James Blunt on his "American mother" Carrie Fisher: I lived in a madhouse with her

The unexpected pair were close friends, and they met just before Blunt made his debut album, Back to Bedlam, in 2004. When he told Fisher he was recording in LA, she said he should live with her.

So he moved into the Fisher-Reynolds compound, recording his Top 10 hit Goodbye My Lover using a piano in Fisher’s bathroom. He says Debbie Reynolds wouldn’t allow him within 20 yards of her when she didn’t have make-up on.

“Fisher was my American mother, and a real inspiration,” he told the Sunday Times. “My first album was called Back to Bedlam because I lived in a madhouse with her.

“She put a cardboard cutout of herself as Leia outside my room, with her date of birth and date of death on her forehead. I’m trying to remember what the date was, because it was around now — and I remember thinking it was too soon.”

He saw her at the end of last year, not long before she died in December. “She went out with a bang, as she was back in movies. Maybe it was a great time to go.”

Blunt was tearful as he spoke about how Fisher was godmother to his son: “The saddest thing is that my son will never get to know someone I thought was the most special person.”