Paul Potts isn't the sort to grumble. Yet he does have a slight issue. It's of the good type, though. Nearly seven years on from his big breakthrough on British telly, he's got too many songs to sing.
''Now I know why some people want to have four-hour concerts,'' Potts says via phone from his holiday home in England's Lakes District recently.
In an accent that is part Bristol (the city of his working-class childhood) and part Welsh (where he has lived since 2002), Potts laments the British weather.
''It's been nothing but rain for the past three months ...''
He also has a cold, though that's not enough to curtail the occasional self-deprecating chuckle.
A keen photographer, Potts (43) likes to unwind in the Lakes District as often as his schedule allows.
He also enjoys a tipple or two and is looking forward to imbibing a few Central Otago pinot noirs when he visits the region later this month as part of a New Zealand tour that includes a performance at the Dunedin Town Hall on April 27.
When we spoke a few weeks back, Potts was still pondering his set-list.
''I have to let some stuff go. It's a difficult editing process,'' he says, adding a forthcoming album doesn't help his situation.
''It is all recorded and mastered and is just awaiting a release date. I'll be performing stuff from that as well as all my other albums.''
Featuring light operatic covers of modern pop and rock standards (including Foo Fighters' Home), the new album follows One Chance, Passione and Cinema Paradiso, as well as last year's Greatest Hits, which included Nessun Dorma, the song that started it all.
More than 15 million people watched Potts audition for Britain's Got Talent in 2007, the shy, awkward telephone salesman delivering a rendition of the Puccini classic powerful enough to transform judge Simon Cowell's smile from cynical to celebratory (ka-ching ...).
Since winning that television competition, Potts has been almost constantly been travelling the globe.
At times, he's scratched his head and wondered how he got there. A case in point: Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
''It used to be regarded as the most dangerous city in the world and is right next to one of the safest cities in the United States, El Paso ... Sometimes it's not the place that feels weird but the situation.''
Potts' New Zealand tour follows the recent release of an autobiography and a film, One Chance, based on his rise from man on the street to ''popera'' star.
Directed by David Frankel (Marley & Me, The Devil Wears Prada) and produced by The Weinstein Company, One Chance was a slightly bemusing experience, Potts admits.
''Well, they normally wait until you're dead,'' he laughs, then coughs.
''I actually studied film at university so I understand why they had to make changes [to his life story]. The film is 103 minutes long and in that time they had to cover 40-odd years.
''You can't do that in a film and be completely accurate. A film has to have a certain pace; you can't have the climaxes in the wrong places, otherwise it would just stop dead. You have to find a happy medium.
''Yeah, some of the timelines are out of order, but ... the most important thing about the movie is the message.
''To me, that message is basically that in life you have lots of obstacles thrown in front of you and you get to where you want by just keeping on going, and the people around you.''
Some people have more obstacles thrown in front of them than others, however.
Potts was bullied from the moment he started school at the age of 6 until he left at 18.
He was bullied about his name (Pol Pot jokes anyone?), and the fact he ate free school meals and wore a school uniform at a junior school where it wasn't compulsory to do so. A love of singing and opera didn't help either, he says.
''I just had the attitude of getting from one day to another. I just decided to shut my eyes to it and get on with life.
''That has helped me now in taking each day as it comes, because it is very easy to over-think things and to second-guess what happens next.
''When you do that you tend to make assumptions, which are often not correct. You can give yourself too hard a time. I think it is more important to take life as it comes.''
Has he come to terms with that 12-year struggle?''I think it is reasonably easy to forgive,'' he says, pausing.
''It's the forgetting that can be harder.''
Music might be regarded as a form of escapism for many, yet public scrutiny is exactly the opposite. Potts realises he walks a fine line; he understands the inherent risks of his career.
''The first few reviews ... I read them and that's not always a good thing to do.
''It is very easy to take reviews personally. In the end, a person might go along to a show with an agenda. The most important people at a show are those who have paid for their seats. They are the ones who decide whether you have a future.
''I am very fortunate to get to do what I love. That's a dream come true for anyone.
''My biggest fear about becoming a professional singer was that it would feel like work and cease to be something I loved doing. That hasn't happened. It still feels good.''
Potts doesn't attempt to pretend his success in Britain's Got Talent was anything other than a life-changing experience.
After all, he went from earning 10,000 a year working two jobs (at supermarket chain Tesco and department store Debenhams), then a stint at a car-phone warehouse and being virtually broke to now having a net worth estimated at more than 7 million ($NZ13.5 million). His Britain's Got Talent win alone earned him 100,000.
It seems he has listened to his accountant, too. Though he now drives an E Class Mercedes, it was a second-hand purchase. He and wife Jules (whom he met over the internet and married in 2003) have a house in Port Talbot, Wales, and another in the Lakes District.
''I don't think you can define success by fame or money - neither of which bothers me that much,'' Potts says.
''I am aware I need to sell a certain number of albums and tickets if my career is to continue. But it is not just about that. It's about how you make people feel.
''It is difficult to quantify. Some people set out to be rich and famous ... it's something you see in some forms of reality TV, but I don't do what I do for those reasons. I do it because I love it.
''I think it is important to be yourself no matter what phase of life you're in. That's because the only person who can change anything is yourself.''
Potts might have familiarised himself with many stanzas and verses over the years, but the quietly resolute words of poet Rudyard Kipling's famous If seem to resonate as strongly as any opera-inspired decibels.
''He discusses treating triumph and disaster as the same,'' the singer points out.
''No matter what life throws at you, good or bad, don't allow it to change who you are. If you do, you risk losing those who are closest to you.''
It seems Potts has heeded that advice.
''My wife describes me as being the same pain in the arse I've always been.''
There's that laugh again, followed by a cough.
See him, hear him
Paul Potts performs on the following dates in the South:
Civic Theatre, Invercargill, April 26
Town Hall, Dunedin, April 27
Win tickets
The Otago Daily Times has five double passes to Paul Potts' Dunedin concert. To enter the draw for a double pass answer this question: What television talent quest launched Paul Potts' professional singing career? Then write your name, address and daytime phone number on the back of an envelope and send it to Paul Potts, ODT Editorial Features, Response Bag 500012 Dunedin, or email playtime@odt.co.nz with Paul Potts in the subject line, to arrive before Thursday.
