Rag ‘N’ Bone Man performs in the BBC Radio 2 Piano Room

On Vernon Kay’s BBC Radio 2 show this morning, Rag ‘N’ Bone Man performed for Radio 2 Piano Room’s autumn run.

The three-time BRIT Award winner, accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra at the BBC Maida Vale studios, performed his hit, Skin, the first performance of his new single, Put A Little Hurt On Me, and a classic cover of Christine Aguilera’s Genie In A Bottle.

Talking to Vernon about what it was like to perform with the BBC Concert Orchestra, Rag ‘N’ Bone Man said: “There’s a certain weight that it brings your songs and, honestly, when where there’s a lyric that really hits me and these guys are playing behind you, quite difficult not to cry if I’m totally honest.”

On his aspirations following his initial success, he said that at different points in your career you have different goals, and he recalled: “I remember thinking, ‘Ooh, when I play Scala in Kings Cross, that’ll be that, that’s amazing.

“And then the goalposts move and then it’s like, ‘Oh they want you to play Jools Holland’, and I rung my mum and said they want me to play Jools Holland and she’s like, ‘That’s amazing’.

“There’s different points and I constantly am surprised by the things that I get to do and I’m very lucky and I’m very grateful… but no, I didn’t imagine that I would be here, it’s insane.

“If you’d have told my 12-year-old self that I’d be in Maida Vale performing here with an incredible orchestra, it’s ridiculous really.”

Vernon also played out a question from the previous Piano Room performer, Marc Almond, who asked: “What is your guilty pleasure?”

Rag ‘N’ Bone Man replied that he really likes watching Project Runway at the moment.

“I don’t know how I got into it,” he said. “I think it was just lack of sleep or I’m just going to go back downstairs because I can’t sleep and I’ll watch whatever’s on TV and that was the first thing that came on and I just found myself sitting there going, ‘You know what, that’s really clever, that’s so clever’, and I just carried on so….”

Paul Weller will be next to perform for the Piano Room with the BBC Concert Orchestra at Maida Vale on Thursday 7 November.