Carrie Fisher’s unlikely friendship with former X Factor Australia mentor James Blunt

CARRIE Fisher had a unique friendship with a former former X Factor Australia mentor, who recorded some of his hit songs in her bathroom.

By James WigneyHit editor

2 min read

December 28, 2016 - 2:01PM

News Corp Australia Network

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OF all the torrent of tributes and tweets that met the sad death of Carrie Fisher, one of the more unlikely and poignant came from James Blunt.

The UK singer and former X Factor Australia mentor tweeted this morning: “Sweet dreams, darling @carrieffisher. I’m gonna miss you. So much. X.”

Blunt lodged with the late Star Wars actress in Los Angeles, who was a friend of his then girlfriend Dixie Chassay, while he was making his 2004 debut album Back To Bedlam. It went on to sell more than 11 million copies worldwide, one track, the hit single Goodbye My Lover, was recorded on a piano in her bathroom.

Sweet dreams, darling @carrieffisher. I'm gonna miss you. So much. x
â€” James Blunt (@JamesBlunt) December 27, 2016

“It’s full of despair. I was really trying to make it special on the album, so I said to (producer) Tom Rothrock, `Let’s get out of the studio and go somewhere we can really live another special moment’,” Blunt told News Corp Australia at the time.

“We set up a studio in Carrie’s bathroom where she had an upright piano. The final take was like hearing the voice that was in my own head being recorded. And what better place to get involved in a song than Carrie Fisher’s bathroom.’’

The European Premiere of Star Wars - The Force Awakens in Leicester Square in London. James Blunt, Carrie Fisher and Stephen Fry. Picture: Splash

The became firm friends and he returned to stay with her when he recorded subsequent albums, All the Lost Souls and Moon Landing. Of the latter release in 2013, Blunt said: “She was the album’s first critic. I used to play her the songs.”

Fisher also became something of a sounding board and mentor to the singer, who had previously been in the army and served in Kosovo.

She told the Independent on Sunday in 2006: “He’d never been to therapy and I’ve had enough for both of us, so we started talking quite deeply about his time in the army and the kind of impact that had had. And so on. So I was kind of his shrink/landlady.”

“We became very, very good friends by the end. He is a good person and he was very good to me when I had a friend pass away. He’s a really good soul. This was someone for whom I became a therapist, bear in mind. There was a lot of transference. I still talk to him all the time.”

“I played his music to all my friends that came over, whatever celebrity crowd I could muster at my bungalow. I thought he was very good. I actually helped name his album. He didn’t know what Bedlam was before I told him.”

Fisher took Blunt as her date to the London premiere of The Force Awakens in 2015, telling reporters: “I get James Blunt! For a date, yes. I really did well … You see you can get this but you have to be good.”

Carrie Fisher’s colourful life