Laura Snapes 

Will Young on his pop career, threesomes, escaping Knutsford services and dry stone walling

From his favourite Spice Girl, to how to help young gay people come out and not driving carefully – Young answered all of those and more
  
  

Will Young will answer your questions at 1pm on Monday 2 September.
Will Young will answer your questions at 1pm on Monday 2 September. Photograph: Steve Schofield

User avatar for will_young Guardian contributor
This comment has been chosen by Guardian staff because it contributes to the debate

Thank you very much everyone for your questions. I feel bad that I haven't spoken about my tour enough. It's actually really fun! The band are really good. And if you don't like the performance, the merchandise is rocking. Do have a google and see where I'm playing. Thanks so much everyone for being so much fun, it's been a real laugh. Lots of love.


Cassie22
asks:

My son came out when he was 25 and I often wonder if he suffered during his school years. What could have made your teenage years better and what advice would you give on coming out?

User avatar for will_young Guardian contributor

That makes my heart melt when you mention your son coming out and possibly how it would have been for him at school. I think for me, more visibility of gay people would have really helped me have less shame about being gay. I'm so pleased that now it's very different. I still don't think that homophobic bullying is taken as seriously as it should be, however we're much further down the line than we were when I was a teenager. I am so pleased your son is out and it seems like you care about him greatly.


kdee6969
asks:

If you could only achieve one thing from an imaginary bucket list, what would it be?

User avatar for will_young Guardian contributor

Having a threesome. I've never had one. I don't know if I ever will. As my friend said to me, "Will, some people have threesomes and some people don't, and you're someone who doesn't." But if I'm gonna go, I'm gonna tick that off my bucket list.


AlexNeedham
asks:

Your book is called How to be a Gay Man. Who do you think has got it sussed out? My other question is, what kind of world would we currently be living in if all the people who died of Aids had survived?

User avatar for will_young Guardian contributor

After this session, I am seriously rethinking the title of my book, which I am very grateful for. However! Who do I think has got it sussed out - Ru Paul. I think there is an example of a gay man who has worked on his shit and is now spreading love and empowerment through everything he does.

What kind of world would we be living in if all the people who died of Aids had survived - I'm not sure if I can answer that question. The first thing, though, that comes to mind, is that a lot of people would have been a lot happier.

MichaelCragg asks:

Do you think losing out to Danny from The Script as a judge on The Voice was actually a blessing in disguise?

User avatar for will_young Guardian contributor

Thank you, Guardian journalist, for your question. Are you in the building? If so, I would like a cappuccino and a carrot cake. But coming to the answer: I am not sure it was a blessing in disguise. I was very perturbed at the time. I think Ricky Wilson is brilliant on the Voice and I really enjoy the show.

RossWilliamQuinn asks:

You’ve done a bit of acting (Mrs Henderson Presents) and of course singing. If you had the opportunity to do one of these big film musicals that are all the fashion which would be your perfect role? Or would you like to do something totally new?

User avatar for will_young Guardian contributor

Yes I have done a bit of acting! I've done a play, a few TV shows. I'm just setting you right on my resume. Hahaha. The ultimate role would be playing the MC in cabaret. I played the role three times on stage and it was one of the most delightful moments I think I will ever have in my life. If only I could play it on film.


Harriet Gibsone
asks:

Do you think the X Factor can survive in the modern era? And did you watch the Jade Goody documentary? Wondered if you had any thoughts on early 00s celebrity culture.

User avatar for will_young Guardian contributor

The Jade Goody doc is on my list of things to watch. I am genuinely fascinated by celeb culture from that era. I think people were less aware of how far they could go in simply being a celebrity, and what kind of empire they could build. So in a way, characters were more authentic. Now, people know of the potential earnings that they could get, so I feel authenticity is very questionable.

And X Factor: I think talent shows have been around for decades and if X Factor finishes, something else will come up in another format. Talent shows in the simple format are really enjoyable and should always be around. The toxicity that can gather around them and stuff that goes on behind the scenes is really damaging and maybe one day it will be made public.

The last time I went on Loose Women, Janet Street-Porter and I had a love-in about tomatoes


SamWolfson
asks:

You do a lot of terrestrial TV appearances on Sunday Brunch, Loose Women, One Show etc. Which of those shows is the most enjoyable to do and which makes you wish you had never become a pop star?

User avatar for will_young Guardian contributor

I do do a lot of terrestrial TV and sometimes I do think to myself, oh my god, I just want to move to Somerset and open an Airbnb. Sometimes I do think, when I wanted to do music, I didn't think that I would be doing certain things. However, I love promoting something that I feel super proud of and that I genuinely believe has a place in the pop world. With every job, there are always things that one doesn't want to do, and I like that because it reminds me that I do just do a job. Now, to the pressing matter of what is my favourite show to do... I'm going to give highlights from each show. Sunday Brunch: I am such a shit cook that I like playing up to it and making people laugh. The downside: it is the longest show in the history of television. Loose Women: for me, it's always too short because once I get going with the panel, we're having a real laugh. The last time I went on, myself and Janet Street-Porter had a love-in about tomatoes. The One Show: my latest experience on the One Show was quite stressful because there was a problem with my music. Someone had sent the backing track and all it had on it was a beat... This was with 40 minutes to go until a live performance with 50 dancers. I tried my best to be mindful in this situation and I am very proud that I didn't lose my rag. The backing track turned up with 10 minutes to go...

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I think social media is the devil incarnate. My phone is broken and I am so happy!


organicplastic
asks:

If you ruled the world how would you tackle some of the most pressing problems of our age?

User avatar for will_young Guardian contributor

I'd get rid of social media. I think it's the devil incarnate. My phone is broken and I am so happy that I am not looking at my Instagram, just to put things up. Honestly, I am so happy. I just found that I've been looking at it more and it doesn't make me happy. I would make all of us do at least two nights of charity work. And I would do my best to create forums where we could all sit down, connect and actually be true about what we're feeling about our lives. That would be lovely.

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ID7188412 asks:

I always thought you could have been a bit more adventurous in your early career. Was it a relief to cast off the shackles of Simon Cowell’s record label and how much influence did you have on your song choices?

User avatar for will_young Guardian contributor

Thank you for your honest opinion on my musical output in my early career. I was very pleased to move from Simon Cowell's record label. I had a lot of influence on the song choices of my early career and was very much given time to develop as a songwriter. Perhaps it was no accident that after I'd left Simon Cowell's label, I sang Leave Right Now and my career really started to take off.

Nina Simone is a favourite lyricist – I love singing her music

Gill10 asks:

Some of us know how you love jazz music and singing it live. So who is your favourite songwriter and lyricist combination from the Great American Songbook era?

User avatar for will_young Guardian contributor

I love singing jazz music and really enjoy the intimacy of the gigs. To me it feels like I have stepped back 70 years and the gigs have such a freedom to them and the audience are always so funny. I'm not sure if she's part of the Great American Songbook, but I would say Nina Simone is one of my favourite songwriters and lyricists and I love singing her music.

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sicrates
asks:

As you have grown older and wiser, do you drove more carefully now?

User avatar for will_young Guardian contributor

Lisatymon asks:

Your battle with ptsd & depression is a well-documented one & as I myself & family members have struggled I really appreciate you keeping it in the public eye. Have you any plans to do more talks and would you consider coming more up north? It really is good to see you much happier!

User avatar for will_young Guardian contributor

Thank you so much for being so open about your struggles and your family's struggles. I really appreciate you messaging. I always try and be as authentic as possible and if I hear that it has helped someone else, that makes me really happy. I love doing my talks on wellbeing and would absolutely love to come up north. Unfortunately I tend to get booked down in London. I am much happier, thanks, and stronger, and have worked very hard on my illness and I hope that I can show that you can get better.


unclearleo
asks:

You must have met the Spice Girls on your travels across the children’s entertainment circuit. Which one was the least annoying?

User avatar for will_young Guardian contributor

In answer to your question about the Spice Girls, I feel it's couched in a slightly negative vibe. I suggest perhaps you look at how you write questions. However, to answer your question, I have met the Spice Girls, although I do feel that they perform to people of an adult age as well as child. Again, I think you might need to look at yourself. Which one was the least annoying... I presume you are writing this because you find them very annoying. Again, I suggest that you look at yourself. I would have to say Emma Bunton is my favourite. I have sung with her on a number of occasions and count her as one of my friends.


surrealteacher
asks:

If we all moved to an alternate universe where there is no music, how would you spend your time?

User avatar for will_young Guardian contributor

I would spend my time gardening and doing up old pieces of furniture. I would probably be humming to myself, and I would find solace in the fact that I could still use instruments to create percussive sounds. I would feel like that is musical still, and I would still have to dance, but to some imaginary music. I also want to learn how to dry stone wall, and I feel this could take up quite a lot of my time. I really do want to do that.

Nick Hardy asks:

I’m gay and know lots of gay men but they are all quite different and some wouldn’t want to be like the others if you paid them. How can you tell anyone how to be a gay man? What is a gay man?

User avatar for will_young Guardian contributor

I completely agree with you. How can you tell anyone how to be a gay man? I presume you are alluding to the title of my new book, How to Be a Gay Man. The book is more about my experience of being a gay man, and unpacking the shame and self-hate that can develop from a young age when you know that you are gay. The title, I think, is slightly misleading but I was told it would sell more book copies. You have made me think that maybe I should change it. However, if it manages to get people to read a book that I do think is valuable and explore a topic that is under-written about, I am happy with the title.

I was surprised to win a Brit award for Your Game – I felt there were actually better singles, including See It In a Boy's Eyes by Jamelia

Raphael Howard asks:

How did it feel to win a Brit award for Your Game? Are you disappointed that the song remains relatively obscure despite its success?

User avatar for will_young Guardian contributor

I was very surprised to win best single. At the time, I felt there were actually better singles. I think it was up against See It in a Boy's Eyes by Jamelia. I do remember what I wore, on the occasion - Alexander McQueen - and that I ended up spilling a doner kebab down it at 3am. I didn't know about the relative obscurity of that song and I shall be picking that up with my team...!

ProjectXRay asks:

I used to look a little bit like you about 10-15 years ago, and I was mistaken for you a few times in the 2000’s. A couple times your fans approached me with tears in their eyes, and teared up even more when I told them I wasn’t actually you. That was OK, but one time I was actually followed around Coventry city centre for what felt like ages by a group of extremely obnoxious teenage girls who thought I was you, and decided to harass ‘us’. They stalked me for ages, making snide homophobic comments and I ended up screaming at them to leave me alone (accidentally spitting out chewing gum in the process, and probably making you look like some kind of scuzzbucket- apologies), before running away through a shop to get away from them.

All of which is a roundabout way of saying that I had a tiny taste of your life in the 2000’s, and it stressed me the hell out. I really respect the way you’ve pursued your career then and since, especially your honesty about experiencing mental health problems.

So, in order to make this spiel a question, what are your top 3 survival tips for those experiencing accidental or sudden fame? Or even those being chased around by accident?

User avatar for will_young Guardian contributor

First of all, I would like to say, I would love to meet you because you're very funny, and also my vanity pushes me towards being curious about your looks. A lot of people who get mistaken for me tend to just have slightly large jaws with an overbite. I'm really sorry about your experience and weirdly feel slightly responsible for it. I myself have been attacked homophobically by teenage girls and I was left feeling very stressed and also a bit like, "damn, I wish I'd said something more cutting than I did". I applaud your spitting chewing gum at them. I myself have had to escape through the back of shops, as well as my favourite moment, which was climbing out of a loo window in Knutsford service station. My three survival tips for accidental fame are... 1. Carry mace at all times. 2. I have found throwing an iPhone as a weapon quite useful. 3. If in doubt, fall on the floor and scream, "I'm having a fit." Much love! William Young. Your doppelganger.


Martinnew
asks:

How do you write songs? How much of the music we hear has been rewritten hundreds of times, or do you just write something and think “That’s it”! I’ve written loads of music, but have finished hardly any of it. I wish I knew why.

User avatar for will_young Guardian contributor

I quite often start songs with a lyric and because I don't play a musical instrument very well, I write with my two friends, Jim and Mima Elliott. Jim will do all the music and production, and myself and Mima do the lyrics and the melody. They're hysterical. I don't tend to rewrite songs that much, primarily because I'm lazy. There are none on the back burner that I've been trying to figure out - the magic for songwriting, for me, happens in the moment. And I used to be a real perfectionist and now I prefer to leave that to other people around me.

HJGB246 asks:

101 Dalmatians II: Patch’s London Adventure was one of my favourite Disney films growing up, and I particularly like the song Try Again you did for the film. Would you ever do any singles exclusively for films again?

User avatar for will_young Guardian contributor

If I could tell you the hilarity behind singing the song Try Again for 101 Dalmations 2, I would but there are enough words to express it at this present time... I had to sing the song remotely, to the producers in LA and let's just say there was a very different approach to humour. I would love to sing more songs for films and have tried to do some but not many. The last one I attempted to do was with the artist Nitin Sawhney, who is very talented, and it was a real pleasure.

TheBigBadWolf asks:

Pre-social media days, your coming out was splashed across the tabloids whereas for LGBT performers today it feels like we know they’re gay from the first moment they emerge in the public eye. How hard was that time for you and was there ever any temptation to delay saying anything?

User avatar for will_young Guardian contributor

The decision to come out through the media was not difficult because I was already a gay man openly enjoying his life. There was no temptation to delay saying anything - in fact, I wanted to do it during the show. I feel like there are changing attitudes now and that makes me very happy.

laurasnapes asks:

Why do you think so many musicians have started podcasts? What itch does it scratch for you that being a pop star couldn’t?

User avatar for will_young Guardian contributor

I think a lot of musicians start podcasts now as another means of branding themselves and trying to sell more records. I no longer do my podcast because it became too much work, and I started it quite accidentally. I felt there was a space for LGBT voices. When I started I kept on calling a podcast an iPod. I very much doubt that it drove sales, very much doubt it. But I do miss interviewing people. I was just musing today on doing some sort of interview podcast that would be less work. I want to interview artists - I want to look at the concept of art and demystify what people think art is, people often think it's snobby, only for the privileged.

DWFan1

What’s your favourite Pixar film?

User avatar for will_young Guardian contributor

Oh god that's hard. The Incredibles - because I love Edna, the woman who makes the outfits for them. She's just like my stylist.

Will Young is with us now!

Post your questions now!

It’s wild to think that we’re coming up on almost 20 years since Will Young entered the public eye. In 2002, he beat Gareth Gates to win Pop Idol – and a brilliant British pop star was born. Since then, Young has travelled pretty far from the machine-tooled pop industrial complex: his latest album, Lexicon, is his seventh, and first for an independent label (Cooking Vinyl).

In recent interviews, Young has spoken about how liberating he has found independence. (“At 40, my new thing is: oh, fuck off,” he recently told the i.) He also ditched his management team and found that the resulting calm reinvigorated his love of pop – aided by collaborators including Richard X and Eg White. Lexicon, he says, is about fun and freedom rather than digging too deep personally, and it sounds like welcome relief after a difficult period. In 2016, he withdrew from Strictly Come Dancing, citing his anxiety, depression and PTSD. He suffered personal losses and professional compromises and, in 2017, said he was going to quit pop.

A period performing in Strictly Ballroom in the West End proved reinvigorating, as did leaning in to his activist side. Young was one of the early 2000s’ few out gay pop stars; in recent years, he has been an active campaigner on LGBTQ issues, promoting inclusive kids’ books on CBeebies and presenting two seasons of the award-winning podcast Homo Sapiens with pal Chris Sweeney. (His comments accusing Jeremy Clarkson’s The Grand Tour of homophobia earlier this year were particularly gratifying: “Screw them and the show and Amazon … for putting this shaming archaic tripe out,” he tweeted.)

Thankfully, Young came back around to pop: he has spent the summer playing festivals and seen two singles from Lexicon hit the BBC Radio 2 A-list, while the album only just missed No 1 due to the reign of chart behemoth Lewis Capaldi. This October, he’ll undertake a 21-date tour of the UK, and next year, he’ll release his first book, How to Be a Gay Man.

You can ask Young about all that, and anything else, when he comes into Guardian HQ at 1pm on Monday 2 September. Post your questions below.

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