Not so long ago, James Fox was standing at the foothills of a mountain, the peak of which appeared to be soaring ever further beyond the clouds above him.
The Welsh singer, 46, estimates he blew more than £100,000 during a debilitating gambling addiction which sent him into the pits of despair. He would sometimes spend evenings crying on hotel room floors, banging his head and punching walls.
Now, though, that man is a distant memory. The James Fox, of Eurovision, Broadway and West End fame, you see today is a picture of joy, a man who himself admits can scarcely believe his own luck, still beaming in the afterglow glee of his wedding last month with his American dancer partner, Shannon.
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They met on a cruise ship in Alaska in 2016, when James was singing a Billy Joel set and Shannon, 29, was one of the dancers on board. James is under no illusion that the chance meeting with his would-be wife changed the course of his life forever.
"That gig was a good one, one I didn't want to give back to Ladbrokes, or whoever wanted to take my money again. Getting that gig was a bit of a catalyst, 'This could be a fresh start, this could be what I need'," he tells WalesOnline.
"It all coincided with meeting Shannon. There were relapses, there were times over that six years which have been difficult. It's always difficult, actually, if you think about things you've lost and things you could have done. But those thoughts are very few and far between now.
"But, at the time, she was a big driving factor in me wanting it all to be done. I had woken up to it and was getting as much help as I could. But seeing a future for myself and with somebody keeps you accountable.
"It's a tough thing to kick, but without her it wouldn't have been the same journey for the last six years, that's for sure."
James is very conscious of the fact there will be others in the same position he was once in, starting out in a relationship and feeling the embarrassment or the stigma attached with a gambling problem.
It's easy not to mention it at all, in truth. As James rightly points out, the problem is an invisible one, one which can be silently ruinous - if you let it be so. But laying his problems all down on the table was the only way he saw it possible to have a stable and lasting relationship, a decision from which he has demonstrably reaped the rewards.
"That's why we have been such a strong unit and have been able to cope with all the distance issues we had, because there were years when she was living in New York before she moved over here," he says of his candour to Shannon over his addiction.
"The honesty from the start was huge. I remember her family were on the ship and, at that time, we weren't together, really, just dating. And I remember her dad, who I'd just met, I wasn't afraid to tell him everything. Her family just felt like a safe space and they still are.
"I told her pretty much everything from day one. I don't know if that's a safety mechanism of me asking for help still, 'Oh, you need to keep an eye on me', which I guess it was. But I didn't want her to find out three or four years down the line and I'd have to deal with the inevitable, 'Do I even know you?'
"I wanted to be an open book from the start, which I've never been like with anyone. I could tell her anything and that's still the way it is. She was supportive, just listened and didn't judge. That was the start for me. She helped me and I thought I could maybe help others.
"Whether you drip-feed, tell half the truth, it'll come out. It's down the road waiting for you.
"The more you disclose, it'll cut to the chase as to whether you are with the right person, whether they're going to be up for the journey with you. I cannot say how important that is. It's such a big thing to go through, telling someone that and disclosing your addictions. Just ripping that band-aid off."
What is noticeable is the language both he and Shannon use pertaining to James' past problems. Shannon has said it's something her husband will be wrestling with all of his life, while James is particularly careful about using absolute or definitive phrases about not slipping back into his old habits.
He reckons since he met Shannon six years ago, he has gone completely cold turkey, barring five or six Saturday Lucky Dips at petrol stations while filling up his car. But stating that it will never happen again is difficult for one very simple reason; he couldn't believe it happened to him the first time.
"I never thought I was capable of going down the rabbit holes I went down," he says of his old addiction. "I never thought I was capable of lying, cheating, spending three days awake in hotels gambling, booking myself into a Holiday Inn in Blackpool just to sit there and gamble out of the way. I never thought I was capable of that.
"Nothing in the future would be a shock, because I already can't believe what it did to me. I'm very worried about this demon, which is what it is. But you can keep on top of it. It's constant work all the time. It's understanding the triggers, the earlier you spot them the better.
"I'm not stupid enough to know I won't think about it, but I'm never going to act on it. Or that's the plan."
Roulette was James' poison. His gambling got to such a stage where he would even hide electronic devices on stage, watching his bets behind his amplifier in between songs. But his love story with Shannon was no game of chance. It was a bond formed over years, forged through adversity, tough conversations and managing distance, which all culminated in a perfect wedding in her home state of Wisconsin in the US.
The wedding took place in the town of Delavan - where the world famous PT Barnum's Circus originated in 1870, for pub quiz boffins -and the guests were shuttled across from their Lake Geneva accommodation via a yellow school bus, thanks to James' love of the Freddie Krueger movies. He's not an overly emotional person, he says, but when he saw his wife walking down towards him on June 11, a wave of emotions smacked him square in the face.
"We played the Rest of Our Lives, one of the songs on my last album, it was a cello recording of that as she went down the aisle, I thought, 'This isn't going to touch me at all, I wrote that song!' As soon as she walked down to it, I was gone," he says.
"It just hits you. You can't plan for that day, it was just incredible."
They are both back in their west London home now. Shannon is busy working; she is part of London dance troupes The West End Wendys and The Gatsby Girls, while James is gigging on cruises, superyachts and corporate functions. But he is also working hard on his next album.
He released his record All The Fours last year, an album which chronicled his life and struggles, one which he poured his heart and soul into. While he is grateful for how well it was received in Wales, the competition and advent of Zoom meant air and screen time was precious to come by.
"It was a weird one," he says of All The Fours. "It was a lockdown album which I did for myself. Wales were very supportive, the three singles I had were very well supported on radio in Wales. I couldn't ask for more from Wales, which is very important to me.
"But everybody and their dog was recording at the same time. I was up against the budget the Foo Fighters had! Shows like Lorraine, who usually have a guest from London on the sofa, I was on standby but now they could just patch people in on video calls, so it became the done thing to get the Foo Fighters in from LA that morning. Usually they'd only have them on if they were in town, but suddenly they could have anyone!
"I got close to a lot of things, but the competition was immense and the budget wasn't as deep as theirs. The support and reviews I was happy with. And Wales did me proud, as always.
"I can write stuff that rhymes that means nothing. But that was literally my life story on an album. It meant a lot that it was embraced and no one laughed at it, because it was very vulnerable."
He is two-thirds of the way through his next album, he says, and is steamrolling into it with a ball of positivity, tempered a little by the typical trepidation one feels when releasing new material.
"It's a mix-match," he says of his next effort, which will be drip-fed out starting this summer. "It's a bit more positive, I guess, although the other stuff wasn't intentionally negative! The subject matter was just quite dark.
"But, yeah, it's definitely more uplifting, I'd say!"
There were few more uplifting things in recent months than the United Kingdom's effort at this year's Eurovision, a competition James knows very well, of course, having represented the country back in 2004 with the song Hold on to Our Love.
To see the UK come so close this time around with the ceaselessly bounding ball of energy that is Sam Ryder was as astonishing as it was impressive. But James had a tip some while back that the UK's 2022 entrant had something special up his sleeve.
"He is an absolute legend," he says of Sam Ryder. "My best man has written a lot of his album with him! When he did the writing session with him, he said to me, 'This guy is a diamond and he has got a voice!'
"So I was aware of him before he did that. He went on a massive charm offensive in Europe and he had a very good song. Everyone just loved him from the start. He smashed the performance and was really positive.
"He left the Eurovision bag-of-doubt that we always turn up with at the airport and just smashed it. People noticed that and it was very hard to ignore it."
Ukraine pipped the UK to top spot that evening, though, however where next year's contest will be held remains to be seen. It might well be held in the UK, given we came second, and there is a big push in some parts of the country to get it away from London and hand funding to somewhere in Scotland, the north of England or even Wales. But James is clear in his mind where it should go if it does end up on these shores in 2023.
"They should have it where Sam is from (Essex)," he says. "That is what someone told me when I was, ridiculously, the bookies' favourite at one point. I knew they wouldn't get that right, the bookies!
"I was very lucky with the Cardiff FA Cup song (Bluebirds Flying High) to combine your two passions. Bringing music back to your home country is like winning the World Cup.
"They should just go to where Sam is from, because they said to me if I'd won it would go back to Cardiff. He is the one who put his career on the line, so they should go to his home town."
Speaking of Cardiff, the positivity of the last few months has even seeped through to the other love of his life - the Bluebirds. It seems nothing is going to keep this man's optimism away at the minute.
As he sips out of his mug emblazoned with the Cardiff City crest, he rounds off by giving his thoughts on Cardiff City's chances ahead of the season.
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"I'm cautiously a lot more optimistic than the last couple of seasons! I think there are a lot of signings under the radar there that are really good," he says.
"I think, judging by the youth and hunger that we've been missing, let's just go and have a go at it! That's the modern game.
"It's quite an effort for me to travel. If I come back from America or something and drive three hours to a home game, to see them lobbing it to the front, which we seemed to do, I just go because it's a religion, but I've not enjoyed that the last few seasons.
"Just get it on the floor and have a bit of a go. Someone put a foul in or a tackle. I've been bored to death with Cardiff City, but I've watched it because, well... that's what we do!
"I'm really excited about it... I just wish Wales' first game (in the football World Cup) wasn't against my wife's country!"
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