Mick Hucknall: Sorry For All The Shagging | The Quietus

Mick Hucknall: Sorry For All The Shagging

Holding back the tears...

As Sir Mick Hucknall prepares to retire the Simply Red name, he’s also putting little Mick into the rest home of his y-fronts. In an in an interview with The Guardian, to be printed tomorrow, the strawberry blond soul man says, "I regret the philandering. In fact, can I issue a public apology through the Guardian? They know who they are, and I’m truly sorry."

Hucknall says that "a red-headed man is not generally considered to be a sexual icon." Which is perhaps why, when he was flogging tonnes of records in the late 80s, he behaved like a kid in a sweet shop: "When I had the fame, it went crazy," admits to the paper. "Between 19851987, I would sleep with about three women a day, every day. I never said no. This was what I wanted from being a pop star. I was living the dream and my only regret is that I hurt some really good girls."

Like a good boy well versed in Freud, Hucknall blames his ma: "I wanted love from every single woman on the planet because I didn’t have my mother’s love. It was an addiction that took me to my darker period from 1996 to 2001, when I really came close to the gutter – I was more into drinking than seducing."

Don’t Miss The Quietus Digest

Start each weekend with our free email newsletter.

Help Support The Quietus in 2025

If you’ve read something you love on our site today, please consider becoming a tQ subscriber – our journalism is mostly funded this way. We’ve got some bonus perks waiting for you too.

Subscribe Now