Seal: Music is empty… and fame is vulgar
HE was once half of a Hollywood superstar couple — but Seal says modern day celebrity is ‘vulgar’ and reckons the charts are filled with ‘empty’ pop songs.
The Killer and Kiss From A Rose singer delivered a damning indictment of modern culture in an exclusive chat with Guilty Pleasures, hours after launching his jazz and swing covers album Standards.
The star, who split from supermodel ex-wife Heidi Klum in 2012, said: ‘The celebrity thing… I just find it vulgar. Today more so than ever before.’
And the Londoner blames stars’ huge online followings for making things even more vacuous.
‘With social media, it has been exemplified and it is at an all-time high,’ he said. ‘It’s also brought out the dysfunctional side of human nature. People are obsessed with being famous rather than obsessed with being known for doing something that contributes to the betterment of the world.’
Despite he and Klum being famed for throwing annual star-studded Halloween bashes in Hollywood, the Grammy and Brit winner says he’ll always be about the music. ‘The thing of celebrity… I’ve never been attracted to that,’ he said, adding: ‘I don’t like that word “celebrity”. It implies famous for the sake of being famous.’
The star, 54, insisted: ‘That’s never appealed to me. I consider myself a musician and a singer. I like that. It pertains to talent and having an ability to doing something exceptional.’
And it’s not just the red carpets that are scraping the barrel but the airwaves too, he said.
‘For the most part, I find the stuff I hear on the radio is just empty,’ he added.
‘There just isn’t the money to make records like before. Now you have this dominant factor of people making what they feel is music but it has no story in it,’ he said.
As for his nostalgic turn on his tenth album, Seal insisted: ‘I always wanted to be a recording artist. I didn’t want to be a pop star. I didn’t want to have hits. As far as I was concerned I gained access to the rest of my life in music.’
His album features covers of hits by Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone, and is out on November 10.
Author: Andrei Harmsworth
