Simon Cowell's Big Turning Point

Saturday, March 24, 2012 4:34 PM

Simon Cowell realised he wanted to go into music production instead of performing when his guitar teacher beat him up.

The mogul was put off becoming a music star when his guitar teacher attacked him at the age of 12 after the 'X Factor' judge threw a liquorice sweet in his face.

He said: "I was bought an electric guitar when I was 12 but my guitar teacher beat me up. I didn't like guitar lessons and I got quite bored.

"My teacher was obviously bored giving me lessons, and one day I offered him a liquorice toffee but he didn't answer. So I threw it at him, it hit him in the face and he sort of beat me up. And that was the last guitar lesson I had.

"That was the turning point, when I decided I needed to be behind the scenes and not a musician."

Simon was "always getting into trouble" during his schooldays because his main ambitions in life were to get drunk and smoke cigarettes.

He says: "I was so terrible at school and I was always getting into trouble. I didn't have any aspirations other than drinking, smoking and that's all I really cared about."

"English I was good at. Although every story which I was given to write, no matter what the subject was, I used to write it as a horror story. There was a series called Pan Horror Stories, which I used to love and I just ripped them all off."