The singer on his love for Ibiza, the weirdest thing he’s done in the name of romance, and being signed up for Celebrity Traitors against his will
You were a punching bag for such a long time after You’re Beautiful became a massive hit, but your consistent good humour is deeply admirable. Does it ever get tiring?
It was a surprise, at the beginning. I was just a little guy with a dream. And when you achieve your dream, you think people would be happy for you. For them not to be happy for you, but angry with you, for your song, seems irrational, an overreaction. It is interesting how people generally want to tear people down for achieving their little dreams. But I’d had a real proper job before that [as a captain in the British army]. My friends might have been on operations in Afghanistan or Iraq, so if I were to complain to them at the time saying, “Oh, the Guardian said something really horrid about me and gave me three stars for my album” – they would be able to talk about who had lost their lives or limbs that day, and that put it all in perspective. And perspective is everything.