James Blunt has shared some encouraging news about his father Charles' health battle with stage four kidney disease. Chatting on Good Morning Britain, the singer revealed that his dad has found a kidney donor and will be having the transplant as soon as possible.
James' new song Monsters references his father's illness
Speaking about his song Monsters, which addresses the illness, he said: "He has stage four chronic kidney disease and the remarkable thing about putting a song out is so many people have offered kidneys as a result of doing that and amazingly he’s going in to have a kidney transplant tomorrow. Not necessarily because of the publicity, because we’ve known about this for a year and a half... the word’s been out, but it has been an amazing experience." He added that neither he or his sisters were a kidney match for their dad, joking: "We came to the conclusion we were adopted!"
James with his wife Sofia Wellesley
Piers asked James if the transplant could save Charles' life, and he said: "If all things go well, I’m touching a lot of wood at the moment." Speaking about filming the music video for the emotional song, he added: "It was tough. The funny thing was everyone was crying on the set apart from my father, who was like, ‘Why are you crying? I’m still here’. But for me I’m just really thrilled to have him on film, actually."
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Speaking about his relationship with his dad, he explained: "It was quite conflicting because my father is an ex Colonel in the army, a helicopter pilot and for years probably taught me not to cry. So to be crying beside him was a strange emotion. Most people understand that I’m reaching that age where parents get a bit older, and I suppose what this song is about is that chapter in our life about when parents grow older."
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