Alex James has insisted Blur’s children are much more rock ‘n’ roll than the Britpop legends.
The ‘Song 2’ bassist – who once claimed to have spend “a million pounds on drugs and booze” but now makes cheese on his Cotswolds farm – joked that their collective offspring have much wilder parties with their friends.
He told the ‘Parenting Hell’ podcast: “I kind of made it up and everyone believe it. But that is coming back to haunt me now.
“I think 16th birthdays are the worst of them all, all the years of rock ‘n’ roll, nothing can hold a candle to those parties when you’re like 16, rock ‘n’ roll had nothing on that actually!
“At 16, you’re in the speedboat and you want to know how fast it goes, and by the time you’re 18 you’ve kind of worked out where your limits are a little bit.”
The dad-of-five admitted he tries to convince his kids to have their parties at the annual Big Feastival event on his farm.
He joked: “I always try and get them to have their 16th birthdays at Feastival so that the liabilities are not mine! It’s terrifying, it is really terrifying.”
Blur are preparing to release new album ‘The Ballad of Darren’ this week after reuniting for two sold out Wembley shows earlier this month.
However, being back in the band has been something of a holiday for Alex, who described it as “relaxing” compared to life as a parent.
He quipped: “Playing the bass in a rock band is the easiest thing, compared to parenting.
“It actually is relaxing going back into that Blur bubble.”
He recently admitted the adjustment between the two very different lifestyles can be tricky.
He told Red magazine: “The last time I went away, I dropped the kids at school and flew to Mexico City, where there were thousands of people waiting for us at the airport and hotel.
“When we got to the venue –a stadium – it was huge.
“But afterwards, you get home and you have to wash up and the kids are like, ‘Dad, stop being a w*****.’ “