Richard Ashcroft admitted the Verve’s break-up was "heavy".
The ‘Drugs Don’t Work’ hitmakers originally broke up in 1999 following the exit of guitarist Nick McCabe and briefly reformed in 2007 for an album and tour, but the 47-year-old singer has never spoken out about any of the rumours about why they went their separate ways – and he never will because he doesn’t want to "mess up" someone else.
Speaking on Radio X, he said: "I don’t want to be responsible for messing up someone. I don’t want to be responsible for that because the things that happened in The Verve, it was heavy stuff. It was real. It wasn’t just frivolous nonsense; you know what I mean?
"There was real people’s lives. It was real emotions, and I’ve never really thought about completely clarifying it because I know the damage that clarifying it will do.
"So I am prepared to take any bizarre misshapen f***ed-up version of that reality said by anyone. Any ex member of the band can say what the f**k they like, because I know the truth and I’m cool with it. And I know what I’ve done since the band, and I know what I’ll continue to do. Judge me by my works…"
However, while the ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ hitmaker doesn’t want to "burn people out publicly" there may come a time when he "writes the book" and reveals his truth.
He explained: "If you wanted me to give clarity on why or what was the main factor, what I’d be doing was changing… I made a decision quite a number of years ago that I’d see how it pans out.
"I’ll see if any other member tries to re-write history, you know. I’ll see how many bizarre takes on events stack up and then maybe one day I’ll go: ‘You know what? I’ll write the book’
"If I’m attempting to make myself the saint in this that would be wrong, but I think what has happened is, because I’ve kind of remained a bit silent on the subject, because I don’t want to burn people out publicly, I don’t want to just say ‘Here we go this is what I was dealing with’. I’m not that kind of guy."
Richard Ashcroft still won’t comment on The Verve split
