One of the most unexpectedly emotional moments of recent Friday night TV came last month when Rory Graham — better known as Rag’n’Bone Man — joined Graham Norton on his famous red couch and was asked about the title of his new album, What Do You Believe In?. The singer paused, visibly fighting to hold back tears as it emerged the phrase had come to him following the death of his mother. Even Norton, one of the country’s most consummate broadcasting professionals, looked unsure of how to handle the raw emotion, asking if he wanted to move away from the topic.
A couple of weeks later, when we chat, Graham still hasn’t watched the clip back. “I can’t quite bring myself to,” he says. “I’ve had a lot of people come up to me and say it was a beautiful moment, so I’m okay with it.
But I don’t think I’ll ever feel comfortable on TV.” At 6ft 6in tall, bearded and covered in tattoos, it’s not often that you see someone of Rag’n’Bone Man’s celebrity and stature allow themselves to be so publicly vulnerable. Emotional openness is something that Graham, now a father of one and stepfather of three, is keenly aware of ensuring he passes down to his own children.
“Like a lot of people of my generation, I spent a lot of years holding everything back,” says the 39-year-old. “And then you suddenly realise as you get older that it’s not embarrassing, and it doesn’t feel like something you shouldn’t do. And once you start [thinking like] that the .
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