Paolo Nutini

When Nutini was a teenager, he realized music was a good way to garner the attention of women. He would lose the talent shows, but get the girl. "Through singing songs in school, all of a sudden girls that wouldn't piss on me if I was on fire, were giving me the time of day," he told Hot Press. "I thought, 'Oh, here we go.'"

Nutini's big break came from being at the right place at the right time. He attended the homecoming concert in Paisley for David Sneddon, who was the 2002 winner of the BBC television show, Fame Academy. When Sneddon arrived late because of a delayed flight, the DJ tried to fill time with a pop quiz. After Nutini raised his hand to answer a question, he was forced onstage to perform an impromptu karaoke version of "Your Song" by Elton John. He told The Big Issue about reluctantly singing the tune, "My head kinda hit the ground. And my girlfriend says, 'Just go and do it, you'll be brilliant.' You had to sing over the record, not just a backing track, so I was harmonising to it and stuff, trying to find a spot." It is a good thing that Nutini listened to his girlfriend because in the audience was Brendan Moon (who at the time was the head of radio promotion for the record label, Mercury.) Moon approached Nutini after the show and soon after became his manager.

Nutini dropped out of high school when he was 16 years old to become a roadie for the Scottish band, Speedway. His manager, Brendan Moon, had introduced him to Speedway's drummer, Jim Duguid, and the two began writing and recording demos together. Nutini's role as "roadie" started with him setting up their drums, loading in and loading out, selling T-shirts, and promoting on the internet. Eventually it led to him opening up for Speedway - Nutini would play an acoustic set before they performed.