Shaun Ryder has its fair share of crazy stories, but the encounter with an orangutan named Jack the Ripper might be one of its wildest.
The Manchester musician has a new memoir, on top of two autobiographies already out there.
He is also putting pen to paper on a new Happy Mondays album – his first in 20 years.
Reflecting on his time recording the band’s fourth album in 1992, Shaun revealed how he came face-to-face with a dangerous orangutan on a beach in Barbados.
The 63-year-old said sun: ‘This thing just fell out of the trees right in front of me. It was a big orangutan.’
Apparently there had been reports warning people about the great ape, nicknamed Jack the Ripper, but Shaun was determined to fight it.
He told himself ‘don’t show fear’ and kept snapping at the animal: ‘Grrr, arrgh, f*** away, just f*** right away.’
Shaun reports that this did the trick and he was unharmed.
It’s worth noting that orangutans are not native to Barbados and Shaun was smoking ’50 rocks of cocaine a day’ at the time – however, he’s adamant it wasn’t a hallucination.
The fourth studio album was not a hit for the band and they broke up the following year.
Speaking to the publication, Shaun also shared stories that included him being held hostage for two days Amsterdamwitnessing someone being shot in the head and escaping arrest in a heroin house.
of The glasses case The star gave up drugs when he was 40 and there is no alcohol in the home he shares with his wife, Joanne, and their children.
In one Instagram In a post two years ago, Shaun showed an outpouring of love for his wife, writing: ‘Happy birthday to my amazing wife Joanne.
I can’t put into words how much she means to me. You are the best – we love you so much.’
The Step On hitmaker credits him with helping him get sober.
Shaun and Joanne share two children, Pearl and Lulu, whom Shaun jokes he passes off as a ‘taxi service’.
He admits that wasn’t necessarily the case with the other four children he has from previous relationships. The singer says he hasn’t seen them much and hasn’t been the best father.
Current wife Joanne manages the television side of his career, which has seen him on various reality shows.
With old bandmate Mark Berry, better known as Bez, Shaun regularly appears on Celebrity Gogglebox.
The Manchester icons presented an award at the Brits Awards together in their home city last month.
Shaun has been in the jungle twice with I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, both times Australia and South Africa.
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