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Last update : 12/12/15

There’s always been a deep respect for Dylan within Bryan Ferry, yet he displays little inclination to ape one of his biggest inspirations. ‘The music that I write is generally quite emotional so it lends itself well to love songs. I don’t want to be singing particularly about wind farms or the war going on here, there or anywhere.’

In 2012, he married Amanda Sheppard, a former PR, thirty six years his junior. His twenty year marriage to London socialite Lucy Helmore, had ended in the early 2000’s. The union had yielded four sons. Now in his late sixties, the singer admits that the experience of writing so many eloquent love songs has taught him only that the emotion is ‘a bit of a riddle, really.’

A riddle indeed, for the marriage was over before anyone had time to blink. Talking to the press as part of his promotional duties for a new album release in the fall of 2015, the star chose to elaborate further on his marital woes.

“It was a great combination, and it’s sad we had to go our different ways. We wanted different things, that’s really the phrase. She wanted a baby and I didn’t. First of all I thought I could, and then later I thought, it’s not the right thing to do. It was a terrible, stressful time for both of us. I just thought it could have ended up really bad with me being too old to work. We so enjoyed each other’s company apart from the stupid things that people would write in the papers about the age difference.”

Elaborating further, the star went onto add : “The interesting thing is – and I don’t want to say the wrong thing in case I get into trouble with my girlfriend – you never really meet people your own age who aren’t married. I’m very fortunate that I work in music, where you’re in touch with different age groups, either the audience or people you work with. It does help. Obviously I’m not ageist!”

No, he clearly isn’t, but I would venture to suggest that his accountant and legal adviser have described him as something quite unprintable. His first divorce was quite possibly the biggest in British legal history, eclipsing the £7million paid by Mick Jagger to his former wife Jerry Hall. Only time will tell how much of a dent in his £30m fortune, this second decree nisi will bring.

http://gawker.com/5875300/bryan-ferry-married-his-sons-ex-girlfriend

Tabloid reaction and internet trolls were typically unforgiving, but let us not deny the fact that Ferry is an attractive man and wears exceedingly well for his age. He may well be possessed of socially interactive skills, and an effortless ability to charm the fairer sex. It is not for me therefore, to pass judgement on his predilection for much younger women – even though under similar circumstances, the notion would strike me as rediculous – for rash condemnation can often obscure acute envy. No, where I struggle with all of this, is his fundamental inability to reconcile obvious potential pitfalls before embarking on marriage to a woman the same age as his eldest son. If he chooses to ignore the alluring quality of his fame and fortune – every cock, after all, believes the sun rises when it crows – then that is his business, but a woman’s ticking biological clock is an inevitable consequence of life. One can only hope for his sake, that the real reason for the demise of his marriage was something far less obvious; I personally would be too embarrassed to admit to the national press that such a fundamental issue had remained unresolved prior to my nuptials.