Rag'n'Bone Man in Birmingham show

Human was the overall fastest-selling album of the past 12 months, outgunning everything since David Bowie's Blackstar. The sales also surpassed the huge first week numbers of recent number ones by the Rolling Stones, Little Mix and Elvis Presley.

But Rag'n'Bone Man, aka Rory Graham, aged 32, says the moment he knew things were getting serious was when he took a call from Sir Elton John. "It was an unknown number," he remembers. "And I don't like answering unknown numbers. But all the people I was with in my manager's office were like, 'Nah, answer it'. I answered and he's like, 'Dahhhling, it's Elton!' I just went, 'f- hell.'

"He just goes, 'f-ing love you, I think you're brilliant.' He'd just rung to say how good he thought I was and how he loved my material. It was great!"

Sir Elton had been dazzled by the single, Human, which has become the calling card for the Brighton bluesman.

His life has changed because of his success, though Rory isn't too fussed about being famous. "In fact, I don't really want it. If I could erase that side of it, then that'd be cool, but… I think you can't concern yourself with the fame thing, or with what people say about you, because there's a lot of d**kheads in the world and unfortunately social media has given those d**kheads voices. I just block everybody now.

"I've got a bit of a temper and sometimes I'll just bite, so I've had to learn to be like, 'OK, instead of that I'll just f- block you straightaway. I don't want to know your b*****ks'."

He's presently on the road and will headline Birmingham's O2 Academy on Monday. The show is sold out and he'll be moving to bigger venues soon.

"There are really three parts to the album and there's, like, quite a lot of hip-hop on there.

"I guess it is a worry that people who love Human might think they're buying the album and that's a blueprint for it, but it's definitely not.

"Hopefully they'll be pleasantly surprised."