The English singer has quietly become one of the UK’s most enduring pop stars of the 2020s. After a monumental 12 months – becoming a father, turning 30, scoring a third number one album and headlining an arena tour – he’s also never looked better. The best part? He’s finally comfortable in his own skin.

Tom Grennan has found his hair product. It’s a conclusion – a moment of rapture – that evades some their whole lives. Any man who’s been around the block with the pomades and powders knows all manner of ills can ensue until you find your styling soulmate – scalp irritation, clogged pores, greasy finishes, the list goes on. For Grennan, it took the best part of three decades to land on Wavy – the curl crème masterminded by British Love Island star Eyal Booker and his brother Ariel – designed for locks, like Grennan’s, with their fair share of unruly texture and charm.   

Those restless curls never looked too shabby, though. Since his 2016 breakthrough, they’ve given the singer-songwriter a shoo-in for the best barnet in British pop. “My hair is my staple,” he says. Besides, he does famously have a penchant for the best. His presence at the heart of one of the most ubiquitous men’s grooming campaigns of the decade – Gillette’s “The Best A Man Can Get” – proves that inclination transfers to his shaving habits, too. 

“Now being 30, I feel like I’ve got a better head on my shoulders,” he continues. He’s not just talking about the way his hair sits, though. It’s an assuredness that’s followed an almost-decade-long process of self-acquaintance since the Bedford-hailing artist and former semi-professional footballer first infiltrated the charts with Chase & Status collaboration “All Goes Wrong”. From conquering addictive behaviours, gravitating back to fitness, getting married and becoming a father – “I’m just very comfortable in my skin now,” he tells Man About Town Editor-in-Chief Luke Day. Day’s Grennan’s styling soulmate on the sartorial front, you could say, having dressed him for over a year. “Working with you, I feel like I’ve elevated my style,” Grennan enthuses. “I think I’ve just elevated everything [this year], you know?” 

The facts and figures concur. The last 12 months have seen Grennan not only ease into fatherhood, but also bag a third consecutive number one album with fourth LP (Everywhere I Went, Led Me To Where I Didn’t Want To Be), a Men’s Health cover, headline slot on one of the UK’s leading music festivals, an international tour, plus a BBC podcast (You About?) rooted in dialogue on men’s mental wellness, alongside TV presenter and Grennan’s close pal, Roman Kemp.“This is the first time, really, that I’ve not felt like I don’t deserve to be [in the position I’m in],” Grennan reflects. “Now I back myself, and I back my talent.” And, the icing on the cake: he’s always having a good hair day. 

Tom Grennan: Luke! 

Luke Day: Tom! How are you?

TG: Alright mate, I’m just very jet lagged.

LD: Where are you? 

TG: I’m in Perth, in sunny Australia. 

LD: It’s been ages since I’ve seen you. The last time I saw you, you were literally naked with a towel on your head for your Man About Town shoot.  

TG: I know, mate. What a shoot, though. I loved it. 

LD: This period feels like a really good moment for you. You’ve had so many seminal things happen this year.

TG: It’s been wild. Obviously, number one album…

LD: Which is huge, that’s huge. Do you feel like turning 30 [in June] was a real pivotal moment of finding yourself and becoming a fully-formed version of yourself?

TG: Becoming 30, for me, was a scary thing. But now I’m 30, I’m very excited for the new chapter of what life is. And not only that, I think I’ve grown up a lot since starting in the music industry at 21. I’ve had nine years of learning and figuring myself out. 

LD: When I think about how I felt when I was 21… You look back and you realise that you’re actually still quite young at that age. At the time, you don’t feel like you are, but it’s such a massive thing to learn and grow up in the public eye. It’s an age of making mistakes. 

TG: Definitely. And I made a lot of mistakes, man. And I’m not ashamed of that. I’m very much in a place where I’m like, ‘That’s my story. That’s the way I went, and if I didn’t make those mistakes, I probably wouldn’t be the best version of myself now.’ 

LD: I wanted to reflect on some of your achievements this year – number one album, turning 30, headlining Radio 1’s Big Weekend, a huge sell-out tour, the podcast, becoming a father, and moving house. 

TG: There’s been some big milestones. Even getting married as well. So many massive moments in the past two years that have really just allowed me to grow, but also, when it comes to music, feel like I deserve to be where I am. I’ve worked so hard to get to this place now. 

LD: Do you feel like you had imposter syndrome? Does worrying about how the public perceives you ever get in your head? 

TG: I’ve never really thought about the public, because I don’t see myself as famous. So that’s not ever been a worry. I think imposter syndrome definitely is something that I’ve had to deal with, but I’ve dealt with that quietly. I’ve not really ever spoken about that, but I am somebody who deals with daily anxiety, and I’m somebody who’s beaten sometimes. I beat myself up, and I’m very competitive with myself, and if I don’t feel like I’m winning, then I’m like, ‘What is the point?’ I feel like only in the past year, when I look at my achievements, not just in music, but in life: getting married, being a father, getting a grip of my addictive personalities and understanding who I am and who I want to be. All those things are massive wins for me. I’m very much on a spiritual journey at the moment, and I’m allowing myself to really sit with my wounds. And, at the same time, I’m very proud of myself and very proud of the person that I am today.

LD: Yeah, you really should be. I see how hard you work and juggling fatherhood as well. [That balance] is something that people don’t really talk about as much with dads. 

TG: Yeah, definitely. When you’re in the business that I’m in, when you say, ‘I’m becoming a parent,’ everybody says, ‘Well, that’s you finished.’  Whereas, for me, the game has just started, and becoming a father is such a blessing. Juggling it is very chaotic at the moment, but me and my wife are really managing it the way that we think is right, and at the end of the day, all that matters is that we have a healthy, happy child and that we both are still connected and we’re communicating. I remember two people said to me, ‘Well, you’re not going to be able to do this and do that.’ And I remember saying, ‘Well, we’re having a child because we want this child to come into our lives. We’re just going to have to allow this child to belong in our lives and not let the child run our lives.’ So, yeah, I’m a very, very happy man, and it’s changed me completely. A lot of people say [fatherhood] changes you for the better, and I never really understood that until it happened to me. 

LD: It’s really one of those things that I feel like you don’t understand until you’ve experienced it. With the podcast, I’m really intrigued to know – how do lads respond to it? You’re really open in it and happy to be really vulnerable.

TG: A lot of lads have responded very positively to it. I’ve always been quite open-minded, open-hearted and vulnerable with my feelings. I was taught, as a kid, that that is a powerful thing to be able to do, especially as a man. I’m somebody who is very passionate about men being able to open up and say what they think, and be in touch with their feelings.

LD: You come from a background of being a footballer, and so I feel like having people that guys can relate to and see being really open is really helpful. Was there anybody growing up that you looked at in that way? 

TG: Also coming from a small working-class town, my friendship group was very alpha male. [You couldn’t] show any sort of weakness. And then I found myself doing a job that my dad does on a building site. And if you show any emotion on a building site, you’re getting crucified. But I never let that affect me. I was always somebody who showed emotion, and if I was in a bad place, I’d always open up to my parents or some of my friends. I think that opened up the conversation in and around my friendship group, which allowed us as friends to grow a better bond. I think for me, my granddad was somebody who I looked up to when it came to being a man who cried. I never really saw my dad cry or show emotion. My dad is a very happy person, and that’s his main emotion. But when it came to feelings and talking about them, my dad was never really like that. But I’m very much like my granddad: emotional. My granddad is a crier, I’m a crier, and I would talk to him, especially in my early 20s, when I was going through different things. I would just have an open conversation between an older man and a younger man, and say ‘What do I do here?’ Or ‘Why am I feeling like this?’

LD: It’s quite rare for that generation to be so emotionally open or vulnerable. My grandparents are a bit older than yours, but my granddad fought in the war and was this very stoic, firm man’s man and didn’t really say much. He wouldn’t crack a smile, really. 

TG: I was lucky because my granddad had three girls, and my mum would be the first person to be like, ‘Listen, don’t hide away from your feelings. Talk about them and let me know how you’re feeling.’ She was very adamant to get that out of me from a young age. I think she got that from her dad. I think my granddad has always been in touch with his feelings, and I think that was passed down. 

LD: One achievement we haven’t talked about yet, which is a big one, is your Men’s Health cover. It’s amazing, right? 

TG: I still find it quite mad that I was on the front of Men’s Health. I looked at a picture of myself from five or six years ago, and I was a completely different human being. I was drinking a lot. I was dabbling in other substances, which weren’t great for me, and mentally I was off-beat. I’d let myself go completely when it came to fitness. So I got into the gym really for my mental state, and then I really got the bug. My addictive personality then shifted onto, ‘I have so many goals in fitness, I’m going to make sure I use my body to full capacity and see how far I can take it.’ And to be getting looks from Men’s Health… It’s still an iconic magazine. I still read it, and my friends still read it. The fact that I was on the cover just showed me how far I’ve come again. 

LD: It’s one of those things where you can’t really fake that. To actually get the accolade of being on that cover, you have to be in great shape. What is your daily life, routine, your rituals? All of those things that you do to look that good. 

TG: I first started with a lot of CrossFit, because I was somebody who was quite frightened of the gym. A lot of people don’t talk about that, but I was frightened of going to the gym and people laughing at me and all these different feelings I had in my head, which was silly. But I found CrossFit was very much a community space where everybody wanted you to succeed and to see the progression. But then my body was so sore, so I got into endurance – doing marathons, Ironman and things like that. But my daily routine now, obviously, being on tour and travelling a lot, I’m doing bodybuilding stuff. Now I’m hitting my thirties, I’m feeling every little muscle and bone and ache in my body. So I’m trying to stretch a lot and to eat as good as I possibly can. 

LD: So you gym every day? 

TG: Yeah, six times a week, whether I’m feeling like I can or not, I have to do it.  I’m active every day. Even if I don’t gym, I’ll go for a walk.  

LD: And do you take supplements? 

TG: Protein, vitamins, fish oil and things like that. Just the generic ones. 

LD: I want to talk about a couple of things you’re famous for as well. Obviously, you’re famous for your curly hair. Are you still a Wavy boy? Or what product are you using on it right now?

TG: Yeah, I’m religiously using Wavy. It’s such a good hair product for curly hair. I don’t think I’ll be using anything else in future.

LD: Same, same. And being the Gillette guy… 

TG: Yeah, I never thought that would ever be a thing when I got asked to do it, I was like, ‘That’s a great pay cheque. And no one’s gonna know that this is me singing it.’ And it turned out to be a little bit of a cultural moment. And then it just went on, and people shout the Gillette lines at me, but I embrace it. I don’t take myself too seriously. 

LD: And obviously the album’s just come out, but you’re already writing new music, aren’t you? 

TG: Yeah, I’m in the headspace of writing new things and figuring out what I want to do next. I really gave popstar a go this time, and it worked. But, I don’t know, the music industry shifted, and I think I left it too long to release the album. So I think that’s why some of the songs didn’t connect as much as I thought they would, in my opinion. But yeah, I’m figuring out musically where I want to go now, and I’ve been in the studio and trying to find my sound again. 

LD: I guess it’s always figuring out what is next, isn’t it? You’re right, sometimes I do shoots and if they take too long to come out, something else can come out before it that you go, ‘That’s pipped me to the post.’

TG: Yeah, man. But that’s exciting for me, figuring out what I want to sound like, even where I want to take my look. I think being able to evolve and change and be willing to change is so key. That’s what makes a good artist. If I look at so many different stories… Paul Weller has had so many different areas of fashion and music. Or David Bowie. Even Liam Gallagher or John Lennon – so many different periods of fashion and music. Being able to switch it up is key. 

LD: Yeah, totally. I’m really excited for your next chapter. And you’re in an amazing place right now, you should be really proud of yourself. And thank you as well for being so open to doing this shoot, because I know it’s not the easiest thing to expect someone just to take their clothes off and be cool about it.

TG: That’s what I’m saying, I think for me, I’ve always been open, and if something pushes me out of my comfort zone, then great. But being naked doesn’t really push me out of my comfort zone – I enjoyed it. By the way, you’re a great interviewer. 

LD: Thanks. It’s my new thing [laughs]. 

TG: Luke Day podcast? 

LD: We’ll get into business. We’ll do them together.

TG: But thanks, man, I really appreciate you just believing in what I’m doing, and putting me out there.

LD: I like working with nice people that I believe in! Have you got a show tonight?  

TG: I’ve got a show tomorrow. I’m going to get an early night tonight. 

Pre-order Man About Town’s Autumn/Winter Issue 25 here.