Potts and Fans

Paul Potts is a busy man. In the past few weeks alone he has been to Peru, Columbia, Tokyo and Margate.

“Margate?” I query. “Yes, I did a wonderful concert there and then we stayed over with some relatives.

“We slept on the floor in their sitting room actually, and had a great time, although I have to be careful what I drink these days because of my voice.”

Ah yes, the voice. The voice which saw him win Britain’s Got Talent, the voice which reduced everyone watching his audition to tears and the voice which is selling out concerts around the world.

To give you an idea of his popularity, more people have watched Paul Potts sing Nessun Dorma than Pavarotti, more than 50 million people on YouTube alone. His debut album One Chance went platinum and sold two million copies in 2007. Yup, he’s a popular guy.

And yet the 39-year-old former Carphone Warehouse salesman hasn’t changed. He still lives in Port Talbot in Wales, is married to the wife he met Internet dating before he hit the big time, and hangs out with the same friends. The only difference is that instead of selling phones he spends his time performing with Katherine Jenkins and José Carreras and mixing with the likes of Gordon Brown and Oprah Winfrey. “I’m the same person I’ve always been,” he agrees.

So is he now surrounded by groupies I ask, during a break from his worldwide tour in a Danish hotel room.

“No not really. I haven’t found that at all. I’ve always been a person that never had many friends, but the ones I do have I can really trust – and they don’t have any ulterior motives. The only difference is I suppose that we are away so much that when we are home, they come to us and we get the beers in,” he chuckles.

“I’ve lived in Wales for eight years and I think we’ll stay there. We’re doing up our house at the moment and trying to get it back to its former glory. But we live around some great people and we look forward to spending time there.”

By we, he means his wife Julie-Ann and him. He met her in 2001 when they arranged to meet at Swansea Station for their first date.

“It was 10.08am,” he tells me proudly, and they haven’t been apart since.

So how is Julie-Ann finding all this? “She loves travelling and sees it as one big adventure. It’s all great fun and she comes all over the world with me, although she does get a break every now and again.” he jokes.

As you may have guessed, Paul Potts is exactly as you’d expect him to be; genuine, honest, humble and desperate to please his audience and fans alike. It’s as if he thinks everything could crumble away overnight and he’d be back where he started.

But that’s before you take his incredible voice into account. The rags to riches story helps of course and everyone likes a boy made good angle, but his greatest gift is his ability to move people emotionally when he sings.

So why not give himself a bit more credit? “You can’t ever take anything for granted,” he tells me sincerely, “or assume that things will always continue like this. And I will always be insecure. It’s part of who I am. My challenge though is to improve and always be the best I can. I would just love to continue doing what I’m doing if I had the chance, and keep making people happy.”

His success is made more incredible by the fact that when Paul went for the BGT audition, he had given up singing following a bicycle accident when he broke his collarbone and suffered whiplash.

So what made him get up on stage four years later and give it one more go?

“I needed closure,” Paul tells me. “I wanted to finish with that part of my life. Singing was a very important but very expensive habit which I couldn’t support anymore, so I wanted closure.”

And was he aware how much his life could change as a result of that audition?

“That day in Cardiff”... he trails off. “I couldn’t see it at the time but now I’m so incredibly grateful it happened and to all the people who supported me and were behind me all the way.”

So what is it they love? I ask, wondering if he’s finally aware of his talents.

“I can’t really answer that,” he says. “You’ll have to ask them. But it is something I ask myself every morning when I fall out of my bunk on the tour bus,” he laughs, “sometimes literally.”

In terms of therapy, the only thing Paul needs, apart from to sing, is to take time out to explore the places he visits. “I do like to have time to have a wander about. I think people expect me to be surrounded by thousands of minders, but if you see me wandering about, I’m just taking a quick stroll because I always get nervous before a concert.”

Paul Potts is appearing at Oxford’s New Theatre on Wednesday, October 21. Call the box office on 0844 8471588.