Pete Doherty’s dad once told him that he had no singing ability.
The 45-year-old rock star has enjoyed great success as part of The Libertines alongside Carl Barât, John Hassall and Gary Powell but recalled that his father Peter initially dismissed his talents.
Speaking to Kirsty Young on her BBC Radio 4 show ‘Young Again’, – which is available on BBC Sounds – he explained: “I played him this really early acoustic version of a song called ‘What a Waster’ and remember he said, ‘Look, you can’t sing first of all and you clearly can’t write songs well or play guitar’…but two years later, that song had been released and was single of the week.
“And then when he seen it was single of the week in NME, he was like, ‘What’s that song? ‘What a Waster”. He made me go around to play it to the neighbour and I was so fuming!”
Meanwhile, the ‘Can’t Stand Me Now’ hitmaker has also announced a forthcoming solo record away from the band that is due out in April 2025 and explained that it can actually be “less exposing” for him to go it alone.
Asked if it was “exposing” to have a solo album, he said: ” No, not really. No, no. There’s like amazing musicians that I’ve worked with before. I mean, it’s not my first solo album. I mean, if anything, less exposing.
“Sometimes with The Libertines, there’s more compromises you have to make. We do do slower songs, but it’s still very upbeat. Sometimes just playing acoustic stuff, solo stuff, I just like that, you know? And it’s more about, you can actually hear the lyrics as well, like, whereas at The Libertines gig people know them, it doesn’t matter if they can hear them or not, everyone sings them. Whereas it’s just a bit more European.”