We can be really mean about former Razorlight crooner Johnny Borrell right now because he’ll never read this website. We know this for a fact, because he doesn’t read ‘news outlets’. None of them – not even ones that might be nice to him. Unless they’re reporting cricket or football scores because those are things that, according to him: ‘You can’t lie about that.’
Why the hate for the press? Because he truly believes that ‘You’d find out more truth by just walking down the street with a musical instrument than by looking at any of the news outlets.’
The songwriter explained that he won’t even read the news for hard-hitting global issues: ‘I think it’s a wonderful fiction, a beautiful human conceit that something happening in a far-off place can be boiled down to 100 words.’
He then emphasised the importance of getting to know the world by ‘walking down the street with a musical instrument’ by mentioning it twice more in the interview.
Now, we said we can be really mean to Johnny, but we won’t, because there’s no need to insult someone who’s so ridiculous he’s basically playing a verbal version of that game where your older sibling would grab your hands, make you slap yourself with them, then command, ‘Stop hitting yourself.’ Except he’s the one slapping himself with these silly words.
Maybe we should just talk about his music? Excellent idea, and clearly what the *The Metro’*s interviewer had in mind when she asked if he was sad that his last album only sold 594 copies in its first week. Johnny replied: ‘I don’t understand what you mean by that. Why would I be upset? Am I a salesman or a musician? All I can say is the most emphatic no. We must be on different planets.’
However, he then went on to gloat: ‘In this country, my last band sold five million records, so there must be one or two people who like what I do. People are obsessed with performers and celebrity, but I’ve never been interested in that.’
Surely, Johnny… surely, if album sales are a measure of how much people like what you do, then what you do can’t be that likeable any more? Oops, sorry, we forgot you’ll never read this. Maybe if we were a roadside tuba you’d listen to us…
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.