“I’ve always wanted to be a rock star. But to be in a band, you need friends.” Why singer/songwriter superstar James Blunt is raising his sons on a strict diet of AC/DC, Alice Cooper, Europe and Survivor

Whether or not you're conscious of this, chances are that you've heard at least one James Blunt song during your lifetime. And there's a very, very high possibility that the song you've heard, some way, some how, is the English singer-songwriter's hugely successful worldwide hit single You're Beautiful, which topped the charts in both the UK and US in 2005, and helped propel its parent album, 2004''s Back to Bedlam, to over 12 million sales worldwide, and basically set the former British Army captain up for life.

But, in turns out that the 50-year-old Hampshire-born entertainer originally dreamt of pursuing a rather different musical path, and actually wanted to be a rock god.

“I’ve always wanted to be a rock star,” Blunt reveals in a new interview with The Guardian. “I wanted to have long hair and play the electric guitar and be in a band. But to be in a band, you need friends. So I’ve ended up with an acoustic guitar and a tear.”

Those of you who're at all familiar with Blunt's social media posts will be aware that he is a very, very funny man, with a wonderfully dry self-deprecating wit. This is also evident in his rather excellent, riotous and outrageous 2023 'non-memoir' Loosely Based On A Made-Up Story, which features some highly amusing anecdotes about The Darkness, Gene Simmons and Dave Grohl, which may or may not be true.

Potentially libellous banter aside, it appears that there is one thing that Blunt takes deadly seriously: schooling his two young sons in the art of classic hard rock.

Asked to reveal the song which gets him up in the mornings, Blunt replies, “Back in Black by AC/DC, because I am only playing my children 80s guitar bands.”

“They have a choice of Europe, AC/DC, Survivor and Alice Cooper,” he continues. “They don’t know there’s anything else out there. I just find it amusing on the school run.”

This is top class parenting, and we can only applaud Blunt's single-minded, purist approach here. Respect is due also for his fondness for Black Country glam rock boot boys Slade, specifically their 1971 single Coz I Luv You which, he says, is a staple of his live set purely because “it allows me to crowdsurf.”

Artists

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.