EXCLUSIVE: In the Mirror’s backstage interview with Tom Grennan at the Isle of Wight festival, he revealed his plans for a new album and detailed his journey to sobriety
Tom Grennan lights up the stage at the Isle of Wight Festival(Image: Dan Reid/Shutterstock)
Fast-rising pop rock star Tom Grennan has been working on a new album dealing with his struggles with drugs and alcohol, and confronting his “demons”.
“It is the best stuff I’ve ever done,” the breakout Bedford singer said, speaking exclusively to the Mirror backstage at the Isle of Wight festival, ahead of his headline set on the Big Top stage.
“I’ve had a really big year personally, where I’ve had to sit down and go through a personal journey. I had to really work out what sobriety is, and what that means for me.”
The Little Bit of Love singer, whose fourth album Everywhere I Went, Led Me to Where I Didn’t Want to Be became his third Number One record last year, battled addiction and mental health issues before going fully sober in 2025.
The record promises to be unflinchingly honest in tackling Grennan’s struggles.
“I need to write some songs that really tell the truth,” he says. “That are full of hope, full of courage, full of truth. And that’s exactly what I’ve done.
“I don’t think sobriety is about drinking or doing drugs or whatever – I think sobriety is actually understanding who I am, and the demons I’ve got.
“I’m still on that journey, and I will be for the rest of my life, but I’m at a good place.
“The album represents a little boy, and the little boy is me. It’s me trying to reconnect with that little boy and saying, ‘mate, do you know what, you’re alright. You’ve never really been at peace, but come give me a cuddle’.”
A major driving force behind his year sober is fatherhood – Grennan married Italian pilates instructor Danniella Carraturo in 2024 and the couple welcomed a daughter last year.
“Fatherhood is amazing, it’s taught me a lot of things,” he says. “That’s another thing – I wanted to be the best dad. I don’t think I could’ve done that being in the place I was.”
With the new record, though, he’s also rediscovered his love for songwriting. “The truth is, I stopped playing music,” he says. “I was just doing music, and I needed to be a kid again. I needed to find what play is, and that’s what I’ve done.”
Reconnecting with producer and songwriter Paddy Byrne, Grennan largely recorded the as-yet-untitled album in a cottage in Hastings, relying on live instruments rather than electronic sounds. “The whole record is very organic. It’s not f***ing polished pop. We set up a studio in front of the fire, went through all the different seasons – saw winter, spring, summer, the whole lot – and created this amazing album.”
Sobriety has clearly done nothing to dampen Grennan’s onstage energy. Fresh from his first arena tour, he threw himself into his Big Top set with the pizzazz of a slick pop showman, delivering a torrent of gospel raves, disco infernos and soul pop jives with the strut of the funk ancients. And he has his sights set even higher for 2027.
“Next year, when my new music comes, I’ll be doing the big stage,” he promises, and not just at the Isle of Wight he hopes. “I’m glad there’s no Glasto this year, because I wouldn’t be doing it,” he says, “but next year I’m doing it. If they book me. They’d better.”
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: mirror.co.uk
