording studio the night before and, when I collected it, it was packed with missed calls from my dad. ‘The night he died from a heart attack, I was on tour. ‘But he would just say, “I don’t need help.” I was still telling him, “There’s still time. We were in regular contact during his final weeks. ‘But by the end he was a law unto himself.
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‘Just afterwards I beat myself up feeling I should have done more to help him,’ he says. Morrison’s father, who left home when his son was four, was a life-long alcoholic who lost his battle with the bottle in 2010. After my Dad died it was heartbreaking to start losing the next generations.’ Alexis and Callum died just a year apart. ‘In the space of three years I lost my Dad, Paul, my big brother Alexis, who was 43, and my nephew Callum, who was only 21. ‘I just felt like crap and the songs sounded like s***,’ he says, wincing slightly. James Morrison (right) attends the European Premiere of The Dark Knight Rises at Odeon Leicester Square on Jin Londonīut his return to music was a rocky one, after initially abandoning his fourth album eight months into writing it, feeling dissatisfied and disillusioned with his work.