Jonny Stewart is a bass singer, vocal arranger and producer based in London. He is also a huge Newcastle United fan.
Quite literally, because with his height of 1.80 meters he is only an centimeter shorter than Big Nick Woltemade.
Despite not being born and raised in Tyneside, Jonny Stewart has supported Newcastle United since he was a child.
An interesting explanation from him about the two major influences that made him start supporting NUFC.
Decades later he cried when Newcastle United won the Carabao Cup seven months ago.
Ahead of tonight’s match against Spurs, with United playing for a place in the quarter-finals, Jonny Stewart (who is also part of global folk group The Wellermen) has spoken to the official EFL site.
How did you become a Newcastle fan?
A friend of my parents was involved in the building of the Redheugh Bridge in the early 1980s and lived in Newcastle; one of my best friends in primary school was a Toon fan.
I kept getting Newcastle items from Shreddies Promatch player cards and Sugar Puffs pencil toppers; David Ginola was featured in the first football game I owned, FIFA 97; and, perhaps most importantly at the time, I fell hard for the 1995-1997 home kit when I saw it in JJB Sports.
What are your first memories of watching the club?
I have no memory of big games we won, like the 3-2 against Barcelona or the 5-0 against Manchester United. We have only lost the big ones, namely the FA Cup finals of 1998 and 1999. And often finished 13th.
Who were your Newcastle heroes growing up?
The names you’d expect: Shearer, Given, Ginola. The names you wouldn’t expect: Nikos Dabizas and Temuri Ketsbaia. I felt I should give them a full name for the wider football audience.
What is your favorite Newcastle memory?
I was wearing my Dan Burn Carabao Cup Final shirt, watching the Mile High Magpies game while we were on The Wellermen US tour in Denver, and heard the burst of sound when Big Dan scored that header.
I’m not ashamed to say that I cried HARD.
If we see ourselves thoroughly beating the best team in the league and breaking the trophy drought… it doesn’t get much better than that.
Do you go to a lot of competitions?
Not as much as I would like!
I’m not so lucky with the ballots – I watched the Carabao Cup match against Brentford last season when Tonali bagged a brace, and the away game at Crystal Palace.
I would love to make it to one of the Champions League games this year!
How do you see the fourth round tie against Tottenham going?
I haven’t watched Spurs that much this season, but I would back us to get the win. After some great wins in the Champions League, our attack is looking more productive and the defense has been impressive so far.
What would retaining the Carabao Cup mean for Newcastle and the fans?
Now that we’ve broken the trophy… if you gave most fans the choice of qualifying for the Champions League again next season and no trophy, or keeping the Carabao Cup but no Champions League, I think they would prefer to qualify for the Champions League because of the financial benefits.
That said, if we kept the trophy it would be great; it was such a special occasion last year and meant a lot to us.
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