Peyton has told his fans not to blame Sharon Osbourne for his ‘X Factor’ exit.
The 48-year-old singer saw his journey on the ITV talent show come to a surprise end at the weekend when Sharon decided not to take him to the live shows as one of her three acts in the Overs category.
His exit sparked a huge backlash among his fans on social media with Sharon, 63, bearing the brunt of their fury with many threatening to boycott the series.
Peyton has now urged everyone to law off his mentor as he is certain the decision to put Honey G, Relley C and Saara Aalto through was not hers alone.
He exclusively told BANG Showbiz: "I’ve thought about why I didn’t go through a lot and I’ve been scratching my head. I have some ideas why, I’m not entirely convinced it was Sharon’s decision anyway I think it’s a collective decision that gets made on these programmes, I don’t think she’s the only one involved. I have absolutely no idea as to what are the inner workings of that show. I’m not privy to any of their private meetings, my guess is that Simon Cowell would be involved. There’s a lot of anger being directed at Sharon right now that I feel bad about. I’m like poor Sharon, for all we know this is a decision that she didn’t make herself or was encouraged to make a certain sort of decision."
Discussing the staggering reaction to his exit, he joked: "I was thinking we might have to set up a support group or a hotline for people; I’ll be on the other end to help!"
Peyton insists anyone upset by some of the more comical acts such as Honey G or duo Ottavio – who are part of Louis Walsh’s Groups – going through should remember that ‘The X Factor’ needs to be an entertaining television show as much as it needs to find a recording artist.
He said: "These shows are meant to be, first and foremost, fun television shows that is the priority and so it should be, because if you don’t get the ratings and give people a fun TV show to watch you’re not going to have an ‘X Factor’. Someone with experience is deciding what works for their audience what works for television, people get angry but the truth is that’s what it is and that’s OK."
Peyton is grateful for the opportunity to appear on Simon’s show and is now going to use the mainstream exposure he has enjoyed to release an album, and he has recorded a version of his audition song ‘I’ll Rise’ which he is releasing as a single.
Peyton – who has been making dance records for the past 14 years – shared: "I feel like ‘The X Factor’ has been such an amazing platform for me already. If you’re going to go out it’s better to go out in a blaze of self-righteous glory with people fighting my battle for me. I’ve gone out and everyone is like, ‘This is terrible!’
"Look, I went into the show ready for any and every eventuality including not even getting through the initial auditions, if you’re going to do something like ‘The X Factor’ you’ve got to be prepared for any possibility no matter how good you think you are, you have to go into it knowing that at any stage you may not get the result you want. As long as you’re willing to accept that then any stage you get to is gravy.
"I genuinely think that everything I’ve got from this programme is good, I know that might be hard for a lot of people to understand that but it’s true."
Visit Peytonmusic.com for more information and to be kept updated about Peyton’s forthcoming album."
Peyton: Don’t blame Sharon Osbourne for my X Factor exit
