Entertainment
Lucy Spraggan reveals the mixed emotions when writing her autobiography: ‘It’s been horrendous but wonderful’-Simon Gage-Entertainment – Metro
‘The only reason it can be damaging to grow up as trans is that there are transphobes out there.’
Lucy Spraggan is about to embark upon a UK tour (Picture: Supplied)
From about two to 11, I was a little boy,’ says X Factor alumna, chart-topping singer-songwriter, keen runner, LGBTQ+ icon and author Lucy Spraggan from her neon-lit home.
‘I had a skinhead haircut, wore boxer shorts and my family called me Max; people at school called me Max. Lucy was like a dead name.’
She’s talking about coming out as lesbian at 14 and how no one in her world was in the least bit surprised – something she finds funny. ‘There was this period of time when I was transitioning back into being Lucy so when I came out everyone was like, “Yes, we know!”’
This is all very much on Lucy’s mind right now as, apart from promoting a new album and getting ready for perhaps the most wellness-oriented tour in British pop history, she’s been writing an autobiography, which is due out in July.
‘It’s been horrendous,’ she says of the process behind Progress. ‘Going through everything that’s ever traumatised you with a fine-tooth comb: it has been horrendous but wonderful, too.’
She recommends doing it. Not that she’s ever been shy of self-examination: she has regular therapy (‘It’s great to be able to talk to someone about how you feel without judgement’) and has always journalled – while her songs have never been shy of, you know, going there. ‘I’ve always spoken about how I truly feel,’ she says, ‘so I guess I’m a bit of an open book.’
Lucy on The X Factor in 2012 (Picture: Ken McKay/Thames/REX/Shutterstock)
Her new tour kicks off in May (Picture: Shirlaine Forrest/Getty)
And it’s self-examination that fills her new album. ‘It’s a reflective album,’ she says of Balance, ‘Choices came out in 2021 and I was like, “I will never have another album ready for 2023.” And all of a sudden there were 15 or 20 songs.’
But don’t get the idea that looking back like this means that Lucy isn’t in a good place, bearing in mind she’s been through the mill a bit: having to leave X Factor due to illness, getting divorced…
More: New music
Now she’s in her thirties, she wishes she could somehow get the message out that – in the words of a campaign aimed at LGBTQ+ kids – it gets better. ‘I wish I could have been my 30-year-old self in my twenties, because what a horrible time to be alive in your twenties!’ she says.
‘But you can’t tell anyone anything. They have to live it. Which is why it’s sad for anyone who didn’t make it to 30.’
And she’s done her bit. Quite apart from always being there for her fans (she admits she gets some quite heavy mail but says it’s ‘an honour and a privilege that people trust me’), when she was married, she and her wife would foster kids – which she describes as ‘a wonderful experience’.
Lucy reached out to Simon Cowell for her autobiography and they unexpectedly hit it off (PIcture: Getty)
‘Someone asked me on a podcast the other day, “Well, what should we be saying to trans children?” and I said, “You shouldn’t be saying anything! It should be, I’m here, I’m listening and anything you need, just tell me.”
‘The only reason it can be damaging to grow up as trans is that there are transphobes out there. But if I’d grown up as Max, I’m sure I would have had just as tumultuous a journey as I’ve had as Lucy.’
And being Lucy has turned out just fine. She’s even started working with Simon Cowell, of all people. ‘I never had anything to do with him,’ she says, ‘but when you’re writing a book you have to reach out to people and I got a phone call from Simon. He’s the person I least expected to have any common ground with but we really hit it off.
‘He bought my back catalogue and I’m the first songwriter he’s signed to his new publishing company. He said, “There are five or six songs of yours and I want to make them hits!” and I was like, “I’m not going to say no!”’
Lucy has a new album and autobiography out this year (PIctures: Supplied)
Apart from that she’s in rocking shape, even if she isn’t a personal trainer as the papers like to suggest. Mind you, she is inviting fans to join her at her tour bus at 11am sharp for a daily run when she hits the road, ‘If they can catch me’.
She’s also been sober for more than three years. ‘It changed my life!’ – and is three months into a new relationship with ‘A leggy blonde… she’s 5’10 and I’m 5’3 so I feel like a toddler standing next to her.’
It may only have been a few months but, ‘In the lesbian world that’s like a year’, she laughs.
It’s certainly going better than her experience on dating app Hinge. ‘Most of the messages were like, ‘“You’re a sad bastard pretending to be Lucy Spraggan!’”
Balance is released on April 28, while Lucy’s tour kicks off on May 4. See lucyspraggan.com
MORE : Lewis Capaldi calls fan who bought his single – and it doesn’t go to plan
Entertainment – MetroRead More
