How a life-changing accident created opportunities for Tom Grennan

Tom Grennan is now a well-known singer, known for his songs 'Little Bit of Love', 'Not Over Yet' and most recently 'Higher'. However, the Hits Radio Live performer has opened up to Fleur East about how a life-changing injury was the catalyst to making him a successful singer.

Tom will be joining us at both Hits Radio Live Manchester and Birmingham. Our Manchester gig has now sold out, but some tickets still remain for Hits Radio Live Birmingham, where the line-up includes Olly Alexander, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Sigala, Joel Corry, Ella Henderson, Tom Walker and Sugababes.

Get your tickets here for Friday 22nd November 2024 Hits Radio Live Birmingham at the bp pulse LIVE arena

Speaking to Fleur East as part of our Off The Record series, Tom revealed that it was a life-changing injury that resulted in him writing music and becoming the singer that he is today. Tom explained how in the early days of his music career he was in a cover band, and they'd just finished a gig at a university, when he decided to head to KFC for a bite to eat."

He continued: "It all started kind of kicking off outside KFC," Tom explained. "I'm not involved in this, but it was just down the road and then a few boys grabbed me. I couldn't move and it all happened so quickly and I just got punched twice in my jaw and I remembered the feeling of like my jaw leaving my face.

"And I was like, oh, my god, my jaw’s broken. And then that all happened like where I was just... I went into like the most depressed state I've ever. I didn't know what mental health was, do you know what I mean?

"I couldn't leave my house for, like, a good like year."

Tom went on to reveal: "I definitely like wouldn't be doing this now if that didn't happen. So like, a bad thing happened, but like a massive positive thing came out of it, I started to like really get in touch with my feelings and get in touch with like what was going on inside me and stuff like that so."

He continued: "The hospital would say, you need to go see like a therapist and I was like, cool, I'll go and I went and I was like, why am I talking to someone I don't know right now, about my feelings? And at that point, when I was 18 I was like not talking to you. Like I don't wanna talk to you.

"So the only way I could really do it was to write about it, and I remember writing loads of stuff down and then teaching myself how to play guitar as well. And then I had this book and I was like, well, if I've got all these words here, then let's put a melody to them and I remember writing my first song came downstairs to my mum and that was like me opening up to how I was feeling to my mum.

"And my mum was just like, ‘I kind of understand what's going on now’ and now like some deep dark stuff in there where my mum was like, ‘just to have a watch on Tom’ and all that kind of stuff. That was my moment to say ‘Mum this is what I'm going through’."

We're so glad Tom has become a successful singer, you can hear his songs on Hits Radio and you can even see him live when he performs at Hits Radio Live Birmingham and Manchester. Tickets are sold out for Manchester, but get your tickets now for Birmingham!

Get your tickets here for Friday 22nd November 2024 Hits Radio Live Birmingham at the bp pulse LIVE arena

Who is performing at Hits Radio Live 2024? Here's the full line-up across the two gigs:

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