Rag'n'Bone Man didn't think his biggest single 'Human' was that "strong".
Rag'n'Bone Man
The 32-year-old soul star - whose real name is Rory Graham - thought his third track 'Skin' from his debut LP, also titled 'Human', stood a better chance of topping the charts.
He admitted: "I'll be totally honest with you mate, I thought 'Human' wasn't going to be the song.
"Other people were more gassed about it than I was.
"I thought it would fall a bit flat with people and 'Skin' would be the one."
As it happens they both did well, with 'Human' peaking at number two and 'Skin' reaching number 13 in the Official UK Singles Chart.
The 'As You Are' singer has learned that you can never tell when you are on to a "surefire hit".
He told MusicWeek: "'Skin' was the strong song that I had if 'Human;' didn't work out, so it was cool that we had that to back it up with.
"I was like, ''Human' is a cool song but I don't know if it will do well or not.'
"But I guess that's the same with everything - everything's a punt, there's no surefire hit."
Rory never imagined he'd break out of the "underground" scene and become a huge star because he lacked self-confidence, but is thankful to his record label Columbia for taking a chance on him.
He said: "I thought I'd always stay underground," he said. "Even though I signed to Columbia, I always thought I'd be under that blanket and would never properly break through, which I didn't mind. I was fully cool with that and I was still playing to big audiences.
"It's three years since I sold out Scala and you could still make a good living at that level but I thought I might as well give it a punt and see if it works because I'd put enough time and work into it. I guess I didn't have quite as much belief in myself as others did."
The heavily-tattoed giant already has 10 songs for his second album prepared, so that he can focus on being a father to his baby son Reuben, who his partner Beth gave birth to in September, next year.
He said recently: "I'm going to try and be a dad for a little while, in between all the madness.
"Next time you see me I'll be completely grey."
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