Jay James says singing "saved his sanity" after injuring himself in the Navy.
The 31-year-old ‘X Factor’ hopeful has opened up about the time he was forced to leave the Navy – where he was working as a physical training instructor (PTI) – after he tore cartilage in his knee aged 21.
He explained: "I just didn’t know what was going on. My head wasn’t on straight, it was all over the place, and I was dealing with so many emotions – panic, anger and loneliness.
"The thing that saved my sanity in the end was music.
"I found a guitar that I’d bought months earlier as a drunken joke and started playing."
Although he has praised Help for Heroes – a charity that aids wounded servicemen and women, which didn’t exist at the time of Jay’s injury – the singer admitted that he felt "totally lost" when he discovered that he had been replaced by a new PTI while he was awaiting surgery on his knee.
He told The Sun newspaper: "When you join the military, there’s a pride that’s instilled in you that you want to do everything you possibly can to serve your country and do whatever you can to make a difference.
"But when you lose that, when you can’t serve, it’s incredibly hard to deal with. I felt totally lost."
Jay James: singing saved my sanity
