Lewis Capaldi once professed that he wanted to be “as big as Ed Sheeran”.
The 27-year-old Scottish superstar’s school friend, Jack Cochrane, frontman of the indie rock band The Snuts, has revealed the ‘Someone You Loved’ hitmaker had huge ambitions for his music career when he was starting out and wanted to emulate the success of the ‘Shape of You’ hitmaker.
Jack told The Independent: “Lewis was always saying, ‘I want to be a pop star and I want to be as big as Ed Sheeran.’
“My whole thing was, ‘I wanna be a rock’n’roll star like The Libertines.’ He’s just gone in this crazy skyrocket direction.”
At the start of his rise, Lewis performed at a benefit concert Jack, 25, put on and packed the place out.
He recalled: “He’d just brought out his first single and the place was stowed out. His manager was like, ‘No cameras!’”
Lewis has taken a step back from music amid his struggles with Tourette’s syndrome, which esculated just as his career reached meteoric levels, and his pal is gutted for the BRIT Award winner.
He said: “It’s happened so quickly for him and he’s the OG of having to feel the pressure of what that’s like in this new way.
“He was first to be super funny on the phone and doing a lot of videos, but it’s been hard to watch him having to deal with everything that’s come with his rise. I find it really intense to see. Doing as well as he’s doing and as talented as he is, he should be really happy and enjoy that. But something somewhere’s happened that’s skewed that and I think that’s pretty ****, man.”
Meanwhile, Jack has taken issue with viral stars who have amassed huge followings online before getting experience on the live circuit.
The musician – whose band released their latest LP, ‘Millennials’, last week – said: “There’s such a shift now where you can get so many eyes on you online first.
“People are going into their first ever show and they’ve got 100 million followers. That feels really backwards. You need to do those rubbish shows, and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them.”