Saint Craig David

But then it's not every day that you talk to Craig David.

Craig's diversion from the normal interview path into a casual conversation about early romantic experiences is typical for the Southampton lad who, despite his mega-star status, is charmingly down to earth and one of the friendliest people you're likely to meet.

And despite his line of questioning, he's as polite as ever - "Sorry, I was just intrigued for a moment," he says.

Craig seems happy talking about most things, from other people's love lives to his own, but his favourite subject is Southampton.

And more specifically - a few days before the FA Cup final - Saints.

Craig admits that he also supports Chelsea, but the Saints always come first.

"I have adopted Chelsea as my London team when I can't get down to Southampton, but whenever it comes to a Southampton-Chelsea match, it's always going to be the Saints," he enthuses.

"I do want to get down and see more games but it always seems like every Saturday I'm away so I've been watching a lot of The Premiership and playing FIFA 2003 - I've played Arsenal about 100 times now and we have absolutely tanked them every time, so if that game is anything to go by I'm giving them some serious things to think about," he jokes, "so fingers crossed that we'll be able to turn it out on the day."

But even if Saints don't win tomorrow, Craig is still pleased that they have given the city another thing to be proud about.

"Growing up in Southampton, was such a cool thing, because it's such a cosmopolitan melting pot of all different people, especially the school I went to. And it was nice to have this musical scene starting to blow up out of Southampton, especially the Artful Dodger and myself and having Matthew Le Tissier as our saviour at The Dell, and we've got James Beattie now" he says.

"I think we've got so many great things in Southampton, it's just a matter of people being able to recognise them. I feel very proud to be able to go out there and say 'I'm from Southampton, it's just this small city that a lot of you may not even know about, but don't underestimate what can come out of this place'."

Craig still visits his home city, but he misses being able to wander round it like he used to.

"Any time I do get to come down to Southampton, It's usually late at night because I come down to see my parents and I jump in their car for a second and to a little tour of Southampton - all the places that I grew up and places I remember so well and so many things have changed and so many have remained exactly the same. I'd love to be incognito for a second so people didn't recognise me to allow me to just appreciate what I loved about Southampton prior to getting successful."

Not that he hasn't tried disguising himself.

"I thought it was a cool idea to just dress slightly differently, put a cap on, but that failed dismally and as soon as you put on glasses that brings more attention to you," he laughs.

"I tried to do that, actually. Early last year I was in Southampton and I thought 'You know what, I'm going to go to the high street and see what's going on'. I tried it but I only got from McDonalds to HMV and I had to do a turn right and make my way back to where the car was waiting because all it took was one person to recognise you and it opens up the floodgates. I love signing autographs and all that stuff but I just really wanted to blend in and take in what was around me."

And being recognised in public isn't the only downside of fame, as Craig has discovered.

"When you're an artist people think 'He thinks he's a star, he doesn't have time for us like he used to,' or they look at you differently and think 'I want to be with him because he's an artist rather than who he is' - it's these intricate little things that you do take quite to heart sometimes because you're like 'I just want to be normal for a minute!'" he says.

But Craig admits that fame has had a mixed impact on his love life.

"I get to meet a lot of beautiful girls around the world so I can't complain!," he laughs.

"But as long as you're a good judge of character, you can weed out people who are in it just because of who you are and even if you do meet someone who's a bit 'Lets talk about what you do for a second', you give them the time of day and talk about it but when it stays on that subject for a little bit too long, you know it's all on the basis of who you are as opposed to the real person, so you can work it out quite quickly."

And although he is still single, he doesn't seem to be in too much of a hurry to settle down.

"I'm still looking for that love, but I'm enjoying the looking process!," he admits.

"It is a lovely thing and I wouldn't change that for a while."

Craig is quite open about his personal life, but he doesn't always like the spin that is put on his words.

A recent story in the Daily Star said that the singer had 'slammed speculation that he's gay' - a phrase that Craig isn't too comfortable with.

"When I saw it I thought it is a little harsh because it's sort of saying 'He hates the fact that people may think that he's gay'. I'm the furthest away from being homophobic - I think if you're gay and you're proud of it, cool," he says.

"But what amuses me more than anything is when people assume that I'm gay because I'm not seen with a girl on my arm, and because every time they ask me if I'm in a relationship I seem to be single. I let people draw their own conclusions while I'm doing my own little thing. You either play the game or you let the game go on about you and just do your own thing and I prefer to do my own thing."

And from time to time, Craig does reveal aspects of his personal life, such as details of his relationships with South American beauties Sofia Vergara and Roselyn Sanchez.

"I'm really open with a lot of things and the things I'm closed about, no one really knows about. It depends on what kind of day it is, you know what I mean? Sometimes I feel like talking a bit more personal and sometimes I don't. At the end of the day everyone goes through very similar things in their life and I think if you give a little in small doses then people stay intrigued."

But some stories have got out that Craig's not happy with.

"I was slightly disappointed with a girl from Southampton, who I had a big crush on back in the day, and I think she must have sold her story," he says.

"It was a bit of a lame story, really, just saying 'I used to date Craig and we never really got into having sex', be it for the fact that we were only going out with each other for about a week or so, and the respect factor went completely out of the window after that.

"There was a great programme I saw on Donny Osmond, and he was laughing about the Osmonds and saying their songs weren't really that cool. And a fan stepped up and said 'Don't break the memory I have of those days because they were some of the best days of my life,' and it was sort of the same thing for me, where I had this great memory of growing up as a kid and having a crush on this girl and everything was great, to then have it slightly broken by the way that she handled everything."

And Craig's got plenty of other great memories about growing up in Southampton, particularly of DJing with his friend MC Alistair.

"Those were some of the greatest times," he says fondly.

"I remember a New Year's Eve we were playing at a place called Juice which used to be called the Old Oriental, way back in the day - I say way back in the day like I'm some sort of 50-year-old - and I remember we weren't really into that star thing of getting champagne and DJing because it didn't mix too well, but this New Year's Eve, we started drinking champagne, we were DJing, the crowd were so receptive to everything, it was around the same time that Re-Rewind was starting to pick up a little bit of interest, so it was just the early days where you remember those moments that were like 'wow' - it's really crazy to remember these things but we had some great times back in the day, some cool times."

See Saturday 17th May's Daily Echo Weekend Magazine for Craig David's good luck message to the Saints.

Read more Saints stories at www.thisisthesaints.co.uk