The 70-year-old singer – who has three children with wife Judy – is proud of his accomplishments but worried he’d send the wrong messages to his offspring if he had his trophies out on display.
He explained: “I cherish all my awards, though I used to hide them away in my manager’s office.
For some strange reason I didn’t want my kids to see them because I didn’t want them to think I had a swollen head, nor did I want them to think that I no longer had to strive.
When my manager passed away I moved all the awards into the house, although most of them are packed away under the piano rather than on show.”
The ‘Caribbean Queen’ hitmaker was particularly proud of the lifetime achievement accolade he received at the 2010 MOBOs, as well as special honour in Liverpool which saw him come face-to-face with one of his idols, Sir Paul McCartney.
He told Reader’s Digest magazine: “Receiving a MOBO Award was a great honour. I was given the lifetime achievement award in 2010 and it was very special to me, as was being named a Companion of the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts the following year.
It was presented to me by Sir Paul McCartney and I grew up listening to The Beatles when I came to England, so meeting him was like, ‘Flipping heck!’