Alex James says going back to Blur was more “relaxing” than parenting
nme.comAlex James has claimed that he found returning to Blur a lot more “relaxing” than parenting.In recent weeks, the 54-year-old musician has played countless shows across the UK and Europe – including two mammoth dates at Wembley Stadium – and released his ninth studio album with Blur, ‘The Ballad Of Darren’.However, according to a recent interview, the process of being back in the band is more manageable and laid-back than that of being a full-time parent.Appearing on the Parenting Hell podcast, he reflected on one of his previous quotes, where he claimed to have once spent “a million pounds on drugs and booze” while in the band, before going on to become a cheesemaker on his Cotswolds farm.“I kind of made it up and everyone believed it.
But that is coming back to haunt me now,” he began.“Playing the bass in a rock band is the easiest thing, compared to parenting,” he added. “It actually is relaxing going back into that Blur bubble.”He also explained how his five children now have a more “rock ‘n’ roll” lifestyle than he does, and sometimes finds it “terrifying” how immense some of their parties can be: “I think 16th birthdays are the worst of them all, all the years of rock ‘n’ roll, nothing can hold a candle to those parties when you’re like 16… rock ‘n’ roll had nothing on that actually.”“At 16, you’re in the speedboat and you want to know how fast it goes, and by the time you’re 18 you’ve kind of worked out where your limits are a little bit,” he added. “I always try and get them to have their 16th birthdays at [his farm’s annual event] Feastival so that the liabilities are not mine!
It’s terrifying, it is really terrifying.”The Britpop bassist also spoke about the difference between his life on the road with Blur.
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