Will Young: ‘Simon Hated Me But Pop Idol Gave Me a career’

Dig It with Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball

Will Young joins Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball to discuss his upcoming Evergreen 25th Anniversary Tour and reflect on his journey since winning Pop

Key takeaways

• Will Young describes his relationship with Simon Cowell as 'non-existent,' noting that Cowell seemed to hate him throughout their interaction.
• He reflects on changing the lyrics of his hit 'Evergreen' from 'girl' to 'boy' to align with his identity and provide queer representation for listeners.

Main topics

• Pop Idol legacy
• Queer representation in music

Notable quotes

I always had a belief that I was going to win it.

Conclusion

The episode provides an intimate look at Will Young's growth from a ma

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) Coming up on Dig It, Will Young is with us Speaker 2 (0:02) and he's talking 25 years since Pop Idol, Speaker 1 (0:05) the Speaker 3 (0:05) power of gardening, dealing with criticism, and his incredible premonition. Speaker 1 (0:10) I always had a belief that I was going to win it. Did you? Yeah, yeah, I had a premonition that if there was a show for one singer, I was going to win it. I'm openly gay, posh, I'm... Not very cool. I'm a politics student. Who's going to Speaker 2 (0:24) sign me? What are your memories then of doing Pop Idol? I think of you arguing with Simon Cowell when I think about it, taking him on. I mean, what was that relationship like? Speaker 1 (0:33) Well, I mean, non-existent. Speaker 3 (0:34) All of that right after this. Speaker 3 (0:43) Will, hello, welcome back. almost a year to the day since you were our very first guest on Dig It. I'm so Speaker 1 (0:50) sorry that drilling has started. Speaker 2 (0:51) Listen, it's a miracle we're talking to you. To be honest with you, it's a miracle. We've had so many obstacles today. God, someone plugged all my equipment so we had no batteries at all. So it's taken us a long time to get connected. Speaker 1 (1:03) I'm in an Airbnb in Leicester Square. Speaker 3 (1:05) Which makes me laugh because you're actually just around the corner from me. So you could have just come round. You could have come and sat here. We should have got Joe over. Oh, no. But we're on and we... Speaker 2 (1:15) We Speaker 3 (1:15) can see you. And can I just say you're wearing, I know that people might be listening to this, but we were discussing on the pod last week, glasses and embracing a new era when you have to suddenly start wearing glasses. The pair you're wearing are very lovely. Can we just ask where they're from? Speaker 1 (1:31) Well, they are from the only place I get my glasses from, which is, I can't remember the name of it now, but it's in Newcastle in this rather fancy arcade. And so whenever I go on tour, I go to this shop. buy a new pair of glasses. And I've actually gave them all tickets a few tours ago to come Speaker 2 (1:48) to Speaker 1 (1:49) the show. Yeah, so it's the only place I get my glasses. Speaker 2 (1:53) Do you feel different wearing glasses? How did you acclimatise to wearing them? I Speaker 1 (1:57) quite liked it, actually. I sort of felt more like refined and sort of, I feel more intelligent when I wear glasses. Do you know what I mean? Speaker 2 (2:07) In your head? In my head, Speaker 1 (2:09) yeah, yeah, yeah. The stuff that's coming out of the mouth. It's the same that it's been for 47 years. Speaker 3 (2:15) Are you 47 years young? I know, 47. You Speaker 1 (2:19) are Speaker 3 (2:19) such a baby still. But you mentioned touring there. You've got some really fabulous news, haven't you? Yeah, I'm Speaker 1 (2:26) going on an anniversary tour. It's amazing because there's something about an anniversary that gets people and gets me really nostalgic. It really makes you think back to the time, really makes me think back to Pop Idol. And because I've been talking about it a bit and I love it. I love remembering Pop Idol. It was just so, it was so much fun. It really was so much fun. I think we were quite naive because no one knew what was happening. Like, I mean, I almost, I was still doing waiting jobs while I was on the TV. I remember, I remember I did a waiting job on New Year's Eve at someone called Fran Cutler's house. Fran Cutler. Oh, yes. Yeah. I Speaker 2 (3:10) got PR. Yeah. Speaker 1 (3:11) But I Speaker 2 (3:12) was Speaker 1 (3:12) still working because I was like, I don't know what's going to happen to this show. And someone had booked me for a New Year's Eve, you know, waiting job for like 200 quid. I was like, yeah, I'm going to do that. But I was, I'd already been on live TV for four weeks. So everyone in the thing were like, oh, we've got a pop idol being our waiter for the evening. I was like, happy New Speaker 2 (3:33) Year. What are your memories then of doing pop idol? What are the standout moments? I mean, I... I think of you arguing with Simon Cowell when I think about it, taking him on. I mean, what was that relationship like? Speaker 1 (3:44) Well, I mean, non-existent. I mean, he just sort of hated me. I don't think he ever got over it, but it was fine. But I didn't know it was going to be like probably one of the most defining moments of my life. I mean, it probably gave me a career because everyone was like, who's this kid? They only put me in because they didn't have enough boys up to that point. Really? Yeah. So it was just a game changer. What Speaker 2 (4:10) were the auditions like for you to actually get in there? Can you remember that? I don't Speaker 1 (4:13) think I've been asked about that. They were scary. They were scary. And you had to go through three producers before you even saw the judges. And then you walked into the judges and that was, it was this big room. And then I saw Simon Cowell and I'd done a competition before that he was on as a judge. And I was like, Oh God, it's that guy again. you know when it's something so scary you almost leave your body you know what i mean Speaker 2 (4:39) yes Speaker 1 (4:39) yeah and then there was so much waiting around um that it sort of got to a point where you were just bored i was like my god i'm so bored of this so they whittled us down from like well was it ten thousand down to then a hundred and then we had two days in the criteria and i kept on thinking i was going to be cut the whole time i was always in the maybe room Speaker 3 (5:01) That's a good autobiography title. Speaker 1 (5:04) Don't put baby in the maybe. But I always had a belief that I was going to win it. Did you? Yeah, I had a premonition that if there was a show for one singer, I was going to win it. And then I posted the form. There was no email or anything. And I said to my friend who was doing drama at university, who ended up being still a great actor and lives in LA now. And I said, I'm going to win it. Because also I was like, I'm openly gay. I'm posh. I'm not very cool. I'm a politics student and I don't really play an instrument very well. And I'd worked at Sony Publishing. So I was like, who's going to sign me? No one's going to sign me. So I thought, I have to win a talent. I thought, if I can just get my voice to the public. I think I can win it. Speaker 2 (5:58) And Speaker 1 (5:58) I really thought, I just need to get past these annoying judges. At that time, pop, in the pop world, it was very manufactured. It was very, you know, people didn't sing live. You know, it was very much a type. And I thought, I don't know how that's going to work. Speaker 3 (6:16) We voted for you. We were on a ski holiday. There was a huge gang of us. There were about 12 of us on a ski holiday. And we sat around the telly and we're like, are our votes going to work from being abroad and da, da, da, da. And we voted like mad and we sat and we waited. And then we partied really hard for you. You Speaker 1 (6:38) watched the final. Speaker 3 (6:40) Yeah. Everybody watched the final. I remember watching it. Yeah. That amazing battle as well between you and Gareth, wasn't it? That like, who's going to win out of the boys? Because there was. Speaker 1 (6:51) a backlash to it as well, which I understand because it was so... You know, I found that hard because I'd see people who I don't need to name, you know, but idols of mine. And they would be, like, very anti the show. And I can understand why because it was like, well, you've just gone in 20 weeks. You haven't done the hard work. You haven't been in a van. You haven't, you know, grafted. And I understood, but that was hard. Did you feel that in the industry, though, like looking at the show? Did you think, well... come on, this isn't, you know, it's good telly, but it... Speaker