
So Still So Far To Go is exactly how I feel about life. Someone called on the phone and said: 'Chris - why do you still bother?' I suppose what he meant is that I could afford to be sitting at home, without working. "For Still So Far To Go, I was on the M4 on the way from home to a meeting in London, and there were the usual traffic problems. I close my eyes and imagine, so never forget. When I am on stage, in my head I am always where I wrote the song. "With all my own songs, I can remember exactly where I've written them. I remember Ronnie Scott once joking: 'Our trombonist has written 500 songs.and they are all rubbish.' But I don't want to fall in to the trap of thinking that it proves anything.

My career is like a mountain range - up and down, without time for the occasional plateau.

"I gave up, years ago, trying to predict hits. Tips for motorway driving this Christmas A rocky career They have two daughters, Josephine and Julia.Ĭhris, who works from a studio next to his country home in Berkshire, talks bout the highs and lows of his life. He has been with wife, Joan, since they met as 16 year olds in their native Middlesbrough. Instead of touring America, for example, I started growing tomatoes."Ĭhris Rea is also notable for having the longest surviving relationship in the music industry. But I've had to learn to do other things. "It was always about me, me, me - as with many performers. "I was a pain in the backside," he recalls. He changed direction in his music - going back to blues roots - and insists that facing his own mortality has made him appreciate life.

Chris Rea has not only beaten the whims of fashion in a harsh music business, he has had to fight a succession of life-threatening illness.įrom the moment he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at the age of just 33, he has faced nine serious operations and has spent a total of 32 weeks in hospital.īut instead of complaining, he's used the setbacks to his advantage.
