KT Tunstall: “I lost my hearing, it didn’t come back.”

Full Disclosure with James O'Brien

Global

Society & Culture

4.6 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 7 March 2025

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From busking on the streets to topping the charts, KT Tunstall has carved a career defined by resilience, reinvention, and raw talent.

In this episode of Full Disclosure, James O’Brien dives into KT’s journey from growing up in Scotland in a family with no musical background, to discovering her biological father’s Irish singing roots, and ultimately shaping her own unmistakable sound.

KT shares the story of her breakout Later… with Jools Holland performance, the moment that catapulted her to stardom, and how she has navigated the challenges of hearing loss and living with tinnitus as a musician. She also talks about her latest passion- musical theatre, including composing the original score for the West End musical Clueless.

Funny, inspiring, and deeply honest, this conversation explores how KT Tunstall keeps pushing creative boundaries, proving that reinvention isn’t just possible, it’s essential.

You can buy tickets to Clueless The Musical here

Transcript

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0:00.0	There is simply nothing else like it.
0:09.8	Experience Disney's award-winning musical, The Lion King.
0:15.8	At London's Lycean Theatre, see it now.
0:20.2	Remember it forever
0:21.9	Book your tickets
0:24.1	at the lion king
0:25.4	dot co.uk
0:26.8	U.K about rising energy prices, but not since fixing his tariff. Instead of spending hours looking for deals,
0:39.6	he just relaxes in the shower. Singing. Rather badly. Because with a British gas fixed tariff,
0:48.1	you're protected against future price rises. And if we release a cheaper fixed tariff,
0:52.6	you can switch to it absolutely free.
0:55.4	Search British gas tariffs.
0:57.1	Eligibility and seasonies apply.
1:02.1	This is a Global Player Original podcast.
1:22.3	Hello and welcome to full disclosure, a podcast project designed entirely to let me spend more time with interesting people than I would ever get on the radio.
1:23.6	Katie Tunstall, welcome.
1:24.8	I'm honoured.
1:26.0	I am honoured.
1:28.9	And I think we can begin at the end, so to speak, because I saw your latest project last night. I'm honoured. I am honoured. And I think we can begin at the end, so to speak,
1:33.6	because I saw your latest project last night. I saw Clueless the musical at the Trafalgar Theatre. Oh, you're my first judgment. It's so good. Oh, yay! It's so good. I mean, you must have an
1:41.0	inkling of whether or not something has worked or not.
1:45.2	Yes, definitely.
	...

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