Tom Grennan has said his upcoming Teenage Cancer Trust gig will be “emotional” as his grandfather recently beat the disease.
Grennan, 24, will perform at the Royal Albert Hall on March 27 as part of a string of gigs in aid of the charity, hosted by The Who’s Roger Daltrey, who wrote to him inviting him to perform.
The Bedford-born singer-songwriter told A List: “I’m a massive The Who fan but I think my grandad will be more like ‘f****** whoa’. He just beat cancer.” He hopes his grandfather will be at the gig. “I think it will be emotional,” he added. “My auntie’s gone through it and people in the audience would have experienced it.
“It will be a special night. I’m not going to be like ‘it’s my gig’; we’re there for a reason — to celebrate — and to know that it does affect a lot of people.”
Grennan, whose debut album Lighting Matches rose to number five in the charts last year, is putting pressure on himself to push out more music for fear a rising star will usurp his success. He is working on his next album.
“I’ve put the pressure on myself,” he said. “I want to keep the momentum going. Right now we live in a digital world and people don’t want to wait around. If I do, another Tom will come in and take my place, so now I’ve got it I don’t want to give it up.
“I want to be up there with Roger Daltrey in years to come. I feel I’ve got a lot of creative juices running in me so I don’t want to waste them.”
Grennan said he is having to “dig deeper and deeper” for album number two because he has spoken about everything he was feeling on Lighting Matches, and said collaborations could be on the cards.
“I like collaborations you get two nice voices and it takes an artist into a different world,” he said. “If someone knocks on my door then I’ll be like ‘I’m game’ but no one has done that yet. A Liam Gallagher one would be good.”
