‘I never lost the joy!’: singer Gilbert O’Sullivan on love, loss and lawsuits

In the early 1970s the Irish star conquered the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. Then his career crashed. Now 75, he talks about self-belief, blowing his chance at Glastonbury – and the story behind one of the darkest No 1s in pop

Gilbert O’Sullivan is showing me a framed portrait of himself with Muhammad Ali, in which the young Irishman is attempting to land punches on The Greatest. It was 1973. The singer-songwriter – an accomplished schoolboy boxer until he “started getting hurt” – had successfully asked the champion heavyweight to do some publicity photos for his latest album, I’m a Writer, Not a Fighter.

“It’s funny,” he says, “but whenever anyone comes round they say, ‘We know who he is [gesturing at Ali], but who’s the other fella?”

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/8XBnaE6

Comments