Max George has spoken about his late bandmate Tom Parker’s new book and revealed he still texts the late singer on This Morning on Tuesday.
ITV's Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary asked how the Wanted singer was coping without his best friend. Tom died on March 30 earlier this year having been diagnosed with inoperable grade 4 glioblastoma, a brain tumour, in October 2020.
Max, 33, said: “I’m still trying to process it, I still text him actually. If I get pictures or stuff that fans have made with him in it or they send a nice message to do with Tom, I’ll WhatsApp it to him. I just find a bit of comfort in that. The worst bit is when I’m not doing it and I do it accidentally. Sometimes I go to do it and I’m like, ‘Oh no’.”
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Remembering his first meeting with his bandmate, Max recalled: “It was Manchester Piccadilly station. I saw him at the audition process for the band. He was the loud one from Bolton. He was always at the front, always asking questions. We walked in together and I just always remember thinking, ‘The scally from Bolton…’ and I was so happy he was in.”
He added: “Immediately me and him just hit it off. We had very similar backgrounds and we just became best mates. Within a week we were living in the same house and we did everything together.”
Tom's book Hope was written during the last 12 months of his life and charts his life all the way from the beginning, Max revealed.
"It goes from the very start, from his upbringing all the way to the end - the whole journey, how he had rough beginnings and his own troubles, but it’s a book about hope and it’s a book about triumph and obviously Tom had a lot of difficulties along the way, especially towards the end - the most difficult thing anyone could go through - and Kelsey, obviously.”
He said Tom's wife, Kelsey, has "always been really strong, like Tom". "They were literally two peas in a pod. She’s raising awareness for glioblastoma and cancer in general, she’s been great. We talk quite often, just check in, make sure she’s alright.”
Dermot asked if Tom enjoyed the process of writing the book and Max said: “There were days where the days were quite long, especially when he was going through the chemo phase because I know that really knocked him, but even still, he got through it. It was probably therapeutic for him on those days where he could just sit back and talk.
“To be honest I don’t know how he did that, because he was going through hell, but he was still out there talking to people that had glioblastoma… and how they could put a positive spin on it and that they still have life to live.”
Tom and Kelsey approached Max about helping with the book. “I said a few months ago, ‘Anything you need, to help with the book’, but I didn’t know I would be sat here without Tom. When I got here, I was like ‘Oh man, I’m about to talk about Tom’s book.’”
He also spoke about The Wanted meeting Michelle Obama and her daughters. He said, “Michelle invited us to The White House. It was quite random. Glad You Came did really well in America. It happened really fast over there, literally overnight. We just got a call, ‘The Obamas want you to go to the White House.’ We thought it was a wind up.
“We flew in and we got there, we went through all these mad security checks. The first thing we did is we went into the White House, waited in the library for about 10 minutes and then Michelle came in. We went to shake hands and she said, ‘No shaking hands, hugs only'. So we gave her a big hug. She took us on a tour around the house, showed us a florist, the underground bowling alley. They wouldn’t let us in the Oval Office or the bedrooms.”
Tom Parker's memoir Hope was published on May 26 and is available to buy in major bookshops around the UK.
This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV and ITV Hub
