"If I ruled the world" Mick Hucknall

As frontman of Simply Red, Mick Hucknall has sold more than 50 million albums and this month releases the band’s first LP in four years. He and wife Gabriella are parents to Romy, 12.

People of my generation and older are failing young people when it comes to the environment. There have been persistent warning signs over a period of many years about, say, carbon dioxide and methane and it’s not that we’re not doing anything—we’re just not doing nearly enough. I see planes passing overhead every 30 seconds and that’s got to be a serious environmental problem. Why have we allowed people to make so many aeroplanes without putting environmental checks on them? Where’s the development for solar-, wind- and battery-powered jet engines?

Brexit supporters and Donald Trump are synonymous in that respect, if you ask me. They seem preoccupied with putting up borders and walls when we should be doing precisely the opposite. We need fewer walls, fewer borders and more interaction, more free trade, more open markets and more unified action to make this world a better place.

Not just that, I’d also put him in jail. He thinks he’s starring in an episode of The Sopranos. He’s a thug and he should be locked up.

It happens so often when I’m driving that the car in front of me decides to turn and then the driver indicates. What’s that all about? I just don’t get it. It’s like, “Oh, I forgot to indicate, I feel guilty so I’ll do it now.”

I want people to have a good time and I’m on the side of letting them do what they like, so I wouldn’t stop them using iphones to take pictures and capture that “special moment.” But with iPads it’s a bit much. The compromise is: by all means use a phone but it’s a very selfish act to use your iPad. When you’re behind someone in an arena you have rows of seats so you already have a limited view, but with holding up an iPad it’s like sticking an extra head in there to further impede the view of the person behind you.

My girl is 12-years-old now and I love seeing her forge her own personality, and I think it’s really important to listen to her. Kids can get confused and feel like they’re all over the place, but if they know you’re listening they’ll share more with you. With any of the worries she has about the world or about growing boobs or menstruation and all that stuff, I want her to feel she can talk to me and that I’m not passing judgement but am helping her find her way.

Rod Stewart and Jools Holland collect train sets; my hobby is wine. Ironically, I’m not a heavy drinker, more a moderate one. I drink less than half a bottle a day and I abstain two days a week but I love, love, love wine—how it varies throughout different regions in the world, how different grapes taste differently and how different flavours accompany certain foods.

Maybe I sound angry from all this ranting but I’m actually a very happy person. I have a song on the new album called “Don’t Do Down” and I don’t do down. I try to use happiness as a default mechanism and to keep it in my mind to go, Are you annoyed about something? Then try and find a solution that makes you happy. It’s the best way to live. You don’t know what’s going to happen in the next hour or the next day, so just stay happy. 

The new Simply Red album, Blue Eyed Soul, is out on November 8 on BMG. Tickets for their All The Hits! 2020 tour are on sale now through simplyred.com

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