Nightline Playlist: James Blunt

Sept. 20, 2007 — -- James Blunt wasn't always happy playing instruments and making music.

"As a child, my mother forced me to play things like the violin when I was 5 and the piano when I was 7," Blunt says. At that age, I didn't' really aspire to be a musician, but I definitely enjoyed music."

It was at age 14 that Blunt realized his passion for music. He heard a classmate playing the electric guitar and got hooked.

Blunt, born in England in 1974, is the first British artist to top the American singles charts in nearly a decade. He scored five Grammy nominations for his first album, "Back to Bedlam," in 2006.

The first single off of the album, "You're Beautiful," was Blunt's breakout hit.

"'You're Beautiful" is about a moment where I saw my ex-girlfriend on the underground with her new man, who I didn't know existed, and she and I caught eyes and lived a lifetime in that moment," Blunt said. "But I didn't do anything at the time, and I haven't seen her."

With a long line of military men in his family, Blunt served in the British army as well and spent six months in Kosovo as a captain during the NATO peacekeeping operation. It was in Kosovo that Blunt wrote "No Bravery," a song also from his first album.

Blunt lives on Ibiza, a Spanish island, where he wrote the songs for his latest album, "All the Lost Souls," which comes out this week.

"The first [album] was naive and innocent in its approach, and that was part of it's charm, I think," Blunt said. "But the second album, I have a little more experience as a songwriter and a little more confidence. And with the amazing things that happened with "Back to Bedlam," which I never expected in the first place, it kind of gave me a freedom really … because I know I can't compete with the first and I don't want to write songs to please a previous audience or the people who didn't enjoy the first or try and get one critic to give me a good review.

"So instead," he said, "I made an album that I enjoyed, with songs that have meant a lot over the past 3½ years."