Alex James, 56, has opened up on how he was booted out of church last Christmas after he put his cigarette out on a ‘naked baby Jesus’ figurine before trying to put it back together
Blur’s Alex James has spilled the beans on how he was chucked out of church during Christmas for extinguishing a cigarette on a naked baby Jesus statue. The rock star found himself in hot water after mistaking the “antique figurine of the naked baby Jesus” for an ashtray.
Recounting last year’s mishap, the 56-year-old said: “I had been smoking in the room with the art and the objects, as usual. Someone I didn’t know had said, ‘I’m not sure if you’re allowed to smoke in here’.”
“I’d dutifully picked up a little ashtray on the sideboard where I was leaning and extinguished my cigarette. Sadly, unlike some staterooms, not everything in this one was actually an ashtray.”
“I’d happened upon an antique figurine of the naked baby Jesus and stubbed my fag-end out by rubbing it around in his crotch, quite obliviously.”
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But that wasn’t the end of it; he also accidentally broke the figurine and made a clumsy attempt at fixing it, even trying to lighten the mood with a joke that fell flat with a churchgoer. “I tried to put a positive spin on it,” he chuckled.
“I even picked baby Jesus back up to demonstrate his robustness by tugging one of his little arms. The arm came off along with a plume of impossibly fine, glittering, powdery dust.”
“I managed to wedge it back on.”
Nowadays, James has traded his raucous lifestyle for a quieter life, looking after animals on his farm in the Cotswolds, surrounded by his large family, reports the Daily Star.
The Parklife hitmaker, who shares a home with his wife Claire Neates and their five children, has been sober since 2002. He candidly admitted, “You get home after a tour otherwise,” adding, “You get home and you have to wash up and the kids are like, ‘Dad, stop being a [redacted].'”.