KT Tunstall’s sudden success felt like “being fired like a human cannonball”.
The 47-year-old star had been trying to forge a career as a musician for 10 years to no avail when she received just 24 hours notice to step in and perform ‘Black Horse and the Cherry Tree’ on BBC’s respected music programme ‘Later… With Jools Holland’ and things took off very quickly from there.
She recalled to Red magazine: “It was like being fired like a human cannonball.
“It was completely bananas. I was running my own website at the time, so people could email me. I’d usually get a couple of emails a day, but when I woke up, I had 600.
“But the experience spawned one of my favourite sayings, ‘Luck is being ready.’ You may as well ot have the opportunity if you don’t make use of it. You have to be prepared to step into the light and f****** shine.”
KT admitted she relied on alcohol to handle the pressure that came with fame, and though she doesn’t think she had a “massive problem”, she eventually quit boozing completely for several years.
She said: “I definitely used alcohol. I had a great time but I definitely employed the, ‘Keep your head down and pretend it isn’t happening’ mentality.
“I loved getting drunk. But I did feel this shift where drinking started becoming a medicine – that wasn’t good.
“So in 2012, when I had this epiphany, I stopped drinking entirely for six years.
“I wouldn’t say I had a massive problem – I wasn’t drinking in the day or before a show, always afterwards, but it just wasn’t fun any more.”