English singer Nathan Sykes walked away from record deal after his The Wanted bandmate was diagnosed with cancer

Singer Nathan Sykes walked away from his record deal after his The Wanted bandmate Tom Parker was diagnosed with cancer. The 31-year-old asked to be let out of his contract so he could complete a final tour with The Wanted following Parker's glioblastoma diagnosis.

Sykes told The Sun newspaper's Bizarre column that "everything stopped".

“It was that afternoon after I got the call about Tom, I rang the label and I said, ‘I need you to let me out of this contract’," he said.

“And they were like, ‘You’re walking away from a full album?’ I was like, ‘Yeah. I’ve got to. There will hopefully be more times in my life where I get to write an album. This tour and this celebration of the band needs to be done now.' I was never going to put myself over Tom in that situation."

The band reunited in September 2021 but Parker died of complications from glioblastoma on Mar 30, 2022.

Sykes had spent four years working on his second solo album but he decided to ditch the whole thing and start again.

He explained: "After Tom passed, I was listening to some of the stuff that I’d written previously for the album and I was like, ‘No, I’m going to can the whole lot’.

"You don’t know how short and unfair life can be. And I think it’s about making the most of every moment that we have. If you want to do something, get on and do it. That’s what led me to be like, ‘No, I’m going to write an album and let’s do it independently’.”