[James]

.....The last time most of us saw Leo Sayer, it was 2007 and he was escaping from the Celebrity Big Brother house in a flurry of expletives, armed only with a shovel and a thunderous grievance.

In one of the great televised hissy fits, the Grammy-winning singer stormed out following a row sparked by Channel 4’s refusal to furnish him with a clean pair of underpants.

The atmosphere between the housemates – including Jade Goody and the show’s eventual winner, Indian actress Shilpa Shetty – was toxic, and Sayer went into meltdown.




‘There were extremes of human behaviour,’ he says today. ‘Lots of crazy! It’s sad to say that it’s all a set-up. They find a nice guy like Leo and make fun of him. When I broke out, I had bruises on my arm from where the security guy held me. It was horrible, and I lost my temper. I’m not very proud of what I said, but I wanted to break away from this guy who was really hurting me. I felt like suing them afterwards.’

Sayer, 68, holds such strong views on the ‘curse of celebrity’ you wonder why he agreed to do CBB in the first place. ‘They offered me a record deal,’ he explains. ‘I needed a deal, and you’ve got to have publicity. I knew it was a bad decision the moment I went in – actually, I knew the week before – but there was no backing out.

‘Anyway, they never showed all the best stuff I did. I found a little piece of metal and unscrewed four panels in the house, and they all came crashing down exposing the cameramen behind them. Then I decided not to talk to Big Brother any longer, and tried to carry out the remaining days in mime. They didn’t know what the ******* to do with me. I was the anarchist in the room. I tried to destroy the house because I thought it was an evil place.’.....


.....On his next record, Selfie, he’ll play and produce everything himself. ‘If Picasso can do Guernica without using anyone else’s paintbrush, why can’t I?’ he reasons. ‘That was Bowie, mate, that was Bob Dylan! To hell with the critics! The best artists are hard to pin down. I wouldn’t do anything differently, not one thing.’ Not even Big Brother? ‘Not even that! We’re entitled to make mistakes. Wisdom is learned through experience, and sometimes experience is hard and bitter. It’s all part of me.’

From http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/even...-meltdown.html