James Arthur suffers from “various different types of anxiety and depression”

He said: “I have had social anxiety and health anxiety and various different types of anxiety and depression, but I never felt it when I was on stage. That was the one place where I had a lot of confidence and self-esteem.”

James’ confidence on stage was knocked when he was rushed into emergency surgery for a gallbladder infection during his European tour in January, because he wasn’t sure if he would “be able to perform again”.

He added: “You always have a bit of performance anxiety but it was really, really bad. It was pretty crippling and I didn’t think I’d be able to perform again. I had a month of intensive therapy to get myself up for the UK arena tour.”

Now, the 32-year-old singer is back on his feet again, but is unable to take to any stages to perform shows because of the coronavirus pandemic.

But James says he feels lucky to be financially stable, because he doesn’t need to worry about his career in the wake of the health crisis.

He said: “Financially it’s made me for life and I’m lucky that I’m still able to sell-out arena tours across the UK.

“But if I wasn’t able to gig ever again and this was the new normal, I think I’d be fine.

“I’ve got everything I need, I’m blessed.”

The ‘Naked’ singer wasn’t always so secure though, as he also recalled being in “thousands of pounds worth of debt” after being dropped by his record label Syco - who eventually took him back on again.

Speaking to The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column, he said: “I was in hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of debt. I was doing gigs in Moldova every other Saturday to pay the rent and get myself out of the red. It was tough times.

“I made an awful lot of money after ‘The X Factor’ and my first album. I don’t know how I burnt through it all.

“My management at the time didn’t claim their commission so they let it rack up to a lot and by the time I was dropped and a couple of years had gone by it had accumulated.

“It’s that and the lifestyle, I guess. You get in a tax bracket where you just can’t afford it.”