Paul Potts Followup

Here it is again, the now-historic first big break for Paul Potts. I blogged about him in June, and this morning he was a guest on NPR's Weekend Edition, interviewed by Scott Simon. Take a moment to listen to the clip and discover what a truly modest, internally decent person he really is. He deserves all the good fortune he receives.

When Scott Simon asked him if he were an opera singer who was selling car phones or a car phone salesman who sang opera, his answer was straightforward: he earned his living selling phones and had to pay for any singing lessons he received, or any opportunity to sing. He never sang at work, so the people who worked with him never knew what his voice sounded like. He's still officially employed by the same company, and when he went back recently and logged on the his account, he had three thousand emails! He hasn't had time to get to them yet. He's in the US at the moment promoting his first CD.


I see the reviews at Amazon are not unalloyed praise and gushing excitement. You know what? I used to be a musical snob once myself. Two years music at the college level as a music major nearly destroyed my ability to enjoy the range of music that I later learned to love. My take on Paul Potts is that he has so much music inside that he'll be making music even when his voice starts to show his age in later years. Music is greater than timbre, tone, pitch and richness of sound. The best music has soul. And Paul Potts has it.