Ricky Wilson doesn’t recoil when I call him an old-school light entertainer.
“Like Brucie, you mean?” he asks. “Well I can’t tap dance, but I’ll take that. I’m not ashamed of having a broad appeal. It’s hard to make everyone happy.”
Wilson shot to fame in the mid-Noughties fronting the multi-platinum selling band Kaiser Chiefs. The Leeds group released their Top Ten Easy Eighth Album in March and will begin a run of outdoor tour dates this month.
In between, the 46-year-old has become as well known for his media multitasking. He was a judge on The Voice for three seasons, presented an art show on CBBC and came second on last year’s The Masked Singer, disguised as a phoenix.
There have been podcasts with Tony Blackburn, fleeting appearances in films including St Trinian’s 2 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and a role in Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of War of the Worlds.
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Other than on stage with Kaiser Chiefs, however, Wilson feels most at home on the radio. After stints on Radio X and Radio 2, for the past 18 months he has hosted Virgin Radio’s weekday drivetime show, which is an enormous undertaking for a rock star who is also a father of two-year-old twins.
When we meet, Wilson is collapsed across a desk at Virgin Radio. He looks exhausted.
“Just conserving my energy,” he lies, hauling himself up. “I can’t complain. I have two dream jobs. Radio is not only a joy, it’s great for my brain. It’s a three-hour mental workout, five days a week.
“At first I found it terrifying. There’s no one to bounce off — just me telling stories and musing on my life. The magic is in connecting with an audience. TV doesn’t do that as much any more, but radio still has a strong community spirit. It’s much my preferred place to be.”
Wilson doesn’t miss the tabloid-type fame he experienced during Kaiser Chiefs’ early years — the band’s 2005 debut album, Employment, sold two million copies and spawned hit singles such as I Predict a Riot, Every Day I Love You Less and Less and Oh My God, all of which are still radio staples. That stardom emerged again when he sat in a swivel chair alongside will.i.am., Tom Jones, Kylie and Rita Ora on The Voice from 2013 to 2015.
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“I don’t miss it, but I didn’t mind it,” Wilson insists. “At times [the fame] was terrific. I was aware that level of intrusion wouldn’t last. Plus, I know how to not be recognised. My secret? Cheap jeans. No one gives you a second look.”
His relaxed relationship with fame is due in part to his childhood. One of two brothers brought up in West Yorkshire, Wilson’s dad, Geoff, was a director of It’s a Knockout, the absurd, family-friendly TV game show watched by millions in the 1970s.
“I was very young but I remember being on set a lot,” Wilson says. “My mum was a score girl. That’s how my parents met. I used to take naps in the big latex costumes. It was cool but it never seemed strange to me.
“Only recently I realised that it must have massively affected what I do today. I am a nepo baby! Not because my parents’ past got me a job but because I saw what was possible. I’ve always been comfortable on sets. Nothing in the entertainment industry has felt out of reach to me. Hey, we used to have Su Pollard hang out at our house.”
Growing up, Wilson dreamt of going into advertising. “It’s not a million miles from what I do today,” he insists. “I’m not a brand, but there is an element of positioning myself in the world.”
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Instead, after studying graphic art and design, he briefly became an art teacher before forming his first band, which was finally signed in 2003 after renaming themselves Kaiser Chiefs.
Wilson was never cool — there was aggression with Oasis and even Boris Johnson, then the mayor of London, put the boot in, calling the band “weeds from Leeds” and “epic softies”.
Wilson’s penchant for waistcoats and winklepickers didn’t help, although in 2006 he did win NME’s Best Dressed award.
“I’m still annoyed about that,” he says. “[The Killers’] Brandon Flowers won it the previous year and I saw him with his award. I never got an actual award — they just announced it. In that respect, I didn’t win.”
Kaiser Chiefs’ second album, Yours Truly, Angry Mob in 2007, was another chart topper, but by the end of the decade the hits had dried up.
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“The main reason I got into TV was to help us to sell more records,” Wilson says, candidly. “The band back then were in a sticky situation. Our drummer, who had also been our songwriter, had left and we were finding it increasingly difficult to get on to TV. The only option that presented itself was for me to be the TV.”
Wilson had been approached to be a coach on The Voice two years earlier, but The Script’s Danny O’Donoghue got the job. The second time around, he lost weight and had his teeth straightened.
He’s mostly straight-laced now — although he did appear drunk on stage at the O2 in November 2022 with the Kaiser Chiefs and slurred his words. At the time he apologised, saying: “The truth is I made a mistake on Saturday night at the O2 and relied on old drinking habits; it’s a mistake that upset and disappointed many of you, and some of those closest to me.”
Now he runs regularly. “I knew I needed to fix up and look sharp,” he says. “I started running and got Invisalign. My teeth before? Oh God, it was like a graveyard in there.”
Thanks to The Voice, Wilson met his wife, the stylist Grace Zito. Does she still give him style advice? “Not now she’s not being paid,” Wilson says.
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Besides, not being cool suits the singer just fine these days.
“Very few bands have the breadth that Kaiser Chiefs do,” he says. “We fit anywhere and everywhere. We can play a posh festival and a racecourse on the same weekend. We’re about to support Kasabian and we’ve just done a roller disco. Light entertainment? Don’t knock it.”
Kaiser Chiefs’ Easy Eighth Album is out now. Kaiser Chiefs are on tour from June 28. Listen to Ricky Wilsonon Virgin Radio UK, weekdays 4-7pm
What’s your favourite track by the Kaiser Chiefs? Let us know in the comments below
