Ricky Wilson says 20 years in Kaiser Chiefs have prepared him for the I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! dunny. The 48-year-old is set to compete on this year's ITV reality series, but he says the real test may be the people around him rather than the jungle conditions.
Glastonbury and Ricky Wilson
At the Children With Cancer UK Christmas Gala, Wilson said his band life has taught him more about rough festival toilets than a studio schedule ever could. "I've been in a band for 20 years," he said, adding that festivals usually have "one toilet - and predominantly the road crew are men, and they provide one toilet for like 200 men."
He was blunt about the timing too: "You have to get up pretty early in the morning for it not to be a horrific experience." That is a practical rule, not a pose. In his telling, years on the road have turned an ugly backstage routine into something he already understands well enough to handle on TV.
In the UK Christmas Gala
Wilson's own example undercuts the toughened image. "I've never actually camped anywhere in my life. But show me where to sleep and I'll sleep there," he said. At Glastonbury, he said, "I was staying in a really nice hotel. I went back to the hotel every night. I watched the headliners in the bath. And I actually ate a Flake when I was doing it."
That gap between festival lore and his actual experience is the story's useful wrinkle. He is prepared for discomfort by routine, not by roughing it, which makes his move into I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! feel less like a survival test and more like a reset of what he thinks hardship looks like.
ITV and 40 spiders
Wilson said he is more worried about fellow celebrities than critters in the jungle. "People have asked me what I'm most frightened of, and I think it's celebrities. That would be challenging," he said. He also offered a neat distinction: "If you found a spider in your wardrobe, you'd go, 'Argh, I've got a spider' - out of context."
By contrast, he said, "If someone were to chuck 40 spiders at you as part of a television game show, you'd go, 'Oh, I know what's happening.'" That is the cleanest read on how he is approaching ITV's format: the setting may be rough, but the social pressure is what he expects to feel most sharply.
He also warned viewers not to expect the stage version of him on TV. "Everyone expects me to be more fun. Because I've been fun on stage for 20 years," he said. "I'm not like that. If I was like that, I'd be exhausted. He's a bit of a k******* as well - that guy on stage." The next question is whether that stripped-back version survives the jungle at all.
