The Zutons say Amy Winehouse’s ‘Valerie’ cover was “a gift from god”

The Zutons‘ frontman Dave McCabe has praised Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson‘s iconic cover of their song ‘Valerie’, saying it was “a gift from god”.

• READ MORE: The Zutons’ Dave McCabe on working with Nile Rodgers on the band’s first album in 13 years

The band have recently made a comeback with their new single ‘Creeping On The Dancefloor’, which was released last month as their first new music for 16 years.

In a new interview on Radio X, McCabe discussed how the ‘Valerie’ cover kept them in the  public consciousness while they were inactive as a band, even if it took people a while to realise that it was originally their song.

“The way I see it, it was like a gift from god and I was there to receive it,” he said.

“The band was there to receive it… and some people are like, ‘Were you pissed off when she took your song?’ And I was like, ‘Well not really, because she just immortalised the whole thing.’ Do you know what I mean? Because it was a big song anyway, but that just took it to this whole new level.”

McCabe did admit that he felt uneasy about the song at times, especially when people asked how much money he’d made from it. However, nowadays he has no such hard feelings towards the song and believes it has become bigger than the band itself.

“I think it’s in the Top 10 of karaoke songs,” he said. “I’ve walked past boozers and you can hear people singing it and it’s like, we wrote that in that little room in town and here it is now. I don’t have any bad feeling about it. I did for a bit, because people would ask you about money all the time. […] That’s what I’d ask if I was in the other person’s shoes, so yeah it has made life easier and no it doesn’t do my head in.

“At the time it did my head in because we made a pretty weak third album after it and no one was asking about the songs on that, do you know what I mean? It’s just one of those songs though. It’s its own entity. It’s in the ether.”

The Liverpool trio are also gearing up to release their comeback album ‘The Big Decider’ on April 26 with Nile Rodgers and The Lightning Seeds’ Ian Broudie producing. The record was recorded at Abbey Road Studios.

Explaining why the album took so long to come to fruition, McCabe said: “I wasn’t really ‘with it’ for a long time though choices of my own… which was enjoyable for a while but then became dead unenjoyable.

“I was just getting off my head and drinking all the time, so I couldn’t sing and I couldn’t function in a band. That’s about 65% of the reason.”

He has now been sober for three years. “Because we’ve been touring recently and I’m sober now. I’m actually with it. I’m here,” he added. “I can see the people in the crowd and I can feel the crowd. I’m not just in my own world anymore.”

The Zutons will head out on a UK tour in April – you can see the full list of dates below and buy tickets here.

APRIL
Fri 12 – BRISTOL, Marble Factory
Sat 13 – MANCHESTER, New Century Hall
Sun 14 – NEWCASTLE, Wylam Brewery
Tue 16 – BIRMINGHAM, XOYO
Wed 17 – SHEFFIELD, Leadmill
Thu 18 – GLASGOW, SWG3 TV Studio
Sun 21 – SOUTHAMPTON, Engine Rooms
Mon 22 – BRIGHTON, Chalk
Wed 24 – KINGSTON, Pryzm 
Thu 25 – OXFORD, O2 Academy
Fri 26 – LIVERPOOL, Olympia

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