Richard Hawley: Sheffield legend explains why he never wanted a job after what happened to his dad
“I was determined never to work for the man. Never.”
He’s one of Britain’s best singer-songwriters whose music - often inspired by his home city of Sheffield - has brought joy to millions.
Now Richard Hawley has opened up about his love for the Steel City in an interview with the Guardian, and explained why he’s proud to have never had a job.
Hawley described how his father Dave was employed as a steelworker before the industry’s dramatic decline in the 1980s caused widespread redundancies.
“One of my favourite achievements, if you can call it that, is never having a job,” he told the Guardian. “And as a steelworker’s son, who watched my father’s entire generation get thrown on a scrapheap, I was determined never to work for the man. Never. “Ever since I was 12, I just went, ‘No f****** way!’ Thirty-four years in the steelworks and you get treated like that at the end?
“But I had the guitar. And I didn’t care if I was playing working men’s clubs and weddings, as long as I wasn’t working in a… well, there were no factories to work in.” Hawley, who found fame with the Longpigs and Pulp before embarking on his hugely successful solo career, previously told how he did in fact have one job, albeit briefly, as a Christmas temp at HMV on Pinstone Street, in Sheffield city centre.
The artist, whose latest album In The City They Call You Love has been critically acclaimed, also spoke to the Guardian about his love for Sheffield, explaining in his own typically blunt yet poetic way, ‘as long as I’ve got a hole in my a***, I’ll love this city.”