Pop star Kavana - Anthony Kavanagh - joins Michelle Ford for a candid, funny and deeply moving conversation about his memoir, Pop Scars, now available in paperback.
From growing up in a working-class Manchester family to appearing on the cover of Smash Hits, performing on Top of the Pops and achieving extraordinary fame across Asia, Anthony recalls the dizzying highs of becoming a pop star while still in his teens - and the painful reality of feeling like a failure by just 21.
Anthony talks openly about hiding his sexuality while being adored by thousands of girls, living with ADHD, chasing dopamine and the spiral into alcohol and drug addiction that followed his move to Los Angeles. He shares some of his darkest moments, including taking drugs in a dumpster and searching bathroom cabinets for anything containing alcohol, as well as the realities of recovery, relapse and learning to live with sobriety.
Yet Pop Scars is far from a relentlessly bleak memoir. Anthony’s remarkable eye for detail and wicked sense of humour bring every scene vividly to life: eating Pot Noodles on the sofa in Manchester; learning that his single had reached number eight while his mum passed him the phone searching for her teeth; and Victoria Beckham spilling Pimm’s down his white Kappa tracksuit] - before making amends with an unexpected first-class upgrade 20 years later.
He also shares memories of the Spice Girls before global fame, his friendship with Amy Winehouse - whom he first met making meatballs in her Camden flat - and the affectionate nickname she gave him.
At the heart of the conversation is Anthony’s love for his mother, Rita: a Manchester fortune teller who helped keep him grounded and who is now living with Alzheimer’s disease.
Honest, compassionate and frequently hilarious, this is a conversation about fame, identity, addiction, recovery and survival - and the truth behind Anthony’s powerful observation: “Everybody has a rock bottom, and sometimes rock bottom has a basement.”
This Book Club bonus episode of Michelle Ford Interviews was recorded live at the Brooklands Radio studios and first broadcast in November 2025.
Please note: this episode contains frank discussion of alcohol and drug addiction, relapse and recovery.
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Book Club | Michelle Ford Interviews brings you conversations with bestselling authors about their books, the stories behind them and the ideas that make us want to keep turning the pages.
This interview was first broadcast on Brooklands Radio.
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