Any fan of music will be familiar with the name James Morrison. James, 37, is a hugely successful singer songwriter, with hits including You Give Me Something and You Make it Real. Given James’ success in the industry, he has amassed a dedicated fan base who love to learn details of his life away from music.
James was born in Rugby in 1984. Growing up, he was surrounded by music and was influenced by his parent’s record collection. However, James has opened up over the years about some of the more difficult aspects of his past.
He told Kate Thornton on White Wine Question Time that until he got free school lunches, he was hungry all the time. He explained: "After my dad died [in 2010] I just saw I need to dream bigger. I was like, life's too short to be playing it safe.
“I thought if I die tomorrow, I've been playing way too safe. So I just thought, what is the biggest thing that I can dream of? What's the biggest thing I would think I'd never be able to achieve? It was always in my head when I was a kid to have a house with a swimming pool. Or a big garden... I haven't got a swimming pool, that's not happened yet. But I've got a nice pond!
"I wanted to try and give my family something that would have been unachievable when I was a kid. I just wanted to give them what we all never had. [Such as] money to do anything, to travel even was a mission, getting enough petrol money so you can go see family or having enough food for dinner.
"A lot of the times we never had breakfast or lunch. I used to go to school without breakfast on a regular basis. Until I got free school lunches, I was just hungry all the time. So I just wanted to give my family a base. Where if everything's going wrong, they've always got a base come to, in the countryside.”
In terms of matters of the heart, James is married to wife Gill Catchpole and the couple have two daughters together. Speaking on the White Wine Question Time podcast, James also revealed the bizarre way in which he met his wife.
James met Gill when she moved in as a lodger at his mum's house, with her then boyfriend. At the time, James was only 17 and the boyfriend, John, was in his early 30s. The singer explained: "It wasn't the easiest start, but I just still see it as a really romantic thing. I'm not very romantic.
“I'm not like: 'I love romance!' But I do find certain things romantic and the fact that we met each other the way we did. It's like a little fairy tale or something!" James and Gill got together around three months after the boyfriend had left, but there was another twist in the tale still to come.
"He got me back," James revealed. "My mum rang me one day. And she said: 'I'm out on a date. I wonder if you can pick me up?' I said: 'Where are you?' And she said: 'I'm at John's house.' And I was like: 'John's house? Who's John?' She said: 'You know, Gill's John.'
"Okay, so I have to go and pick my mum up from my girlfriend's ex's house, and it was the most awkward thing! But I didn't like the fact that she said that. So I was like: 'No it's not a date. They're just hanging out.' Yeah, it was awkward!"
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Last year, James attracted a great deal of attention after claiming he was “blanked” by the music superstar Adele when he supported her on their tour together 10 years ago. According to James, Adele didn't even manage to say hello to her tour buddy as they headed across the United States.
Speaking to The Sun , James explained how the global superstar "didn't say hello" to him throughout the whole tour: "On the last day of the tour I went up to her dressing room and banged on the door and she opened it and I was like, 'You alright? Hiya? Why haven't you said hello yet?'
"She was like, 'I'm a big fan but I'm a bit nervous'. I was gutted because I thought we could have hung out, we could have had a laugh.” James clearly doesn't hold a grudge, as he went on to dub the London-born star a "great girl" and praise her singing skills.
James Morrison will appear on ITV’s This Morning today (February 11) at 10am
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