Roman kemp looking sad
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Roman Kemp defiant over warning about his career: ‘I have to talk about it’

Roman quit Capital earlier this year

The Finish Line star Roman Kemp once opened up about why he decided to make a BBC documentary about suicide in young people.

The 31-year-old’s pal and producer at Capital FM, Joe Lyons, died by suicide in 2020.

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The Finish Line star Roman Kemp on why he explored suicide in young people

During a chat with the BBC in 2023, Roman opened up about how he felt following the death of his friend Joe.

Joe Lyons was a producer at Capital FM and a close friend of Roman’s. In the summer of 2020, he took his own life.

The TV star embarked on a journey, which was shown in a BBC Three documentary, in which he attempted to see why suicide numbers in young people are so high.

However, the star revealed that he has, in the past, been warned about talking too openly about his mental health. This is amid fears that it could affect his career.

Roman Kemp looking sad
Roman’s friend died in 2022 (Credit: MTV)

The Finish Line star Roman Kemp on warning

Speaking to BBC, Roman said: “I called up my team and I was just like, ‘now I have to talk about it’.

“To be totally honest with you I’d had chats with my team that had said to me, ‘don’t open up that much, you’re a young guy, are you sure you want to get into it yet?'” he said they warned.

“If there’s young guys out there that see me talking about my own mental health and it somehow helps them then I’ve won,” he then added.

Roman Kemp on Loose Women
Roman signed a record deal when he was younger (Credit: ITV)

Roman on ‘vicious’ record deal

Meanwhile, during a recent appearance on Auto Trader’s Show on the Road podcast, Roman revealed that he signed a record deal when he was a teenager.

While studying for his GCSEs, Roman worked a Saturday job and came across a management company that asked if he played an instrument.

“Yes, I said, I can play guitar. My dad used to teach me, I can play bass guitar,” he said.

“I was offered sessioning gigs and I said, yeah, let’s do it. I signed that record deal, which was what’s known as a 360 deal. So you’re just the record label’s [bleep] for a better phrase. And I learned a lot,” he then continued.

From the experience, he learned that the job is “really vicious”.

“It’s not for me. That is not a part of my life that I would ever want back,” he said.

Read more: Roman Kemp’s double on-air apology to mum Shirlie as Alex Jones takes over on The One Show

The Finish Line airs today (Wednesday, July 17) at 4.30pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. 

Roman Kemp Pays Tribute To Capital Producer And Close Friend, Joe Lyons | Capital

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Robert Emlyn Slater
Senior Writer