Chesney Hawkes "blew" his £8 million fortune - but had "fun" doing so

Speaking on the 'My Dirty Laundry' podcast, he said: "I did that classic thing when I first made it of just blowing everything. I bought a state of the art studio. I bought everyone in my family a car. So yeah, we had fun.

"My brother Jodie is my drummer and he was with me through the whole time. And yeah, we enjoyed it, because we were young. We were 19 and 17, and we toured all over the world - America, Japan, it was an amazing time.

"It was like living in the eye of a storm. So I had my family and the people around me in this kind of bubble, you know?

"I would be thrown into the hurricane and I'd be gone. And then I'm off to Sweden and then I'm off to New York. I never knew where I was waking up for that first year.

"It was mental. It was really crazy."

But Chesney hopes to serve as a cautionary tale for current young artists as he warned of the dangers of "utter exhaustion" from trying to keep up with so many demands.

He said: "I see young artists make it like the way that I did nowadays.

"I've actually worked with a lot of artists that are just going through that first craziness and I always say, 'Take it easy because you may burn out.'

"I was doing an interview in Japan and I was so tired. I hadn't slept and whatever. I was burning candles at both ends and gigging and travelling.

"And I remember standing up in the middle of this interview and I just fainted. Yeah, it was just exhaustion, like complete and utter exhaustion.

"You see it with these young artists now. I remember Adele had to cancel a whole bunch of shows. Harry Styles had a similar thing. Ed Sheeran, I see it happening.

"So I always give them that little, you know [nudge], just be careful, don't let them, [the machine], burn you out."

Chesney - who has three children with wife Krissy - has subsequently made a success from writing for other people and is believed to have built his net worth back up to around £8 million.

To watch the full interview with Chesney, visit https://open.spotify.com/show/5yzbz3WamxM5ohcs0GKz3l or @mydirtylaundrypodcast on Instagram.