Max Stone wants you to forget his Saturday performance and watch his Purple Rain cover

“I was just so set on Purple Rain,” Max told RadioTimes.com today after rights issues meant he had to opt for a different track. Throughout the week he’d been battling to be allowed to sing it, mentor Simon Cowell doing all he could to clear the track, but it wasn’t meant to be.

“I wanted to do Purple Rain, I had my heart set on that,” Max explained, saying that while he loved Bruce Springsteen’s Secret Garden, it didn’t allow him to show his vocals to the “full potential”.

“You’re moving so fast it’s hard to take a minute to think, 'Is this the right step, is this the right song?' The risk this week was going for a song that people didn’t know maybe too well, or didn’t show off my full vocal capability. I took the risk, took the jump. You never know what the public are going to think,” he admitted.

“Sometimes you have to take a chance and do things you’re not too comfortable with,” he said, but insisted, “At the end of the day, I don’t have any regrets.”

“I’ve got a version of Purple Rain on my website, so I’ll be showing my fans what I could have done I guess,” he added.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luq0scz3PbQ

And he says, ultimately, missing the chance to sing his preferred song won’t now play on his mind.

“I could think in regrets – if only I wasn’t ill, if only I got the song I really wanted to do – but this is what the music industry is about; doing what you can in the moment. You’re going to have times when you’re out of your comfort zone. I did the best that I could with it.”

Despite leaving the competition in the third double elimination, Max has plenty to be pleased about. He got this far in the competition without anyone questioning his vocal ability. The only criticism that really came Max’s way being Cowell struggling to get a funny anecdote out of him during his first audition and Nick Grimshaw’s critique of his staging last week.

“No one’s turned around or said that I sing flat or that I’m a bad singer. That’s a big boost for sure. Throughout all the comments and reactions from the public, it’s allowed me to feel comfortable to the point that I can do everything that I didn’t dare to do before. I feel proud of what I’ve done and really blessed to have been part of this programme."

The X Factor continues next Saturday and Sunday at 8:00pm on ITV