Music was always a big part of our family life. My dad’s brother used to play the harmonica at family parties, and my mum was in the Luton Girls Choir, who did lots of radio broadcasts and performances in the 50s. I have older cousins who used to play me their soul and ska records. Music still brings the family together, as my brother and sisters and cousins and nephews and family friends all come to my gigs.
I had a pretty carefree childhood. I was born in Luton in 1956, the year of the birth of rock’n’roll. My dad worked at Vauxhall Motors and my mum was a full-time mum and looked after me, my elder brother, Mark, and my younger sister, Joanne, until we were in our teens, when she started working for British Gas.
My parents were still living with my grandparents, on my dad’s side, when I was born, but when I was three, we moved to our own house near Luton airport. It was a typical street where the kids all played outside. Mark and I shared a room with bunk beds. It was great to have an older brother, and it was his duty to take me out with him. He and his friend would ride an old motorcycle across the fields and he’d take me on the back.
I wanted to do music at school but they discouraged it. If you did music you couldn’t do technical drawing, which meant you couldn’t work in engineering and as Vauxhall was the local employer that’s what we were all being groomed for. I ended up doing a four-year apprenticeship and playing in bands at night. It kept me going.
I met my wife, Stacey, who was a model, on the video shoot for my second single, Come Back and Stay. We got married after three years and I became a dad at 30, which felt like the right time. We have three kids – Levi, 29, Layla, 22, and Grady, 21. Levi runs an online personal shopping service for men, which was on Dragons’ Den a few years ago, Layla is a model and Grady is studying chemical engineering at university.
For every musician there’s a certain point when your kids get to 13 or 14 and you become an embarrassment. They don’t want you to drop them off at school and they don’t like that you are different from the other parents, but thankfully mine are over that now, and are pretty cool with what I do.
It takes someone pretty strong to be the wife of a rock musician. There was no point Stacey saying “wait until your father gets home” as that could be three months as I was always away. I did take a bit of a break from touring when Levi was born as I felt I wanted to be home with them, but then I went back to it.
Ten years ago, Stacey and I split up as things weren’t working for either of us but then three years later we got back together again. I know of other people who have got back together and it hasn’t lasted, but we have kept at it. During the split, Stacey had a son, Jude, who is now 10. He lives with us, as well as spending time with his dad. Jude adores his older brother and sisters and always gets so excited when Grady is coming home from university.
Although I travel a lot and love touring, having a home to come back to, and family around me, is very important. We are all still quite closely knit. We live in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, which is about 25 miles away from my mum and dad. It’s nice that no one is too far away. I don’t know how families cope when family members live in different countries. I’m not sure I could handle that at all.
• Paul Young is performing on the 80s Invasion Tour, which returns for the second year, and runs from 2-19 March. To buy tickets, go to http://www.tdpromo.com/80s-invasion-tours
