Pop Idol star Rik Waller unrecognisable 23 years later after shock career change
Pop Idol star Rik Waller is living a very different life these days, more than 20 years after he rose to fame.
The singer from Kent wowed judges Simon Cowell, Nicki Chapman, Pete Waterman and Neil Fox with his vocals back in 2001, when he was 20 years old.
He became a favourite to win the first series of the reality singing competition, and was catapulted to fame.
Sadly, he had to pull out of the competition, despite making it to the final ten alongside the likes of Will Young and Gareth Gates.
Rik was suffering from severe laryngitis, and his place in the show was instead taken by Darius Danesh.
Despite the setback, he went on to score two UK top 40 hits with covers of I Will Always Love You and (Something Inside) So Strong, which featured in his 2002 album, From Now…
However, just five years later, Rik was forced to quit singing and his career came to an end after he reportedly lost his voice.
He later appeared on various TV programmes including Celebrity Fit Club in 2002, and briefly on Never Mind the Buzzcocks in 2007.
He now lives a very different life away from fame, after becoming an exam invigilator in Leicester.
In 2013, Rik revealed he did run a mobile karaoke and disco business which he toured venues with his father in his spare time.
But he had changed his name to Richard, and didn’t want to be referred to as Rik, after feeling like people thought of him as a ‘failure’.
He told The Daily Mail: ‘The most demoralising thing I’ve ever had to do was queue up at the Job Centre and have people look at me saying, “What a failure”.
‘When you’ve lost the ability to do the job you’ve always done, it’s an incredible stab in the back to find people are actually laughing at you.
‘It’s why I don’t make a lot of effort to talk to the press these days – it can be more trouble than it’s worth.
‘I was never attacked physically but I had plenty of people come up to me and be particularly offensive.’
‘If you’ve got a roof over your head and food on the table I don’t know how anyone can be truly unhappy,’ he added.
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