The Paul Potts Biography – Road of Hard Knocks
Sad Songs Say So Much. Paul Potts could certainly agree with Elton
John’s sentiment.
Born in Bristol in 1971 to parents Roland, a bus driver, and Yvonne,
a supermarket cashier, Paul says in the Daily Mail’s Weekend
magazine,
“I find sad arias easier to sing than happy ones, because I can
always find an unhappy memory from somewhere.”
Paul has plenty of those. Hideously bullied at school, there was no
real escape at home with two warring parents together with his three
siblings, of which he says simply,
“Sometimes, if I was in the wrong place at the wrong time I’d get
caught up in the fighting.”
Under his hair, he still bears seven scars from this time. Paul used
to blame himself and he used to pray that God would make him a
vicar, so that he’d be able to sing everyday. Even then, music was
Paul’s solace. He used to retreat to the music room at lunchtimes to
escape the school bullies in Port Talbot, South Wales, where his
family moved to.
Happiness finally came to Paul Potts in 2003, in the shape of his now
wife, Julie-Anne, whom he met in an internet chat-room. Julie Potts
was ecstatic with his achievements and has been by his side
supporting his performances
No-one really knew about Paul’s singing talent – certainly not his
colleagues at Bridgend’s Carphone warehouse where he had been
promoted to manager – and where he had yet to resign from a week
after winning Britain’s Got Talent.
You see – Paul can’t quite believe it’s happened to him yet, niether
can Julie Potts!
Just when he thought he might have been getting somewhere after
winning Michael Barrymore’s My Kind of People (1999), his health was
hit by a series of problems. He had met his now wife, Julie Potts in
an internet chat room (which he found easier than face to face
conversation) and was saving for his wedding when his appendix
burst. Complications followed and a tumour was discovered. Paul
pushed thoughts of the tumour aside to perform in Aida with the Bath
Operatic and Dramatic Society and only then did he have the
operation to remove the tumour, thinking
“If I don’t grab the opportunity to perform, I might never get to do
it again,” Paul told Weekend magazine.
But Lady Luck wasn’t done playing with Paul – four days after his
honeymoon he and his pushbike were hit by a car, fracturing Paul’s
collarbone. He was off work for nine months and it’s the spiraling
debts built up then that prompted Paul to apply for Britain’s Got
Talent.
He filled out the application form on the internet, and then lost
confidence yet again.
‘I got a ten pence piece out of my pocket and thought, “Right, if it
lands on heads I’m going to submit it, if it lands on tails I’m
going to delete it.”
Luckily for Paul – and for us – that coin landed on heads – and now
the world knows who Paul Potts is; perhaps his luck is turning. With
the top selling Paul Pots Album, things could not get any better.
