Simon Cowell reveals how he started drinking and smoking aged eight and held up a bus at 12

SIMON Cowell has opened up about running riot as a child — revealing he was a “nightmare” who smoked and drank from the age of eight and was arrested for hijacking a bus at 12.

The music mogul, 63, who rebelled “terribly” after growing bored at school, was cautioned by police in Watford after pointing a pea-shooting gun at a terrified bus driver and demanding he drive.

He also revealed how he nearly burned down his family’s house after setting fire to the white beard from a Father Christmas costume while trying to prove Santa wasn’t real.

Simon, whose son Eric is now eight, told The Sun on Sunday: “I was so bad when I was Eric’s age. It was a nightmare.

“I was drinking and smoking at eight, and I once nearly burned the house down.

“I was trying to prove to my brother that Father Christmas wasn’t real, so I found the costume and set fire to the beard.

“I dropped it on the sofa and the sofa caught fire. The whole room went up.

“Luckily, my older brother smelled the smoke and found us. Then the fire brigade came.

“I stole my dad’s car at ten and crashed it. Then when I was 12, I hijacked a bus with a pea gun.

“I thought it wouldn’t be taken seriously, but the driver called the police and I was arrested. I remember going back home and my mum being furious.

“She was the disciplinarian, my dad was always the softer one.

“He said so many things that stuck with me, but I can’t remember him ever raising his voice to me.

“But I was so bad, slightly living on the edge. I was smart, but I wasn’t academic at all. I could have never been a doctor and I had a very low boredom threshold.

“So it was school after school, and then I was out at 16.”

Simon’s past is, of course — and slightly comically — taking on a different light now he’s a dad.

He admits that, with the shoe on the other foot, his over-protective nature towards Eric has become “borderline ridiculous”.

With only a trace of irony, he said: “I’ve told Eric, ‘You’re never leaving. You will live with us forever. How protective am I out of ten? An 11.

“It’s borderline ridiculous, but it is because I was so bad at his age.

“So, no, Eric won’t be getting a pea gun for Christmas. Luckily, I don’t think he’s got that part of me, but I am protective because it worries me what I was like.

“I was also very accident-prone. And I know when he hurts his knee or something like that it’s part of growing up — having those scrapes. But still . . . 

“And there’s the whole thing about bullying.

“If you asked any kid on one of our shows if they’d been bullied, 99 percent would say they have.

“And the thought of that happening to Eric . . . I can’t deal with it.

“Being a dad has made me more sensitive, 100 percent. Everything is about the knock-on effect for him. Like any parent, I just want him to be happy.

“But I also really enjoy his company, to the extent that Lauren is like, ‘Can we ever go out without Eric?’ And I’m like, ‘No’.

“We do lots of things together. We play football, we watch movies in the garden, we play Monopoly — though I cheat!

“He’s very competitive, though, and I don’t know where that comes from.”

As a man who made his name as TV’s self-styled Mr. Nasty, Simon’s soft side isn’t one we get to see too often. But it is there.

He goes on to admit that he still has nightmares about a burglary seven years ago in which raiders targeted his home in London as the family slept inside.

Have there been threats recently? “It’s bad enough,” he replies. “It’s scary. I do still get nightmares. I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about this stuff.

“I’ve slept with a metal baseball bat beside me so, yes, I’ve experienced the darker side of fame.

“On a personal level, I’m not the kind of person who walks into a party with three security guards.

“But with kids, it’s different. A few years ago I got to the point where I thought, ‘This isn’t for me anymore. I don’t like everything that comes with being well-known.

“It was when Eric was very young and it was like, ‘Oh, I’ve brought him into my world. Is that a good thing? Maybe I should stop what I’m doing.

“But I think by then it was too late. I made that decision years ago and I was old enough to know what came with that decision.

“You do have to be thick-skinned to do this, but I am not very thick-skinned. I can be super-sensitive.

If he did want to go into showbiz later, I’d definitely suggest he stays on my side of the desk.Simon Cowell On Son Eric

“I mean seriously super-sensitive. I once, stupidly, read comments, and what’s so annoying is I still remember them today.

“What were they?” I ask. “I’m not going to tell you,” he laughs.

“Were they about your appearance?” I press.

“Probably,” he replies as if he hasn’t just told me the words are burned into his mind forever.

“But,” he continues, “The important thing is that I would do it all again [to become famous].

“I don’t have any regrets about being on the shows.

“Initially, I didn’t want to be on them. But they were fun and they have become my life.

A SHY KID REALLY

“The funny thing is that, for all the trouble I caused, I was unbelievably shy as a kid. I was OK as long as I was in my own house or with my friends.

“But if I was asked to go to a party, I didn’t want to go.

“When I went into the music industry, I got asked to the Brit Awards and my stomach would be in knots beforehand, and then it was like torture. Especially when you didn’t win!

“But, weirdly, doing my job helps me on a social level. The ice was broken, as people knew me.

“When Eric was little, he would ask, ‘Daddy, why do people laugh when they see you? Why do they know your name?’.

“It wasn’t until he was about six that he started to cotton on.

“But it has never affected him. He finds it funny.”

So how would Simon feel if Eric wanted to go into showbiz when he is older?

Helpfully at this point Eric, in his pajamas, interrupts us, and Simon pauses to hug him.

“We were just talking about you,” he tells him. “What are you going to be when you grow up?”

“A vet,” Eric replies, before running off to play with one of the dogs running on their Malibu lawn.

“That’s a good answer,” Simon replies. Turning back to me, he adds: “If he did want to go into showbiz later, I’d suggest he stays on my side of the desk.

“I’d tell him that you’ve got to have thick skin and good people around you.

“You’ve got to be prepared for that moment when you reach the peak — you go crazy for years and then, hopefully, adjust.