James Arthur is being "crippled by anxiety".
The 31-year-old musician was due to perform at a charity show for the Teenage Cancer Trust at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Thursday (28.03.19) night, but in a note posted to Twitter just hours before the concert, he announced he’d be pulling out for the sake of his mental health, which he says has been "badly affecting" him for "days".
In his message, he wrote: "I’m deeply sorry to announce that I’m going to have to pull out of the Teenage Cancer Trust performance tonight.
"I have been feeling crippled by anxiety and poor mental health over the past few days and it’s badly affecting me. I simply cannot perform tonight."
The ‘Say You Won’t Let Go’ hitmaker then apologised to the Teenage Cancer Trust for dropping out of the show, and declared he is "looking to get help" from a professional for his mental health.
He added: "I would like to profoundly apologise to the amazing Teenage Cancer Trust team, to all that have bought tickets to see me and to the boys from Take That, it was a dream to be able to perform alongside them but devastatingly I cannot perform this evening.
"I promise I will make it up to you and I’m looking to get help for this x"
James has previously struggled with his mental health, and once called himself a "tortured soul".
He said: "I’ve been a tortured soul. I’ve been through a lot of heartache so I definitely put that in my music. It’s where I express it the best. That’s the thing I rely on the most."
Talking about growing up in foster care, he added: "It was a bit scary. I lived with a lady who’d taken up fostering children and they were always fairly troubled kids. There was a lot of tension because you’d be fighting a lot and looking over your shoulder. And I just wanted to be back with my sisters and my family. But it probably toughened me up in a good way. I learnt the value of family through that."
James Arthur ‘crippled’ by anxiety
