Rag’n’Bone Man shares mental health struggles on new record but can’t sing those blues away

Rag’n’Bone Man headed to Nashville to write a blues pop album about fatherhood, but nothing could prepare him for how one song made him feel.

Rory Graham discovered the hard way he may never be able to perform Talking To Myself live.

The artist known as Rag’n’Bone Man was at an open mic night in Nashville, trying out some of the songs he had just written for his second record Life By Misadventure.

There were songs of hope and beauty like Fireflies, for his son Rouben. Others like Crossfire addressed the chaos and injustice of a world gone mad. And then there were the songs which revealed the depths of his heartache and mental anguish after the breakdown of his marriage to Rouben’s mum Beth Rouy in 2019.

Talking To Myself was a last-minute addition to the record but he has told his label and team it will never be a single.

Rag’n’Bone Man went to Nashville to shake up his songwriting for album no.2. Picture: Supplied.

“We went to a couple of open mic nights in Nashville and I just like tensed up and wasn’t prepared for how the song was going to make me feel when I was singing it,” he says.

“So that’s why I had to come to a deal with the label that they couldn’t make it a single because I can’t go out and sing this song at radio stations and all that.

“It’s just not something I want to relive constantly.”

Rag’n’Bone Man became an unlikely global chart star in 2017 with the release of his debut album Human.

The title track and other singles including Skin amassed more than five billion streams worldwide with Giant, his collaboration with Calvin Harris, adding to the tally.

The British singer songwriter, possessing that otherworldly blues voice that plugs directly into your soul and the face tattoos to scare your mum even as she streams Human for the 1000th time, had plenty to write about when he headed to Nashville to write his broken heart out.

He credits working with a close-knit crew of writers and players, including his keyboardist Ben Jackson-Cook, for cracking the code of exploring fatherhood in song without breaching the “cheesy” line and for making sense of his life after Human.

Rag’n’Bone Man and P!nk. Picture: Supplied.

Anywhere Away From Here barely disguises his distaste of fame and the artificial scenarios he found himself thrust into by virtue of having a hit. He’s not a red carpet kind of guy.

Graham wasn’t planning on making it a duet – he liked the song as it was – but P!nk popped into his head. They had crossed paths in Paris a couple of times a few years ago and had that “we should do something together one day” conversation. Graham and P!nk performed the song from their respective countries for the 2021 Brit Award this week.

“I talked to her about the You+Me record she did with Dallas Green and how much I love her voice with that kind of music, it excited me.

“So I just kind of grinded the seed about working with her in some capacity one day when the time was right and the song was right. The time was right and the song was right” he says.

“The song has actually made me aware of how I deal with it all and if anything it has helped because I realise I have to be strong-willed and say no to things I am not comfortable to do. Sometimes no is just enough.”

Life By Misadventure is out now