JAMES Blunt admits he doesn’t always come across well in print media. He prefers TV and Twitter.

Halfway through an 18-month world tour to promote his fourth album, Moon Landing, his Twitter feed is not as busy as it has been. But you don’t have to scroll down far to see the one-liners which have helped him gather more than 850,000 followers.

“@JamesBlunt looks like my left testicle,” tweets @Lewisscoot. “Then you need to see a doctor,” replies Blunt.

To @MuzakirAhmed, who tweeted the more obvious, “@JamesBlunt your music's s**t,” came “And it’s taken you a decade to figure that out”.

No one should be surprised by Blunt’s potty mouth, he says.

“I’m a soldier. You should expect that.”

As for the self-depreciating wit: “anyone who has seen me on Top Gear or Have I Got News For You will know I don’t take myself seriously”.

There is no PR machine behind the Tweets, he explains, but the social media site has allowed Blunt to re-present his persona.

“There was a period where I wasn’t getting that much warmth of feeling in my own country. I can understand that. The first album got overplayed massively.”

The former soldier who gave up on the Household Cavalry scored a Grammy and 11 million worldwide sales for his debut album, Back To Bedlam.

It seemed the sound of a man who took himself very seriously, an earnest loser in love which made You’re Beautiful among the most ubiquitous British singles ever released.

“Back To Bedlam was a naive, innocent album which did something I didn’t expect,” he says, outlining the “journey” which has led to Moon Landing.

Its follow-up, All The Lost Souls, was a reaction to Back To Bedlam. It is the sound of unhappiness and being uncomfortable being thrown in the public eye.

By the third album, Some Kind Of Trouble, he was enjoying music again. He wrote songs for his world tour to fill arenas with bigger sounds than the acoustic guitar.

“It was about picking up an electric guitar to fill them. It was great fun.

“But after having written one with the audience in mind I had to write one for myself, with words I needed to say rather than with words I was expected or wanted to say. So I wrote very personal songs.”

He went to LA to reunite with the producer who was there from the start, Tom Rothrock, when Blunt was signed to independent label Custard Records. Rothrock had previously worked with Beck, Elliot Smith and Badly Drawn Boy.

“To me it sounds old school and retro and lonely. And it’s stripped back. Hopefully it sounds beautiful too.”

Blunt left the army in 2002 after seven years. He saw action in Kosovo and also met Prince Harry, who was among the guests at the Moon Landing launch gig in Notting Hill last year.

“It’s quite a big step to leave secure jobs, but life is short; a bigger fear would have been getting to old age and saying I didn’t have the courage to follow my dreams.”

Elton John took a chance on fresh-faced Blunt and signed him to his Rocket management company. John even took Blunt on the road as tour support.

A few months before he plays Brighton Centre, Blunt is looking for local musicians to open up for him at the show. As such, he’s returning the favour.

“That comes from the opportunities I had when I started out. I was taken on the road by Elton. That was an amazing opportunity. Suddenly, having played in front of 25-30 people, I was on stages in front of 45,000 people around the UK and down to South America, again playing to tens of thousands of people, and it was an incredible learning experience.

“So I’m more interested in taking support acts with me who I enjoy.”

  • Fancy supporting James Blunt at his Brighton Centre show on November 28?

Email his label sammidoherty@outlook.com with an image, either a soundcloud/youtube link or mp3 and a short biography