Daily Mail - September 28, 2002

transcription by Douglas Smith


Learning Curve

What I wish I'd known at 21

King of the slow dance CHRIS DE BURGH has sold 40 million records. Now
he's smooching back into the charts with a new album and a world tour.
Here Chris tells YVONNE SWANN what he has learned since he was 21...

Irish crooner: Chris has learnt to take the knocks in life

'Being in my serene early 50s, I have learned to reflect on the male
midlife crisis. At 21, you scoff at such a concept but I now believe
that men in their 40s experience similar confusion to the one they
lived through in adolescence. In your teens, you see your future as an
impossibly high hill. In your 40s, you are at the top of that hill and
that's when you start looking down the other side towards mortality.
That's when men go bananas. I went through a bit of a hurricane at
about that age. There was lots of confusion and turmoil. Luckily my
wife stuck by me.


'When you go into marriage you can't assume that it's going to be
plain sailing. There was a message behind Lady in Red. I realised that
relationships are a bit like a boat attached to the shore by a piece
of rope. In stormy waters that boat wants to move away and you
constantly have to pull it back in again.

'I didn't realise at 21 that anyone who's successful will get heavily
criticised. I learnt later that you must not take it personally.
Working in this profession is like being a boxer - you are knocked
down constantly and have to keep getting up again. Also, if you let
people see that you are hurting, then the attacks just get worse.

'Now I am never ashamed or embarrassed to show my emotions and
feelings, which I think is a blessing. I feel terribly sorry for men
who can't cry. I am a complete sucker for crying. Real emotions and
feelings are the backbone of my work. I would never put out a song
that I was not 100 per cent committed to, even if other people found
it too close to the bone

' I left university at 21 with a degree in English, French and
European history, but my first job was singing and playing the guitar
in a restaurant in Dublin. My parents always supported my ambition.
They knew that if you have a dream you have to try to make a go of it.
That's a lesson I've tried to pass on to my children. Even glorious
failure is better than throwing away your dream.  In the music
business, the failure rate is 99 per cent, so I am very proud to have
made it. Even if people can't stand me or my music, they have to
respect the fact that I have sold 40 million.records in 28 years. '


Chris de Burgh's single, Guilty Secret, and album, Timing Is
Everything, are out now.
Chris kicks off his UK tour on November 2 at Nottingham Arena.