Pete Waterman has much in common with his "best mate" Simon Cowell -- they're both music moguls who brought TV talent shows to the masses.

But while Cowell's X Factor is pulling in the ratings on Saturday nights, Waterman walked away from its predecessor Pop Idol after the second series.

Waterman insists he has no regrets in leaving reality TV and letting Cowell take up the reins.

"I wouldn't want to be Simon Cowell for all the tea in China because he works 20 hours a day, seven days a week, he runs a team of probably more than 1,000 people."

He even takes great pride in the fact that he's one of the few who doesn't watch the X Factor.

"Simon's my best mate, so I don't want to slag this show off and I can't because I haven't seen it. I've only ever seen clips. But I don't feel my life is incomplete because of it."

Meeting Waterman today, the no-nonsense multi-millionaire record producer from Coventry is still as brash and brazen as he was when he was dubbed Pete Slaughterman for his frank verdicts as a judge on Pop Idol.

That show produced winners in Will Young and Gareth Gates but when a then-tubby Michelle McManus won the contest, an outraged Waterman walked off the show in disgust.

"You only had to look at her to know she was not a pop idol. Anyone who puts weight on during this competition ain't no pop idol," he snorts.

Waterman (62), who made his pop music fortune in the Eighties with mega-hits with partners Mike Stock and Matt Aitken and produced hit songs for Kylie Minogue, Rick Astley and Steps, may not watch the X Factor but he certainly has an opinion on it.

He believes none of the winners of Pop Idol or the X Factor will be remembered in 10 years time.

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"Do you remember who was Number One in 1953? I can tell you it was David Whitfield. Do you care? No. They're not made to last. But Simon will still be around -- and that's what the show's about."

Waterman can't resist sharing his thoughts on showbusiness and has brought out a mini manual for pop wannabes called, ironically, The Fame Factor, featuring advice on how to make the most of your talent.

Could it save a lot of heartbreak for no-hopers in future years? "I'm hoping that the daughters give it to their mums and mums decide not to put their daughters on the stage, Mrs Worthington," he says.

"There's a serious message that all that glitters is not gold. Fame is a two-edged sword and you've got to be prepared that you can stab yourself with it.

"Take Rick Astley. He had the world at his feet and turned his back on it because he found fame too obtrusive.

"Simon Cowell is the opposite. The more fame he gets, the better he likes it."

Fame is a job now and people can be paid a lot of money for it, he reflects.

"Television looks glamorous, it looks fantastic, they see you pull up in big cars and at fabulous parties, yachts in the south of France, flying all over the world. What they don't see is that most of it is bloody hard work and grief."

Waterman has been married -- and divorced -- three times and has admitted that his passion for work didn't help his relationships.

"My life is filled with work. If I go out in the evening, it's work. I'm a workaholic but work is the most enjoyable thing I've ever done."

Indeed, work helped him cope with the darkest period of his life when his son, Paul, died in 2005 from a brain tumour, aged 33. It happened shortly after his other son, Pete, was badly burned in a go-karting accident and was in a coma for six weeks before pulling through.

"We didn't think Pete was going to make it but he did. But Paul, who was at the hospital with me throughout that six weeks, has gone.

"In two years I had this extraordinary misfortune and you just think to yourself, 'I just don't understand this'."

Tears well up when he contemplates how he coped with his son's death six weeks after the tumour was diagnosed. "You think, 'I'm a strong character, I can get on with it'. Of course you know it's going to hit you but you don't know it's going to hit you like it does. You always think you're going to get through it but, by Christ, you don't realise how long it takes.

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"You think, in six months you'll be able to get back into your stride, but you suddenly realise after two or three years that the truth is that at that point you are just starting to come to terms with it."

Waterman worked throughout the period after Paul's death and also immersed himself in his passion for model railways, spending hours playing with his gigantic model railway in his converted barn next to his luxury Cheshire farmhouse.

He didn't cry a lot and says he didn't need to grieve, which is surprising considering how close they were. Paul had worked for his father for 15 years and lived in the same area.

They both had a love of model railways and would go fishing together, pastimes which Waterman has continued alone.

Paul's death didn't change the way Waterman has chosen to live his life, he reflects.

"If it had taken a death to do that to me, it would be a pretty sad state of affairs."

He doesn't plan to cut down his workload, although he forces himself to take some time out.

"I go train-spotting or to a model railway show. The old story is that you can never have too much money but there comes a point where you get to an age where you're happy with what you've got. I've never done this for money.

"That's where Simon and I are vastly different. I'm interested in doing what I want to do and being paid enough to be able to continue to do that."

hnews@herald.ie

- Hannah Stephenson