James Blunt spent more than a decade writing a song

James Blunt took 12 years to write one of his new songs.

The ‘You’re Beautiful’ hitmaker’s new greatest hits album, ‘The Stars Beneath My Feet’, also features some new tracks and he admitted the idea for ‘Love Under Pressure’ had been with him for a long time.

He told Red magazine: “I’ve had the piano part in my head for 12 years.

“All of my mates would come over and ask if I could please play something news but I’d failed to make it into a complete song.”

After almost two decades in the music industry, James thinks his songs are “stronger” now but he worries he has lost his “innocence”.

He said: “I do think my songs are stronger nowadays than when I started out.

“But at the same time, with music, there’s a great beauty in naivety and innocence.

“I feel more competent as a songwriter now, but I also feel that the innocence has perhaps been stripped out of me.”

The 47-year-old singer is known for his witty comebacks on Twitter and he admitted the negative comments he receives used to bother him.

However, he’s been quick to “get over” his critics because of the “massive bonuses” of his job.

Asked if the negative comments bothered him, he admitted: “When I first put out music and I was very, very visible.

“It’s interesting that there can be 100 positives yet the one negative is the one we as humans always find ourselves gravitating towards and being most affected by.

“But I’ve always been of the thinking that if you don’t like something, don’t listen to it.

“You certainly get over it when you go to a show that night and a few thousand people turn up to hear your songs or you’re going on a tour bus around the world.

“There are some massive bonuses. I live in Ibiza. I get into clubs for free. So I’ll take it.”