As Greg James prepares to embark on the biggest radio show of his 10-year broadcasting career, he admits he's 'not daunted' by stepping into Nick Grimshaw's shoes on the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show...
Greg and Grimmy made the headlines back in May when they made the joint announcement that they would be swapping shows, meaning Grimmy will take over the Drive Time Show while Greg takes reins on the Breakfast Show after six long years.
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Grimmy spoke openly about how he hoped switching to a later show would allow him to regain control over his personal life, but thankfully Greg isn't feeling too concerned about the shift.
Speaking exclusively with PRETTY52, Greg revealed: "I think I've been really lucky to have a bit of time not doing the breakfast show to get my personal life sorted and have some terrible relationships and some great relationships and finally have found someone excellent, who understands my job and I understand hers and I was joking about my relationship crumbling.
"But it'll be great for Grim to get some lie-ins and stuff and he's done six years on the show - that's a long time."
When Grimmy first took over Chris Moyles on the Breakfast Show six years ago, there was a lot of speculation around listenership and whether the BBC had made the right decision to shift to a younger audience, but Greg says he's not concerned about people comparing numbers.
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He told us: "Obviously I want as many people as possible to listen to that show but I think the change between me and Grimmy is not as seismic as what happened before because Radio 1 had to move into a different era and attract a different generation when Grimmy took over.
"His job was actually incredibly difficult and I think he did it amazingly well. He weathered quite a few storms and it's a tough job anyway."
He continued: "You're always going to get scrutinised, you're always going to get a lot of people writing stuff about you and saying stuff about you but I don't feel competition between me and Grim.
"In fact, I think with this whole changeover we've sort of taken our friendship to another level - it has been a really brilliant few months, something that probably neither of us predicted.
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"These are fun jobs and if you let the pressure get to you then you stop having fun and I want to make sure we all enjoy it."
While Grimmy might be getting his lie-ins back, that means that Greg will certainly start losing out on his, however he's no stranger to early morning radio.
"When I did the Early Breakfast Show when I was 21 and I'd just moved to London, I was getting up at about 2am every day and then sleeping for the whole day and not going out - that was tricky."
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Thankfully, Greg's new hours won't be too testing on the 32-year-old who admits he's quite the morning person these days.
"I think I'll just enjoy it - there's worse jobs to be getting up for isn't there? It's quite a fun thing to get to go to work and do."
Radio 1 Breakfast with Greg James launches on Monday 20 August at 6.30am on BBC Radio 1.
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