Now, you can say what you want about James Blunt. He might be a bit annoying, and yeah he's an easy target for ridicule, but if you say you've never been pissed at 4am, singing every lyric on the Back to Bedlam album, you're a liar.
I don't know what it is about him. I think because he is so accepting about his ability to annoy a generation, and even turns it into a joke, paired with songs like '1973' and 'Wisemen' (don't deny that they're belters), he's quite enthralling.
Away from music, the 42-year-old is a very interesting bloke. For example, one thing that some people don't necessarily know is that he was part of the military, and, better yet, prevented World War III.
No, seriously.
The story goes that Blunt 'single-handedly' quelled a global war, which isn't exactly true, but he did his part in stopping it in 1999.
While serving as a soldier in Kosovo, the singer risked being court martialed after he directly ignored an order from a US general to attack 200 Russians to seize an airfield.
"I was the lead officer with my troop of men behind us," he told BBC Radio 5 live in 2010. "The soldiers directly behind me were from the Parachute Regiment, so they're obviously game for the fight.
"The direct command [that] came in from Gen Wesley Clark was to overpower them. Various words were used that seemed unusual to us. Words such as 'destroy' came down the radio."
The 'You're Beautiful' singer, who was at the head of a column of 30,000 Nato troops with his unit, refused to follow the orders, with his superior, British General Sir Mike Jackson, later echoing his words. The general reportedly said: "I'm not going to have my soldiers be responsible for starting World War III."
Credit: RT
Eventually, the Russian troops who were at the airfield ran out of food and drink, meaning they needed the NATO soldiers to share their supplies, thus surrendering the airfield.
"After a couple of days the Russians there said: 'Hang on we have no food and no water. Can we share the airfield with you?'," Blunt said. "There are things that you do along the way that you know are right, and those that you absolutely feel are wrong, that I think it's morally important to stand up against, and that sense of moral judgement is drilled into us as soldiers in the British Army."
So, there you have it, James Blunt - bang average musician, stopper of global wars.
Featured image credit: PA
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