The Libertines frontman on his rocky relationship with bandmate Carl Barât, staying clean and his unusual tips for handling media intrusion
“It did tickle my interest the other day to see Prince Harry in that weird, high-speed car chase through New York,” says Pete Doherty. Pursued mercilessly by the tabloid press through the chaotic, early Noughties years of his chart success, drug addiction and relationship with supermodel Kate Moss, the rock star would like to pass on some “real simple advice for Harry and Meghan”. He suggests they “pay some skint local kids to attack the cars of the paparazzi. That’s always a good’un to stop any chases.” For a more direct approach he tells me: “I used to have this old Victorian policeman’s cosh I used to charge at them. I miss that. I also had an old Zulu spear that came in handy a few times…”
I think Doherty is teasing me…I can’t find any photographic evidence of him with the eccentric weapons. Although it’s hard to be 100 per cent sure. I’ve called at a pre-arranged time – to discuss his upcoming headline slot with The Libertines at British festival The Secret Garden Party – but he doesn’t seem to have got the memo. “Sorry, I didn’t know I was meant to be doing an interview. I’m just getting out of the car at the airport… I’m on my way to Barcelona for a gig with The Libertines…” He’s sweetly polite about the mix-up, though, promising to call me back once he’s checked in. And he does, while “just going up and down the same escalator while I’m talking to you. I must look a bit weird!”
Happily settled in France for years now with his wife Katie de Vidas, also the keyboardist of his new band Peter Doherty and the Puta Madres, Doherty now leads a very different lifestyle. Three weeks ago the couple – who keep chickens and have a couple of dogs – welcomed a baby daughter. Doherty is already a father to son Astile, 19, with singer Lisa Moorish and daughter Aisling, 11, with South African model Lindi Hingston. But this is the first time he’ll have been fully present and sober. He’s reported to have been clean for over three-and-a-half years.
Now silver-haired, healthy-skinned and burly, he looks very different from the gaunt, sweaty, hollow-eyed character once seen stumbling through the streets of Camden. There have been unkind comments about his weight gain online from those drawn into the grotty romance of his heroin chic. But a reformed British media has been more supportive. I ask if he thinks he’s being recognised, as he loops the airport escalator.