Ian ‘H’ Watkins has a “bizarre” friendship with Ronnie Wood.
The 48-year-old star is best known as part of dance-pop group Steps – who have achieved success with hits such as ‘Tragedy’ and ‘Deeper Shade of Blue’ over the years – but revealed that he is actually on very good terms with Rolling Stones rocker Ronnie, 75, although he doesn’t expect him to even know about the ‘5,6,7,8’ hitmakers.
He told The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column: “I’m great friends with Sally, Ronnie’s wife. I’ve known her for, like, 20 years.
“And then Sally ended up marrying Ronnie. By coincidence, they have twins and I have twins, and they’re born like a month apart.
“So very early on, I would FaceTime them quite a lot and we meet up quite a lot.
“There’s lots of comparisons, but Ronnie performs in stadiums and we do mere arenas.
“I don’t expect Ronnie to know who Steps are.
“But whenever I see him, he’s like, ‘H!!’, I’m like, ‘Ha! . . . Hi Ronnie’. It’s kind of bizarre, but he’s a lovely, lovely man. We’ll teach him some moves!”
Alongside Faye Tozer, Claire Richards, Lee Latchford-Evans and Lisa Scott-Lee, Ian released four albums as part of Steps from 1997 until 2001.
They reunited in 2011 for a documentary and a reunion tour the following year before getting back together again in 2017.
Since then, they have released a further four albums and their jukebox musical ‘Here and Now’ – which features hits such as ‘One For Sorrow’ and ‘Scared of the Dark’ amongst a host of others – will go on the road later this year.
Away from Steps, H has also had a successful career in musical theatre and has appeared in the likes of ‘Joseph and the Amazing Techncolor Dreamcoat’ and ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ but has been able to explore his art in more recent times and is thrilled that his work is now being displayed in galleries.
He said: “I fell into music, but this was always where I thought my life was going.
“Very well-respected galleries have me in the mix now. I feel very blessed. It’s a bit of a ‘pinch me’ moment.