Canadian singer songwriter Michael Buble has said he regretted being “reckless with hearts” when he first found global fame.
Speaking to Kirsty Young on Radio 4′s Desert Island Discs on Sunday, the four-time Grammy Award winner said that he “handled success very poorly”.
The 41-year-old was thrilled to be signed to Warner Brothers in his mid-20s after being told by previous managers that his music, inspired by stars of the jazz era, would never sell records.
But he said his quick rise to stardom came with problems.
“Fame stunts your growth,” he said. “I handled it very poorly. I regret the way I treated a lot of my family and even myself.
“I was reckless with hearts. But I got my karma.
“Early on I wasn’t equipped to handle it. That’s why you have to have people around you who love you enough to put you in your place.”
Commenting on his previous addiction to marijuana, he said that his life changed around when he started a family with his wife, Argentine actress Luisana Lopilato.
He said: “We all battle with our own demons. A lot changed when I had kids.”
Adding that he would never prioritise music over his relationship with his two sons, Noah and Elias, he said: “I won’t allow that to happen.
“I get sick way too often…having young kids is like a petri dish of infections. My manager tells me I have to stay away from my kids and stop kissing them, but I would take getting sick a million times over for those kisses.”
Asked to pick the records he would want with him on a desert island, he chose A Song For You by Donny Hathaway, This Love of Mine by Frank Sinatra, Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson, Can’t Help Falling in Love by Elvis Presley, Wings by Paul McCartney, and Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen.
He also chose 2002 hit Lose Yourself by American rapper Eminem, who he hailed as “one of the greatest musicians in the world, at the moment.”
Describing the song, he said it perfectly illustrates how a musician can rise to fame and lose touch with their values, adding: “There is no balance.”
When Kirsty asked him what luxury item he would take to the desert island, he opted for a Rolex watch and, for his book, chose The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle.
“I would need a self-help book,” he said, “on a desert island I would be dead within a moment.”
