Russell 'The Voice' Watson - from Working Men's clubs to the World stage

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0:40Flexify Europe Limited. Trading as HUM is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Coming up on this episode of the Mario Rosenstock Podcast. And it was on that night that I thought, right, second half, I went out and I thought, you're having it. You are having it. And I went out and I engaged and I gave it every ounce of my being. I gave it everything that I had to this audience. and the response in the second half was like wow i never walked on a stage again after that with a sense of i don't care yeah i'm getting paid i don't care i never did that again it was a massive turning point for me and it's it's seen me well through the years

1:33Well, that turning point certainly did put singer Russell Watson's career on a whole new trajectory. Having started out cutting his teeth in working men's clubs across northern England, Russell's hard work and talent eventually saw him selling out concerts globally, performing for the Queen, the Pope and US presidents, topping the charts in the UK and the US for months at a time and singing at major football and rugby finals all over the world. You might also know him as a contestant on I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here in 2020. Russell's style is described as classical crossover, a blend of operatic technique with mainstream accessible music.

2:09His voice is quite simply fantastic. He's great crack too, a talented impressionist I found out, and he's got some great stories to tell. And there's a knock at my door and it's Sean Connery. Brilliant. And he says, Russell, I'll be introducing you onto the stage, and I just wondered how you'd like me to introduce you. And I said, I don't know. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage Russell Watson. He says, I believe you're not in this little voice. Is that right? And I said, yeah, yeah. I'll slip that in as well. I'd done the performance, and I'd come off stage, and Bobby says, oh, that was brilliant.

2:47and he said, is there anything I can do for you? And me being me, you know, a bit of adrenaline in my body. He went, yeah, can I have your tie? And he went, just hook it off. He went, yeah, yeah, that's cool. I was like, no, I was only joking. I'll sign it for you if you want. And he scribbled on it for me as well. Best wishes Bobby Charlton's life. Oh, brilliant. I'd gone to one of the games and I was in the reception area and Sir Alex came walking out and I kind of saw him and I went, hey, Russell. and I went yeah he went don't you forget us when you're famous ball and he walked off and I went mean forget you yeah I know yeah Russell will be in Ireland very soon for some shows in Wexford Limerick and the National Concert Hall in Dublin check out RussellWatson.com for all the details lots of news around this week but one of the stories that have caused a bit of a stir is the news that RTE boss Kevin Backhurst is getting a 20k pay rise presumably given to him by himself cheapers I'd say his hotline was buzzing this week.

3:50You've reached the voicemail of RTE chief Kevin Backhurst. Please leave a message after the noise. Ka-ching! Kevin, Ray Darcy here. Congratulations on the pay rise. Oh, and you're welcome. Joke. Not. Getting rid of me, obviously freed up a chunk of change for you there. in the crazy RTE coffers, so I'm glad to be able to contribute to a fatter wallet for yourself. I wonder where the rest of my old salary will go. More makeup for Marty Morrissey. Or fresh shake in the canteen, maybe. Good idea. Well done. Good luck. Come here, Kevin. It's Brendan O 'Connor here. Come here, I heard about your little pay bump there.

4:33You know us RTE presenters have been very patient here in the background, yeah? So come here to me. Not asking for any money at all, but since the big storm a few years back, you know, maybe, you know, maybe a little review could be in order. I've been turning up every weekend here and talking to people about COVID, mental health, fuel protests, cookery tips over and over again. I haven't asked for a single penny. Christ's sake, Kevin, I don't think I can take any more of it on this salary of 250 odd grand a year. I need you to break me up a little Trump change there and just wet me beak there a bit.

5:04You know, Kev, Kevo, Kevo, pal. Come here. Kevin, I hope you're not Michael O 'Leary here by the way I hope you're not getting a load of pissed off calls now From pinko liberal RTE presenters in RTE About your minuscule pay rise Most of the semi-state bosses would find 20k down the back of their sofas You deserve better than this insult of a pay bump Tell your pinko presenters To start berating the government on their silly news shows Until you get some proper respect And start hammering that fool The clown Mion Martin Come on, man, grow a pair. Take control of your staff and get paid properly.

5:41Do it. And exclusive new comedy every week on the Mario Rosenstock podcast. And if you want to get in touch with me, do so. MarioRosenstock at gmail.com. I read them all and I get back to most of them. If you want me to do some new characters, do some new sketches, anybody you'd like me to interview that I haven't covered so far, any smart ideas on sort of left of field picks that I might interview, let me know. And remember, please tell one other person about this podcast. That's all I ask if you like the podcast. We don't ask for any payment for this podcast. It's not a premium podcast. You get it for free in your ear hole every week.

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6:50Payback, bite-size, easy payments, it couldn't be easier. HUM is there for the big things and the little things in life. And now they're here for me, the Mario Rosenstock podcast. Thanks, HUM. So let's meet my special guest on this episode, The legendary crossover singer Russell Watson Russell is a huge star now And has been for the last number of years But like all big stars He had to start somewhere And for him It was in the very tough Working men's clubs In Northern England Where it all began I was watching A couple of Documentaries recently One on Take That And the other on Paul McCartney And It was the Gary Barlow stuff That rang true to me a bit Especially concerning Your own sort of background And how he was sort of developed he developed himself in the working men's clubs and that's very much your background as well it seems like a very it seems a kind of a peculiar place to develop i mean these lads very you know it's hard to impress these these working men's clubs kind of audiences and i mean you're kind of going in there and you're you're a singer and a songwriter and in your case you're a singer and you're singing sort of show tunes i mean tough crowd yeah very tough crowd but i learned so much in that in that arena it's funny you should mention gary because i worked with gary a few times over the years in fact he wrote a song for me back in the day and um and when we got together we were talking about art because he used to do exactly the same club circuit as i did we were both we'd both see each other's names up on the boards of these venues that we were doing i kept seeing this blow you know gary barlow and his piano i was like this guy is he seems to be you know doing the exact same circuit as i was doing and we laughed because when when we did have a chat about it it turned out that we both used the the same agents as well so we had these agents that they'd book you out for two three gigs in a night you know so you you go to one club i'd go to one club and have my take my microphone with me and my music and i'd roll up you know go in do a half hour spot jump jump in my car go down to the you know go down to the next venue do a half hour spot and the thing is from my from my perspective in particular that that learning curve was brilliant because that's where i didn't just learn you know i wasn't just learning and doing the job on the road.

9:22I wasn't just getting, you know, firsthand experience. On top of that, I was also finding my feet with regards to how to communicate to an audience. And I kind of figured out over that 10-year period, you know, that 10-year period where I became an overnight success. I remember reading it was 2000 and it was a big double page spread in one of the red top newspapers, opened it up, and it's kind of big block letters across the top. Overnight success, Russell Watson. I remember thinking, that was a bloody long night. Yeah, that was a long night. Like 10 years, you know. So it's funny because that training ground where I trod the boards, it gave me a tool.

10:14it gave me a skill set that now when I walk on the stage, the audiences, they're my friends. They're people that, unlike the clubs, they'd come in for a pint of beer to talk about the latest episode of Coronation Street or EastEnders. They'd come in for a pie. They'd come in for a game of bingo. They'd not come in to see me, so I had to win them over. the people that come in to see me now have paid money on a ticket and they're there for me and that's a completely different mad conception yeah that's totally mad if you can win if you can win that first audience it's going to make the rest of your life relatively easier yeah and the definite you know during my career there definitely came a switch point there came a point where i remember quite often if i didn't think that i had an audience that was engaged with me I'd turn off I'd go into kind of what for want of a better word autopilot so the audience are chatting you know it could be anything you know like Wigan tough audience Wigan and Leeds very tough audience as well so I'd be in these venues and I'd kind of be doing my bit and just talking I was like you know what switch off do my 30 minutes go and have a sit down come back on do my next 30 minutes get in my car drive home in a bad mood but there came a point where i thought what is the point of this this isn't this isn't my dream anymore this isn't what i signed up for this isn't why you know i stopped working i did six years in a factory engineering you know making nuts and bowls this isn't this this isn't my my dream what what do i do to to make a difference here what what can i do to kind of get out of this mold to get out of this proverbial bang in my head against a brick wall sensation and it was on that night that i thought right second half i went out and i thought you're having it you are having it and i went out and i engaged and i gave it every ounce of my being i gave it everything that i had to this audience and the response in the second half was like wow i never walked on a stage again after that with a sense of i don't care yeah i'm getting i don't care i never did that again it was a massive turning point for me and it's it's seen me well through the years i get it i get it i get it i think the i think what you're talking about there is you you're being truly present in that moment for that audience not for that audience not yesterday's audience not tomorrow night's audience tonight's audience and just them only them and you and you're going to leave everything out on that stage and you're going to put every drop of you into that audience you can and at least they're going to leave and they're going to go fucking hell he absolutely gave it and you you always you always knew in the clubs and in in the northwest club i did the northwest working man's clubs and you always knew when you'd gone down well because first of all you got a great reception but secondly you'd have the concert secretary coming over to you at the end of the night going what are you doing on christmas eve can we book you for New Year's Eve you went down an absolute bomb that was the pinnacle I'd come on to some of these places and you were never top of the bill but slowly slowly as time passed the way I was presented because you'd be drawn up on a poster with a felt tip pen, Russ Watson cabaret Saturday night and all the all of a sudden it became fabulous the fabulous Russell Watson Saturday night don't miss you know that was that was kind of the the gauge for me I'm doing all right here because I'm not just Russ Watson anymore I'm slowly moving up the ladder in clubland and And it was brilliant.

14:44My first big agent, actually, a guy called Stuart Littlewood from International Artists. He'd come and see me this night. Where was he? I was at Style Prison Officers Club. Style Female Prison Officers Club. Female Prison Officers. Yeah, it was the ladies' prison, I think, in style. And he came to see me this night. And he never forgot, because every time he'd see me after that, whenever we did gigs together, remember where I first saw you in that prison officers club? Bloody hell. And it's kind of, and it was, but that was the world from which I came from. So when it all kicked off in 1999 and I got my first, it was a five-album record deal with Decca Records.

15:39I mean, it was a multi-million pound deal. It was unbelievable and totally unexpected. And I wasn't prepared for that. I'd been in the clubs. I'd been in Wiganro Working Men's Club, Back Belly Working Men. I'd been all around the clubs in the Northwest. I had Fred on a Hammond Dog and I had Bill on a four-piece Pearl drum kit. And all of a sudden, I'm with Signed to Decca Records and I'm walking into Erlinder's studio and Nick Ingham's holding the baton and the 72-piece Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and I've got pieces specially arranged for me and I'm walking into this environment thinking, how did I get hurt?

16:24It must have been some personal thrill for you. Forget about the sort of five album deal, but as a musician to stand in front of a 72-piece orchestra because that's something you can't sort of plan to do. It either is going to happen someday to you or it never will. And so when you sit in front or stand in front of those great musicians and each one of them, unheralded, unknown, they're not people who are famous. They're just good musicians, really good musicians. And there's 72 of them. and they create a sound presumably unlike any other that you ever sang in front of before incredible absolutely incredible and i've got to be honest i'd done that by the time it got to that point in my career i'd i'd performed at some major sporting event so i you know i'd uh when Manchester United won the treble I sang at the last game of the season at Old Trafford in front of 57 ,500 people and then I was invited subsequently to go and sing at the Camp Nou Stadium Barcelona when United beat Bayern Munich 2-1 in the final and that was 92 ,000 people and I was on on the same stage as Montserrat Caballé and all of a sudden these amazing events are coming on I did the Rugby Union World Cup.

17:58Again, just these events with thousands of people, and I had no nerves. It felt like the most natural and wonderful and exciting thing in the world to me. But when you're walking into a location full of your peers, all at the top of the game, and they've all got their eyes on you, That's quite intimidating. And for a long time, I did feel quite intimidated by that whole scenario. But slowly, slowly, as the years passed, I kind of, in many respects, I think the car went before the horse with me. And so eventually I kind of grew into this role where, you know, now 20 plus years on, I'll walk into a room with an orchestra and just go, hi, everybody, and I'll go, hello, little tap of the bow.

18:53that didn't happen well you didn't have you didn't have you don't have imposter syndrome now i mean i suppose back then there's an element of imposter syndrome when you go who was it me really there was very much an element of imposter syndrome and also there was a a cultural well i felt there was a cultural divide because i came from this working class background that's an interesting point you raised because that's something i don't know about is there i mean you're a tenor you're a singer you You sing arias, you sing Puccini, you sing, you know, Italian compositions. I mean, is that something that that you've known in your history or in the past as being confined to more middle class genre?

19:34People are upper class or middle class. I mean, your average lad from Witness or Wigan isn't going around singing O Mio Babino Caro. No, I, I, I, well, that's a soprano arias for a written for a female voice. Oh, I'm sorry. So the chances are Your average lad isn't going to be singing Oh me oh babino caro Oh he's singing He's singing I got you to sing I knew I could get you off guard Kind of Go on But yeah I grew up with classical music So even though I came from a working class background um my grandfather was a fantastic classical pianist um i started playing yep he was amazing yep he was absolutely when you say classical pianist when what kind of stuff are you talking about him playing i mean is it kind of chopin rachmaninoff all of that stuff is it is it yeah he played a lot of tchaikovsky okay that he loved and so and so did i from a very early age the Chopin waltzes and it was quite something because I think from around about the age of three I would go into the room in which his piano was and I would lean against the back leg of the piano and as I was leaning and my grandfather was playing I'd feel the vibrations going down my neck and into my back I love and more often than I remember there's so many times where he'd be playing these beautiful pieces of music and at the time i had no idea what they were but i just found them so beautiful that's lovely and so many times i remember falling asleep and not even realizing and then waking up and you know it's the morning yeah that's so beautiful i didn't realize that at all so that's a very clear my mother my mother had me playing piano with a with this little old lady that lived down the road from us called Mrs.

21:45Whitfield. And she had me playing piano from the age of seven. And then I got to my sort of early teens, 13, 14, and decided I didn't want to play the piano anymore. It wasn't cool. And that's when I got my first guitar, which was an old 70s sunburst Hoffmer semi-acoustic. And were you singing? i started singing when i begun playing guitar because that's when my my friend and i a lad called steve gleave you know local soulful lad as well and we get together wherever we could in my bedroom his bedroom you know in the garages of of our of our homes and and we'd say we had i had this book it was called a bumper book of 101 beatles songs oh wow and we knew this book from start to end and what was amazing about that book was we were kind of obsessed with the Beatles music spin on I think it would have been 15 years or so and I'm on stage and it was it's the Nobel Peace Prize Awards in Oslo and I'm on stage singing Let It Be with Paul McCartney and that again that was pretty much right at the start of my career but it was one of the most surreal moments of my entire life because you know i remember i don't i don't know if it came over that way but he certainly felt that way but i'm kind of singing it you know he starts off when i find myself in times and i'm looking over and thinking that's paul mccartney i know i know i know i know and he's singing mother mary comes to me and that's of course about his own mother and oh what an amazing thing to be singing at the Nobel Prize Awards was it?

23:33Nobel Peace Prize did you say? Yeah That's beautiful When you sang at the, I mean you're a Man United fan so singing at Man United must have been surreal as well I mean like playing with McCartney I mean what did you sing at United? Can you remember what you sang at Barcelona and then United? I sang Nessun Dorma Jesus which is a tenor aria For me, that day was singularly probably, certainly at that point, was the most amazing thing that had happened to me. And I remember it. So I took my dad with me and my dad came along. And again, I remember being stood pitch side waiting to go on. Literally, as the teams came running out, I went on the pitch to see Nesson Dormer.

24:18And I remember being stood at the side and my dad was like this. And he said, he said, are you not nervous? I went, no, I said, I can't wait to get out there. And he went, I'm bloody petrified, I'm not singing. And anyway, I went out and I sung. And it's funny because after I did it, I was getting different feedback. So I mentioned to you my friend, the guy who used to play the old Beatles songs with. Steve, is it? Steve, Steve Glebe. Yeah. And he was, because it was the last game of the season, it was the day we won the Premier League. That was like the first step to the treble. And I remember Steve said, he said, you know, he said, it's funny, I was sat in the case stand, and it was like, they're always sat behind me, they're always going on about something or other.

25:18And I heard him say, you know, you come out, and then Keith Fane introduced you and he started singing Nessun Dorma. He says, and then I heard this guy, the light skinheads, you know, with tattoos and what, and I heard this guy say who was mate, he says, F off, he's not from Salford. Anyway, he says, halfway through though, you know why when you took your jacket off and you got your shirt on and you went, are you all right? And he heard you and then this other guy says to the other one, And he says, hey, maybe he is from Salford.

25:55But then there was this brilliant, there was this brilliant write-up. It was the first thing that had ever been written about me. Yeah, it was in the Manchester Evening News, and it was in the middle of the review of the game. and it said something like, as the young man stepped onto the hallowed turf of Old Trafford and began to sing, slowly, slowly the noise of the crowd started to drop. Nice. You know when you've witnessed something special, when even the cynical hacks in the press box join in the ovation, I swear even the pigeons on the roofs of the stands flapped their wings when he hit the high note of Nessun Dormer.

26:53That's good writing. I know. And I've kept that. And it's just... You know what you need to do? You need to get Morgan Freeman to do the voiceover of what that is. It's funny you should mention him because I did... I'm not bragging here. Yeah, yeah. But one of the highlights of my career, I'm a massive James Bond fan. Oh, yeah. I love all the Bond movies. And Sean Connery, for me, is the ultimate. And I was doing this event in Monaco, and it was the Laureus Sports Awards. So it's 2002, and all the great and the good of the sports world have been invited to this event. And there was, you know, the Beckhams were there.

27:44And there was a whole host of people. Michael Douglas and his Catherine Zeta-Jones were there. There was this big host of superstars. I think Ronaldo was there. And it was this amazing event. But I was told that someone came to the dressing room and said, just like you know, Sean Connery will be introducing you onto the stage. So I was like, all right, okay, great stuff. Anyway, it's been on about half an hour, and there's a knock at my door, and it's Sean Connery. Brilliant. I was like, honestly, I couldn't believe it. And he said, Russell, I'll be introducing you onto the stage, and I just wondered how you'd like me to introduce you.

28:26And I said, I don't know. I said, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage Russell Watson. And she says, I believe you're known as the voice. Is that right? And I said, yeah, yeah. I'll slip that in as well. So anyway, honestly, so he comes to the performance and I'm stood at the side of the stage and Sean comes on stage left, walks into the middle, grabs hold of the microphone and as smooth as you like, he goes, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome onto the stage but watch Russell Watchman that's great walked on and I did my couple of numbers and then Morgan Freeman took me off the stage walked me off the stage those are the halcyon days terrific and I would say that's a 9.9 for the impression of Conor that's very good and Lionel Richie good you performed with him as well is that right Lovely man Lovely man Is he like Because he strikes me as You know I saw the documentary About We Are The World I don't know if you've seen it And you get a good look At Richie in that And what he comes across In as that is He's from that Quincy Jones school Where they're just Rock hard professionals They're real They are real professionals And even the Jacksons Were all like that They were like They're up at 5 in the morning They're dancing at 7 They're like singing at 10 To 5 They're hard workers There's that whole culture Of the black these black entertainers who just are total pros like and it seems to me that Richie comes from that really professional sort of dude wanting to get it right I would say that but I think most people I think most artists that there's there's a major similarity between any artist that's kind of stood the test of time that's had longevity longevity is one of the most difficult things to attain in the music industry reaching a level of success in relative terms i think is not so difficult but attaining that success for a long period of time yes it doesn't just happen i can attest to that yeah you you i i i don't wake up in the morning thinking what am i having for breakfast I wake up in the morning thinking right what am I doing today what can we do today to keep things moving and it's not I'm not necessarily talking about social media social media is one thing I'm talking about I'm thinking about my career I'm thinking about what I'm doing in 2028 now I've already got my next two years mapped out I'm thinking about what can I do in 2028 that's going to be different from what i'm doing now to keep to keep to keep people engaged i think i think we i think reinvention in in my case is i don't know it's keeping it fresh keeping it fresh keeping it keeping it yeah keeping it fresh moving things around just like little chess pieces oh people don't go i saw that last year you're totally right you're totally right the one thing is like, you know, people ask about like, you know, say Madonna or something, you know, and they go, how do all these people like Madonna do it?

31:59And the people that do it is Madonna. It's nobody else. They're the ones that do it. It's got to be you, Russell. Nobody's going to do it for you. And I think you would agree with that, wouldn't you? Nobody is going to do it for you. No matter how much money you have, no matter how much entourage you have, no matter how much management, they're not going to do it for you because they, at At the end of the day, the people around you will benefit from the stuff you do. But the only person that really, truly knows where to go next and when to do it and which risk to take is you. Because it all comes down to you.

32:34And you're the one that has to move the dial forward. It took me, I've been doing this now as a recording artist. If I include the time in the clubs, it's been 36 years I've been treading the boards professionally. when I think about the first 10 years of my recording career that was the learning curve the last 15 years or so have been the years in which I've discovered that there is no magic person out there they don't exist they do not exist and you can take it you can say I don't know if you've got an artist with talent then you have something to sell and you can have success but once you've attained that success i i attain the success i don't have a manager now my wife and i do it all ourselves from home we don't use an agent we work with promoters because we're familiar now after 20 25 26 years of experience i'm familiar with how promoters do deals and how promoters work because i've watched agents do it so you don't take someone on and and not listen to what's going on and just go i'll let them do everything for me now everything is done here and we've even recently even more recently we've started putting on our our own concerts so we don't use any promoters we don't use agents we will be using promoters as a rule as we move forward because they're they are an essential part they're an essential part of the ingredients of of a touring artist and they take a huge amount of pressure off but the need for managers at my stage in life and career because i don't need someone to go out and say, I'm going to get you a tour in Timbuktu because I don't want to go to Timbuktu.

34:41I'm happy here. I've done all that. I've toured the world. I've been to Australia and toured over there. I've been around the world umpteen times and I've done it all and it was fantastic. But my priorities in life have changed. The love for the music and what I do is still exactly the same as it was when I first started. but my priorities have changed now so it's not all about music there's also a balance of of life and family and friends as well mixed in with the music and i think that's really important i do it is and i get i don't want to go i don't want to go to you know i don't want to spend a year in america breaking america again i can't be bothered but also it is it is your affair how how you have to keep it fresh and it's nobody else is going to do it for you.

35:33It has to come for you. What did you sing at Bobby Charlton's funeral? I sang How Great Thou Art. Okay, pretty apt. I sang Abide With Me. Abide With Me, yeah. Yeah. A wonderful figure. He was a wonderful Manchester. And I was invited to sing by his wife as well, which was, for me, was a great honour. But I also sang at George, best memorial to um at Salford Cathedral which again was a a marvelous marvelous honor that link with Manchester United and yeah and a lot of the old legends is something yeah you know was it I wish the only thing I wish was that my granddad it was a huge football fan pianist like because no no my granddad on my dad's side he would have been so thrilled because he used to talk I remember he used to I never saw Bobby Charlton play but he used to talk about Charlton and Best and the Greats he'd come round on a Sunday with my grand and all I'd want to do is talk to my granddad about you know the old football stars and he'd be telling me about Bobby Charlton when he hit the ball you know it stayed hitting me I remember this time he hit the ball so hard it busts the back end so i heard about all these greats so when eventually i came to meet bobby for the first time i couldn't believe that this superstar of a man who was a legend not just here but across the world was so humble and so down to earth and such a gentleman it was it was incredible I remember I've got his tie up here this is Bobby's one of Bobby's ties and I was doing a charity event with Bobby I was singing and we were earning money and so that's the tie and I remember just jokingly and I'd done the performance and I'd come off stage and Bobby says oh that was that was brilliant he said um is there anything i can do for you and me being me you know a bit of adrenaline in my body went yeah can i have your tie and he went suck it off he went yeah yeah that's cool like no i was only joking oh i'll sign it for you if you want and he scribbled on it for me as well best wishes bobby chowler brilliant no i said it was joking no i want you to have it oh that's nice i like it yeah i like it and what a lovely man yes i met him once he they brought the um manchester united brought the premier league trophy over to he brought the premier league trophy over to our radio station in in in dublin and they were they were giving it a tour you know the way they tour they do a little tour with the premier league yeah yeah and i was working in the station so i got a photo with bob and um and the premier league thing but again what came across from him was completely unassuming and he's just completely old school sort of yeah a fella you know so so a lovely man a privilege to meet him um but just talking about the working men's clubs and everything i mean you know and professionalism and keeping going and longevity and all of that and how it must be you that does it nobody else is going to do it for you it's it's not a fluke that people stay um relevant you know i mean like my favorite sport is tennis.

39:05I love football, I love rugby, but my favourite sport is tennis. Me too. Really, right? Yeah, I love tennis. And I'd be like a, you know, obviously a great fan of Roger Federer, but one of the biggest lessons I learned in life was listening to Roger Federer talk about his work ethic and how hard he worked and how he was sick of people talking about effortlessness and grace and all this stuff. He said, that's completely incorrect. I work I work my buns off. I work my butt off. I work as hard as Rafa. I work as hard as Novak. I always have. And that's what I love. I love grafters. I love grafters.

39:44And then it just brings me back to your working men's clubs because there's an old story about David Bowie working the working men's clubs. And he's going in and he's going in. Your man is showing him around. One of the guys that would do the voice that you were doing. Hey, kid. And he's there. Sorry, mate. Is there a toilet or wherever? And he goes, there you go. And it's like just a little tiny basin. and Bowie looks at the basin and looks at your man, looks at the basin, looks at your man. He looks back and he goes, if it were good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for thee.

40:16That spawn. And that's a true story because that's, and what it takes me back is that Bowie was a fucking pro. He was a grafter, a worker, and everybody who worked with Bowie go, he's just interested in the work. You know, and he's really good to be around. He was quite collegiate and friendly. and he was a real hard worker and he wanted to find the next groove, the next thing. He wanted to, what's next? What's next? What's next? Work, work, work, work. And that's what he is, a worker. I mean, you know, David Bowie just didn't land, even though we sort of think, he didn't land from space and became, wow, this is David Bowie.

40:49He's from Britain. He's from England. He worked his nuts off and it didn't work for David Bowie for the first seven years. You know, it wasn't all... It was the same for me. You know, I was going through this stage in my career around about seven, eight years in to the clubs. This is two, three years before the fame hit. And I was thinking, you know, is this going to be my lot for the rest of my life? Because I just feel like I'm not getting anywhere. There's this kind of golden carrot dangling in front of me. and every time I feel like I'm getting to the point where I can grab it, something happens and it disappears and it doesn't happen.

41:39I was kind of thinking, am I being taunted? Is this my destiny to spend the rest of my... And I'm not saying it's not a good career because it was. And I'm making money and I was... Doing what you love. It's damn sight better than being on the production line that was on in the factory. but I wanted more and I had this dream and I had this vision and it wasn't happening. So when it did, there was no way I was going to let it go. And I figured out, it was interesting, more like a sort of, I guess from a sociological perspective, that there's this theory that to be excellent at something, you've got to put in a minimum of 10 ,000 hours practice to be proficient, to be very, very good at something.

42:48You have to do it for at least 10 ,000 hours. and I'd done way more than that when I came out of the clubs and we released that first record and I kind of at that point as much as you know I mentioned to you about feelings slightly intimidated by being stood in front of such an immense group of musicians and I wasn't thinking about them singularly i was thinking about them as a group this is the greatest orchestra in the world and i'm stood before them i hope they bloody like me you know i was i was petrified i'm i'm talking about when i hit the scene i i was so ready for it and i i i walked into so many different environments with this with with confidence i i didn't feel when i when i when i was when i was performing in the nobel peace prize awards and i stepped onto the stage as much as i was amazed that i was with paul mccartney i did not feel in awe of the situation the person yes there's only two people i've ever been in awe of paul mccartney and sir alex ferguson Yeah, that's it.

44:10That's our hot picks. And I've worked with some incredible people over the years, but they're the only two people where I've been a little bit like... And he's been nice to you, hasn't he? Like, Alex, I think, did he remark at one stage that he thought he were a bit of a lucky mascot for him? Yes. Well, I remember him saying to me, this would have been when my fame was just kicking off in 2000. I think by that point the record had gone to number one. Yeah. And I'd gone to one of the games and I was in the reception area and Sir Alex came walking out and I kind of saw him and I went, hey, Russell.

44:51And I went, yeah. He went, don't you forget us when you're famous, boy. And he walked off and I went, mean forget you. Yeah, I know. Again, a down-to-earth kind of man, a guy who believes in hard yards won and the graft yeah but you could see in his eyes there was steel running through his veins he wouldn't have won a mess I mean the team at the moment could do with someone like him oh it's steel I just Roy Keane often remarks that although Roy Keane fell out with Ferguson badly big sign he does remark that in his best periods that Ferguson just knew what to say to the team. But my favorite instance of that is, you probably know it yourself, but my favorite instance of that is where Keane recounts this moment where Man United, I think they've been playing midweek in Europe.

45:46They were wrecked. Top of the league, but they were wrecked. And they were coming back to Old Trafford. And they had Spurs at the weekend. And no sign of Fergie. He normally comes in and does whatever. And they're kitted out now. They're all made up now, ready to go out. No sign of Fergie. And they're going, is he ill? Why hasn't he come in? Two minutes before they have to go, door opens. Fergie comes in and he goes, lads, it's Tottenham. Closes the door, walks out. And basically they knew what he was saying. It's fucking Tottenham. Yeah And like he's just saying Forget about your tiredness Forget about Like lads It's Tottenham What he was saying was You're Manchester United This is Tottenham You know what's going to happen today And they all just went out And they just We just went out And fucking hammered them Because it's Tottenham And in other words He had kind of He had kind of put his finger on it He knew they were tired He knew He knew that they were travel and all this.