don't look at me

Nick, phoning in from his holiday, to talk with Scott Mills about his interview with a solo Harry for Radio One. 4th April, 2017.

Scott: Thank you, BBC. Thank you God. This is special. It’s happening on Friday morning. Harry’s on the Radio One Breakfast Show…and good morning Nicholas Grimshaw.

Scott:  (After some initial chat)…Ok, tell me about Harry Styles, ‘cause you’ve done the interview already, and we’re gonna play it out on Friday.

Nick:   It’s really exciting. Weirdly, it’s the only time that I’ve ever sat down and interviewed Harry Styles. Like, I’ve known him for a long time but he’s never actually been on the Radio One Breakfast Show. The only time he came on was when he came on straight through crew after the Brit awards one night, and he was on for about an hour before someone contacted him from his record label and asked him to “get off the radio!”

Scott:   …oh I remember that…

Nick:   …so he’s never actually been on as a guest. We…we interviewed him down at Maida Vale once where he didn’t have a voice, so he could only speak through a computer, so it was the first time we’ve had a proper sit-down talk, but we had a massive chat - sat down for, like, two and a half, three hours or something. It was really really long, but, um, it was really good. There was a lot to talk about. There was talking about how it is now being, y’know, a solo artist. How it was writing the record. How you even start to write a solo record. Where he wrote it…and he spoke all about making the album, and, like, now, basically having to become a solo artist, and that pressure of, y’know, knowing that the world are gonna want to hear this, and are going to want to judge it as well, and on Friday, when you play it…but we played it in the room, and it’s…it’s so good…it’s really really good, and it’s much - no offence - it’s much better than I thought it was gonna be…

Scott:   (gasps) ohhh, he’s your friend…

Nick:   No, I know, but it’s so good. I was like “ah, wow, this is really good”. He’s like, “you should not be surprised”…

Scott:   But because you are mates, even if it wasn’t as good as it is, would you have been, like, “yeah, it’s really good”?

Nick:   Ah, no. Maybe…no, because I heard it…he came ‘round and played it to me, and we were sort of avoiding it all day. So we, like, went for breakfast, and then I’m like, we’ve gotta hear this song at some point, and there was a dread in my brain, because I thought “what if it’s bad?”…so, um, or…”what if I don’t like it?”…I’m really bad at lying…so it sort of went on all day, and then, eventually, about four o’clock I went “alright, c’mon, lets do it” and I heard it, and it was great. But there was that moment I was thinking “how am I going to get out of this car if it is bad. Maybe a stop, drop and roll at the lights. I can’t wait for everyone to hear it.

Scott:   You don’t really hear him talk very often, do you? In fact, from what I’ve heard he’s not even doing many interviews. He’s doing, like, I think, four or five interviews around the world, and one of those is with you.

Nick:   Yeah, he’s doing a lot. He’s only doing Saturday Night Live, um, and he’s doing some other stuff in America, and us, on Friday.

Scott:   That’s amazing. Right, well I can’t wait to hear this. Apparently there’s one copy of it in the whole world, and it’s being passed around on an iPod. Did you know this?

Nick:   I did not know that. One copy of the song? Wow.

Scott:   Yeah. So I’m gonna hear it later today - I haven’t heard it yet - but I’ve been…I’ve been summoned, and it’s, like, I’ve gotta be there at - I dunno - at, like, (impersonating posh voice) “at 12.32, and you will put the headphones on, on this iPod, oh”…and then…

Nick:   …oh my god…

Scott:   …and that’s the only one that’s going around. That’s how worried they are about people hearing it before they should.

Nick:   Wow. You’re gonna love it.

Scott:   Ok. And make sure you listen to the interview, Friday morning. Grimmy, and Harry Styles, on the Radio One Breakfast Show, and we’ll play the brand new track. Ok, back to the holiday, please.

Nick:   Ok, bye…

Scott:   Love you, bye…

END