Happy Mondays star Shaun Ryder has admitted he gets nervous before he steps on stage.
The ‘Step On’ hitmaker might have been playing shows for almost four decades but that doesn’t mean performing in front of a crowd has gotten any easier for the Manchester legend.
He admitted: "I’m not an artist and I don’t say I come alive on stage.
"When I walk on stage I feel naked and I feel like I am dying.
"I come alive when I come off stage and I’m with normal people."
The 56-year-old singer admitted that despite stage fright, he feels the band – completed by Bez, Gary Whelan, Mark Day and Paul Ryder – are "better" live now than they have ever been.
He told Bournemouth’s Daily Echo newspaper: "Between me and you, the Mondays onstage now are better than ever.
"We are adults now and everyone can see the truth. "We worked out how to be a band.
"We all get to the gig differently and show each other respect … and it doesn’t hurt that the songs are brilliant!"
Shaun previously confessed that the 80s and the 90s are one big "blur".
The Black Grape star was addled on drugs and booze back then and admitted he doesn’t have much of a recollection of what went down back then, except for their trips to Brazil.
In February 1991, Happy Mondays famously played at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro and met Ronnie Biggs, an English thief, known for his role in the Great Train Robbery of 1963, for his escape from prison in 1965.
Shaun told BANG Showbiz: "Well, I tell you, I can remember the 60s more than I can remember the 80s and the 90s.
"They are just a blur. We had a couple of good times in Brazil, you would have to give me something specific. I was eight years old in the 60s, but I can remember it a lot better than the 90s."
The Happy Mondays will head out on a 29-date Greatest Hits Tour this autumn and winter, kicking off on October 23 in Inverness, Scotland, and wrapping in Lincoln on December 23.
Shaun Ryder feels ‘naked’ on stage
