By Natalie Wain
Last updated at 3:03 PM on 24th January 2011
- He reveals to Oprah how he relentlessly pursued reluctant singers who gave him big breakthrough
He's the multi-millionaire TV and music mogul with the midas touch.
But Simon Cowell hasn't always been able to get what he wants at the drop of a hat.
The X-Factor supremo, 51, was in a frank and honest mood in an interview on Oprah Winfrey's new Masterclass show, which aired on US TV on Sunday night.
The secrets of his success: The X-Factor supremo, 51, was in a frank and honest mood in an interview on Oprah Winfrey's new Masterclass show
Harassed: After receiving thousands of calls to his office requesting a song that Robson Green and Jerome Flyne had sung on Soldier Soldier, Cowell decided that the pair were destined to be the next big thing and was determined to sign them
As well as revealing some of the secrets to his runaway success, he also told of some of his most embarrassing moments on the way to the top, including being slapped with a legal warning for harassing TV stars and sometime singers Robson Green and Jerome Flynn.
The actors were starring in ITV drama Soldier Soldier at the time and caused a stir when they appeared together singing an on-screen duet to Unchained Melody.
After receiving thousands of calls to his office requesting the song, Cowell decided that the pair were destined to be the next big thing and was determined to sign them.
Flying high: Robson & Jerome's single Up On The Roof was a roaring success and the pair managed to rack up the most successful single and album of the year
But the actors were not initially convinced: 'It took me seven months to persuade these two to sign a recording contract with me', Cowell recalled.
'But I drove them so mad that I actually got a solicitor's letter from one of them saying I had to stop harassing his client.
'But the reason I kept doing it was is that a) I knew I could persuade them to do it and b) I knew it would be successful.'
The actors went on to record the biggest selling single and album of that year although their singing career was short-lived.
Out on her OWN: Oprah Winfrey quizzed Somon Cowell about the secrets to his success as well as a few failures along the way
Living in a bubble: Cowell told Oprah that his biggest failures have happened when he believed his own hype
Cowell was equally candid about some of his failures that litter his road to stardom: 'I genuinely on an hourly basis want to teach myself that this is what can happen when you're successful is that you start to believe your own hype,' he said.
'Then you start living in this bubble, which is your world, and you start to believe that that's the only world that exists.
'Which is why most successful people screw it up for themselves normally within two, three, five, 10 years.
'Because they stop listening. The biggest failures I've had were at a time when I believed my own hype.'
Fear: TV's notoriously blunt 'Mr Ego' revealed that he's terrified of any new venture bombing and thereby ending his remarkable career in one fell swoop
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