As he walks into Brooks Hotel in the heart of Dublin, Russell Watson is causing quite a stir. Even though he's casually dressed, there's no mistaking the international singing star, who looks much younger than his 59 years.
A group of women in the corner are excited and happy to see him. One comes up for a quick chat to tell him how much she loves his voice and that she's looking forward to his concerts here - in Wexford, Limerick and Dublin.
It's a lovely moment that brightens up a gloomy day in February for everyone concerned as Russell, a down-to-earth, funny and charming man, greets his fans with warmth and appreciation.
But then, the singer knows how important it is to get joy out of every day, to embrace the good moments in life.
After all, in 2006 he was diagnosed with a brain tumour and despite an operation, a second tumour followed in 2007, so he knows he's lucky to be here.
Even today, he very occasionally gets emotional about what he went through, as there was a time when no one thought he would make it.
'I've spoken about my health issues on numerous occasions and it doesn't really make me feel emotional now,' Russell says thoughtfully. 'But when my children come into it, that's when I start to feel emotional. But it's something I went through and I survived.'
It was such a traumatic thing that happened, not just once but twice, that you'd have to wonder how Russell put himself back together again. He admits that his doctor believed he had post traumatic stress disorder at one point.
'I've not had any therapy, much to the disgust of my endocrinologist,' he says in that lovely Salford drawl of his, which hasn't been dimmed or diminished by the pressures of fame.
'Two years after my second operation - so that would have been 2010 - I'd gone in for my usual blood tests, because I take a concoction of various hormonal drugs and replacements and such. I’ve gone in this day and said to my doctor, Tara Kearney, “It’s so nice to finally go to bed every night and not think I’m going to die.”
‘She was shocked and asked what I meant and I explained that for the previous two years I had been going to bed and then waking up in a panic and a sweat because I thought I was going to die.
‘She said to me: “Is that how you’ve felt for the last couple of years? You’ve had PTSD. Why didn’t you go and see someone?” I didn’t realise, because I’m a bloke. That was a bit of an eye-opener.’
Russell thinks that a lot of people who have been in his situation suffer in silence and just crack on with things.
‘I went to bed one night and I didn’t wake up the next morning, because the bloody lump in my head had haemorrhaged and was bleeding into my skull,’ he recalls. ‘I was in a proper mess. My assistant Gary found me unconscious in the morning and I was on the verge of not being here any more.
‘So when you’ve been through something like that, you’ve gone to bed, not woke up the next morning, every night that you go to bed, you put your head on the pillow and think, st, here we go again.’
It’s a while ago now and while the PTSD has subsided, Russell’s gratitude for his career is still very evident.
After all, before he found fame, he left school with no qualifications and was working in a rivet factory in Manchester. At school he’d been the class clown and in the factory he was the same, having a laugh and bringing his guitar in to sing Beatles songs. His mates persuaded him to enter a local talent contest that gave him the chance to escape the rivets - which he seized with both hands.
‘As soon as I got the opportunity to get out of that factory, I was out that door,’ he says. ‘I didn’t hang around. I won a local talent competition and an agent approached me. He was called Dave Oldfield and he had the slicked back grey hair and the sovereign gold rings on.
‘“Russ,” heard you on the radio,”I think I can get you some pub work, locally,north-west area,50 nicker night,”he told me.Well,making 90 quid week factory.So straight away said yes.’
He’d never had a plan and when he told the foreman that he was leaving to be a singer, the reply was,’see you next week’.But no one had banked on how determined Watson was.
He admits he was a rough diamond but he looked for the polish,learning how to entertain people in working men’s clubs north England.It was a hard road.
His big break came in May 1999 when,after being spotted one gigs,he was invited Old Trafford sing before Manchester United’s Premiership-winning match,where his performance World Cup anthem Nessun Dorma received standing ovation.
‘The thing with me is I am so driven,’ he says. ‘I wake up thinking about music. I go to sleep thinking about music. It’s what I do; it’s who I am. It’s a busy life.
‘You don’t get from a factory at 16 coming out school no qualifications best selling classical artist UK ever matter years later without having drive.
‘I spent ten years clubs north-west England but all time I’d got eye goal. There were times thought wasn’t going anywhere maybe dream wasn’t going come true.
‘Then all of sudden out blue 1999 everything started catalyse. One tabloids 2000 record’d gone number one said “Overnight success Russell Watson” I thinking it were long night ten years,’ he says laughing.
Not everything was plain sailing though. He married his childhood sweetheart Helen Watson and they had two children, Hannah, now 31, and Rebecca, now 26.
His drive meant he was away from home and his girls a lot but he says he can't regret the time he spent away when the children were little.
‘I don’t live with regrets,’ Russell says. ‘It’s something that I feel was a sacrifice that I made at the time. I can’t regret it because if I hadn’t done what I did at the start, I wouldn’t have the career that I have and my kids would not have the life that they have.
‘They have a good result, as a result of me because I do a lot of stuff with them and for them. The interesting thing now is that whenever I’ve moved, they have moved too. So when we moved up to Wilmslow, they followed me; when we moved up to where we are now, in Staffordshire, they moved up because they wanted to be near their dad.
‘That’s been wonderful because the relationship that I have with my girls is amazing. We see each other all the time; we holiday together; we’ve got fantastic father/daughter relationship. I’m all that, you know - banker dad,dad’s taxi,dad’s home repairs.’
His marriage didn't survive, however, and he admits the split from Helen in 2002 wasn't easy.
'It was traumatic for everyone, in particular it was traumatic for Rebecca because she was six at the time,' he says.
But now it's water under the bridge and all parties have moved on.
His girls have not followed him into the music industry and both work in the health sector. Russell has been married to Louise Harris since 2015 and they manage the business together.
He still gets the same buzz from singing and performing as he ever did and is lining up a selection of hits for his National Concert Hall show.
'I'll sing as long as I can because for me it's like a fix getting on stage singing being front audience entertaining,' he says.'That's me.
'I can wake up morning feel absolutely dreadful but then get gear walk stage lights hit face that's it.It's buzz off audience adrenaline.Actually scientific fact singing releases same endorphins exercise does.Call it singing feeling.
'I get sensation when open mouth sing then hear response audience top that’s wonderful concoction - combination excitement maybe little bit fear because stuff singing high wire.
'I’m tightrope walker,singing top range.It’s brilliant,that feeling trepidation just before walk stage.
'I don’t really get nervous,but I do get sense,I’ve got get right.’
He's sold millions of records in his day and in today's ever-changing style of the music industry, it is fair to say Russell doesn't sweat the small stuff.
'I just want to stay happy and healthy,' he says.'When you've been through stuff like I have, health is everything.
'Without that you are stuck so i just want to stay well,and to keep moving forward.'
He's had ups and downs like everyone else,moments when he's felt like quitting or when he's felt like he wasn't supported.
'But I don't dwell,' he says.'I am not a dweller.'
In that respect he doesn't worry if offers come in and don't materialise;he moves on quickly as he has a philosophy.
'Don't ever expect that anything's going to happen until you sign on the dotted line,' Russell says.'That's the best piece of advice for anyone in the music industry.You will hear so much bullst in your career,you will hear more bullst than you will truth.So if it doesn't happen,I don't dwell.
'That's the thing,being able to just keep moving forward.
'My wife and I run the business together.We don't use an agent.We sometimes don't even use a promoter.I don't have a manager.We do it all ourselves.And
I'm booked up solid until the end of 2027.'
What about streaming though?
'I have one at the bottom of my garden that sometimes overflows,' he says, laughing.
'It’s about accepting things and this is a good example of what I was just talking about because my first record did a million sales in the UK alone;the only classical record by a UK artist to sell a million units.Spin on 20 years,and we’re excited about selling 100,000.
The industry has just gone - there’s no point releasing an album unless you’re 25 and you’re on YouTube every day.
The likes of me or Alfie Boe,Katherine Jenkins,Michael Ball,we’re never going to sell millions of records again,everything now is there,’he says,pointingto his mobile phone.
‘But I sing,I create music and put it out there for people to listen to.That’s what I do.That’s who I am.And I don’t think I could be without it.’