Known for his glass-half-full energy, Ryder reveals the intense reality of his OCD, particularly his need for environmental control. From his days in a joinery shop—where he was “obsessed with keeping it clean, to a point where it looked like you’d build satellites in there”—to his current home life, his rituals are strict.
“If I’ve got a guest coming round, I’ll make sure everything is absolutely perfect. Then I’ll just stand there and wait… I don’t want to crease the couch,” he admits. Despite the pressure, Ryder is protective of his neurodivergence: “I don’t want to get checked out for it, because I like it. I don’t want it to change. I don’t want someone to medicate it.”
Ryder also shares surreal stories from his early career, including a DIY “kidnapping” of a promoter who failed to pay tour fees. “We realise we need leverage. He’s moving to Nashville, so we take his passport,” Ryder laughs. In a bizarre twist, the promoter ended up buying the band meatballs and bedding: “The guy we kidnapped ended up helping us before we released him.”
The episode takes a moving turn as Ryder discusses two near-death experiences—a terrifying surfing accident where “everything went black” and a car crash where he and his partner were “looking down the barrel of death” before a lorry hit them. “I just screamed, ‘We’re alive,’” he recalls.
As Ryder prepares for his West End debut in Jesus Christ Superstar, he remains grounded by the work ethic his father instilled in him. Having started in the music industry later than his peers, he once feared that “if you didn’t make it by 25, you were done.” Now 31, he is proving that “you don’t have to pigeonhole yourself in life.”
The latest episode of Mad, Sad and Bad with Sam Ryder is available on all major podcast platforms.
