We asked the singer, 50, what his younger self would make of him today...

A career in music was not outside the realms of possibility for the young me. My parents split up when I was five, and life at home was a bit mad and sad at times. As the youngest of four children, I craved attention and found it in singing. I’d get picked for all the school plays and church choirs and I liked the reaction I got when I sang. I felt, strangely, that there was a kind of safety in being on stage because I was the one with the mic, the one in control.

The first band my friends and I set up was called Give Way because the bass player had pinched a road sign from a junction. I stuck it on the front of my drum set. We certainly weren’t the cool kids, but after we played at the school Valentine’s disco I got five Valentines. And I was only the drummer!