Scott Mills defends massive BBC salary as he takes over Radio 2 breakfast show and reveals biggest regret
AS a teenager, Scott Mills suffered crippling anxiety and panic attacks, and for six months, was unable to go to school because he was so terrified of leaving the house.
But now the beloved Radio 2 DJ is preparing to take the reins of the biggest breakfast show in Europe — and insists he isn’t sweating it, despite the fact he will be broadcasting to more than six million people every day.
That’s because, despite more than three decades on the radio, Scott’s 2014 stint on Strictly — where he dressed as a crab to dance to Under The Sea — is what he believes has made him fearless.
In an exclusive chat with Bizarre, he explained: “There is nothing scarier. Doing things that are scary have actually really helped me.
“I would say that Strictly was the turning point of my life. If you can do that, this is easy in comparison.”
And after all of his years behind the microphone, this new show is the biggest adrenaline booster.
He grinned: “The buzz of opening that mic on Radio 2, I can’t describe it to you. It’s just different.
‘No buzz like it’
“It’s just because it’s such a beast. It’s like, oh my God, you’re actually setting the agenda for people’s day. It’s wild. There’s no buzz like it.
“It’s like the biggest, scariest roller coaster. It’s better than that.”
He is taking over the show from his good friend Zoe Ball, who quit in December after six years hosting the breakfast show, and he has her seal of approval after the pair first crossed paths at work in the Nineties.
He said: “Zoe was the first person that really did take me under her wing at Radio 1.
“I was chatting with her at the weekend and she said when she found out that it was me taking over her show, she just sobbed.
“She was like, that’s the rightful owner. So that’s really sweet.”
What is inevitable is a major salary jump for Scott. And this will likely be made public now that the BBC publish how much their highest earners are getting, with Zoe’s salary recently revealed as around £950,000 a year.
But he is brushing off any potential criticism about his pay.
Scott said: “I’ve been doing this since I was 16 and I’ll tell you how much I got paid then — £20 a show. And it was a five-hour show in the middle of the night, 1 until 6am.
“Obviously there’s always curiosity around salaries because they get published every year.
“But I don’t think you can say that I haven’t played the long game.
“It’s not like some hotshot’s turned up and is earning all this cash. No one likes discussing money.
“But here’s the thing, what you don’t get is people going, ‘Oh, I bet you’re getting paid loads’.
“What you get is people that have listened to you through school, college, uni, work, marriage, divorce, marriage again, kids.
“So they’re actually just full of congratulations. And I think the same will be true about the dreaded ‘S’ word — the salary. I don’t think anyone will be like, ‘Well, he doesn’t deserve that’.
“I hope people won’t think, ‘Well, he hasn’t worked very hard for that,’ because I’ve worked for this my whole life.”
Although it’s long been his dream, it has not always run smoothly for Scott.
Recalling his start on hospital radio, he said: “They wouldn’t let me in.
“They said that I wasn’t allowed to use the equipment. So they banned me from the building at 12 years old.”
The days of partying have long gone, so I’m fine. I hardly ever drink now. And I think that that’s probably a good thing for me.
And when he eventually started sending demo tapes to Radio 1, he was warned he would make himself a “pest.”
Scott explained: “I’ve still got the letter somewhere. It was the early Nineties and they were like, ‘It was OK, but please don’t send these too often otherwise you’ll end up on our DJ pest pile’.”
But it was his performance after the 2001 Brit Awards which almost ended his career, when he went on air for his 4am slot drunk and slurred his way through the show.
He said: “I think it’s the thing that I regret the most in my life still to this day now.
“I just got carried away. I’m a boy from Eastleigh. I’m not used to seeing Kylie Mingoue and Justin Timberlake. And people were like, ‘Do you want a drink?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah!’
“This is not an excuse, by the way — I hate myself for it.
“I won’t be doing that any more. I massively dodged a bullet there.
“They could have just fired me and rightly so. But they gave me another chance.”
New start
And meeting his husband Sam — who he married last summer in a star-studded ceremony — has changed him.
He continued: “The days of partying have long gone, so I’m fine. I hardly ever drink now. And I think that that’s probably a good thing for me.
“In terms of work, for sure, having a happy life, happy wife really does actually make you better on the radio because you’re less scatty.
“I feel the happiest I’ve ever felt.”
And now he’s brimming with excitement to kick things off at 6.30am on Monday, with a show packed with new ideas.
He said: “The thing is about this show, there’s more time and there’s more people. It’s the biggest show, so you can have a mad idea and it can happen.
“I think radio is missing a little bit of that at the moment.
“I want you to be in the car and not be able to get out of it. I want you to be laughing your flipping head off and then going and telling all your friends, which is what happens.
“And I want a little bit of that mischief.”
I wouldn’t expect anything less.
That’s a Perry big croissant
KATY PERRY isn’t flaking when it comes to Paris Fashion Week.
The Dark Horse singer posed with giant croissant as she strutted about the French capital.
Dressed to impress, she rocked this white sheer dress to the Pièces Jaunes 2025 gala at Paris’ La Défense Arena.
The VIP-packed concert saw artists from all over the world come together in support of the Hospitals Foundation.
And it won’t be too long until she’s back over this side of the Atlantic again, as she is kicking off her first UK tour in seven years, the Lifetimes Tour, in October.