When James Blunt was a soldier stationed in Kosovo seven years ago, he remembered being struck by the work of doctors volunteering to help the wounded.
“I was there for six months and to continually see them working in the middle of nowhere with very little in the form of security, very little in the form of decent living conditions and yet still selflessly, tirelessly helping other people, I was touched every single day,” the British singer told The Associated Press.
Now that he’s a multi-platinum singer, the 32-year-old Blunt is finding a way to help the cause.
On Thursday in Los Angeles, Blunt, perhaps best known for the ballad “You’re Beautiful,” will perform a special benefit concert for Doctors Without Borders, which provides aid to disaster victims and other communities with little access to health care. In addition, during his “Back to Bedlam” tour, he has auctioned off
meet-and-greets with proceeds benefiting the organization.
“The music industry … has so many fickle sides to it and is involved in selling image and a lot of things that aren’t very real,” he said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “It seems like a great idea to do something relevant to everyday.”
One thing that Blunt considers irrelevant is celebrity culture.
Though he’s been the focus of tabloids because of his romance with model Petra Nemcova, he refused to talk about the relationship with the AP, and called celebrity “quite a confused thing.
“We live in a celebrity culture. I deal with that kind of thing a lot and those things I find quite mundane,” he said.
All Access: James Blunt
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