After turning the heat up at packed out shows at London’s O2 Arena over the weekend, award-winning artist Craig David has now joined Steven Bartlett on The Diary Of A CEO, opening up on his rise to the top!
Craig David’s tracks are often up-beat and played in the club but when Bartlett kicks off the interview, he reads some of Craig’s pain-filled and raw lyrics from his 2006 single, “Johnny”.
‘”It was the first time I opened up and expressed an experience I felt that I had maybe to a lesser degree than to a lot of other people in my school,” Craig said of the lyrics. “I had a beautiful upbringing, I was a playful kid, I loved music.”
“When you come [into secondary school] in your early years and you got the older boys in there and they’re like ‘yo you got £2 on you? No, I haven’t got £2 on me’ and then they push you up against a wall. I experienced [bullying] psychically in the corridors.”
The musician also reflected on mental health and how men are often told that they need to keep their problems to themselves.
“Those words of ‘man-up’ or ‘just roll with it’ is the most amount of nonsense that I have ever heard, because it’s that in itself is what’s caused the crazy suicide rates that we see, especially in men.”
Speaking on his early musical influences, it seems that he got his musical genes from his dad who was a member of the group, The Ebony Rockers. During the chat we also hear Craig David touch on his struggle with fame, model of relationships and his meteoric rise.
Make sure to check out the insightful interview above.