Simon Cowell - a "pompous fucking git", says Fanning

Interviewed in the latest issue of Hot Press (out today, Thursday, October 21), legendary DJ Dave Fanning speaks candidly on a number of issues.

On X Factor judge Simon Cowell, Dave declares, "There is something really oily - I need a shower every time I see that man. He gets right under my skin. Like, ‘Shut the fuck up, you pompous fucking git. And I'll show you how to wear a pair of trousers’."

And on Irish judge Louis Walsh - "I love that Louis has come through the whole thing that he came through, and got talent and lucky with the bands he has, even though I hate their music. And he’s now bizarrely become a strange little leprechaun star in his own right. He has very little to say on that programme."

Speaking on his friend Gerry Ryan’s death, Dave says: “I don’t want to start eulogising about his death again. I don’t need to do that. He was our Diana last May. It was too much. And I kept saying, Gerry would be the one to say ‘Lads, please? Like I wasn’t a lot of those things, you know. I was not better than anybody else. Essentially, I was a wanker to a lot of people.”

Dave also talks about losing his virginity at a very un-rock and roll age of 20 and says, “Didn’t lose my virginity until I was 20... And I have no qualms about that. I don’t regret any of it.”

He also reflects on the absurdities of religion. "Look at Scientology – look at the ten pages of what Scientology is, the first ten, and it’s the funniest thing you’ll ever read. It is absolutely bizarre. It is out there. Then read the one for the Catholic Church – it’s not really all that different."

Read Dave's full interview in the latest issue of Hot Press (Two Door Cinema Club on cover), out today.