“I don’t think that man really symbolises any kind of music. That’s not an insult, just the way I feel.” – Paolo Nutini on James Blunt.

This year alone, hotly-tipped Scottish blues singer Paolo Nutini has notched up shows at T In The Park, O2 Wireless and the Montreux Jazz Festival and is booked solid throughout the summer. He’s about to support the Rolling Stones on tour, plays Latitude this weekend…and he’s only 19. Sickening, isn’t it? Well, not really, because the boy has the voice of a cracked 40-year-old, and songs (some written when he was just 16) that linger long after you’ve ixnayed the stereo.

In the first of our summer Questivals - yes, we took a bow when we thought that one up - we throw five fest-related words at famous people and scrape some sense out of it after. Speak to us Mr Nutini.

Best?
"T In the Park. We got to play two songs on the main stage in front of I don’t know many people, and in Scotland too which was amazing!"

Worst?
"The Middlesboro free festival. It reminded me a lot of Paisley, people turning up and going, “Oh we’re here, it’s free, now where’s my cider?” We didn’t really fit in there…"

Weird?
"A woman lying on the ground with a pair of shades on her eyes, a pair on her forehead, fagged out and loving it and a bottle of Buckfast (disgracefully strong Scots drink brewed by monks) in her hand."

Essentials?
"Ooh, I don’t know. Some cigarettes, cos you never usually get in the queue, and as much cash as I need. Wellies as well, because even if it’s not raining they make you feel invincible."

Bands?
"Kasabian were phenomenal at T In The Park, absolutely amazing. The Who – mmm, I made the mistake of watching their ‘75 live performance on DVD the night before so maybe I shot myself in the foot. Razorlight are always good, Killers at Reading were really good. Oh yeah! Jimmy Cliff. He was amazing. And Chic at Montreux, when they played ‘Good Times’ and Kid Rock who ran on going “Fuck this!” and did a Sugarhill Gang rap."

Read on for more about how a lost wallet got him the Stones gig, the magic of MySpace and why he really doesn’t want those James Blunt comparisons…

“Oh you’ll be at Latitude? Well, say hello and we’ll have a drink.”

Good grief, we can count the artists that have been that easily pleasant to us on one hand. This one’s different though, for Jools Holland favourite Paolo Nutini’s embodies the idea of working your way up. Having spent three years working variously in his dad’s chippie, as a roadie, hanging around music studios and writing songs, he’s now spending 2006 touring festivals and getting the holy grail: airplay in the States. Not bad for a 19-year-old from Paisley who only picked up a guitar three years ago.

“I’ve been doing it for years, writing poetry and stuff,” he explains down the phone line. “It’s been good finding people to pin down what I’m thinking in my head because I never claimed to be the best guitarist – I’ve only been playing for a couple of years, but hopefully I’m getting better.”

He must have done, because last week he was nabbed by the Rolling Stones to support them on tour in Austria this Friday after his agent met up with their agent at a concert.

“Mine lost his wallet, so she lent him £50 to get to Brighton,” he grins. “He gave it back along with a copy of the record, she listened to it and rang him back to say ‘I want to play it to the guys.’ Then they heard it and I got booked – turns out they choose the support acts themselves. I didn’t believe it, it was like Chinese whispers: even my agent just sort of went ‘Yeah, yeah, very good!’”

The Stones gig will be followed by appearances at Latitude Festival, V Festival, with dates throughout the UK, Germany and one in Austin, Texas along the way. The ubiquitous MySpace account has meant he’s got fans all over the world, from Canada to New Zealand. “A lot of people like being the one to tell their mates about stuff,” he says wryly. “You speak to people from Thailand, Japan, Quebec from everywhere, from Austria to Australia and you talk more and more. MySpace is definitely a good thing.”

Except when it’s not. Take the current fad for non-existent bands making profiles: this makes him the closest thing to cross we can visualise. “No shows, no music. Instead of having songs on a player they posted a note saying ‘We want you lot to come along and record our songs at shows for us,’” he says in mild disbelief. “A month later they had 900 friends and comments saying they loved the shows! What shows? Is it a hype-based machine? In which case it’s not really music…”

Fake bands aside, Nutini has his own musical life to deal with, which has meant playing in some of his favourite venues. “We did King Tuts at Glasgow which was amazing, it was a really sweaty gig and I loved it. Then Carnegie Hall – one of my favourite ever records, treasured even, is Bill Withers at Carnegie Hall. Montreux (Jazz Festival) was amazing, I got to sing with my hero Ben E King and there were all these old people that played on the original Ray Charles records. It was weird, at one point you’re standing on a stage at the end singing ‘We are Family’ with Robert Plant!”

What did they reckon to the boy with the old voice? “They were all really welcoming actually,” he says and his voice darkens somewhat. “When I go to the States I feel like there’s something I want to be a part of. In the UK, maybe I have a different outlook on the music, but there’s a different atmosphere, and people don’t get the references. Especially with people like James Blunt dominating the charts. People compare me to him and I don’t get why.  I don’t think that man really symbolises any kind of music. That’s not an insult, just the way I feel.”

Given the gathering momentum of his popularity – whatever he says, the middle-class dinner party crowd will lap him up as a post-Blunt hero – expect such outspokenness to have been beaten out of him by next year, poster boys shouldn’t court controversy. Still, he’s going places, but in his own unique way. As he says, “I didn’t want to go to New Orleans to record – I would have loved the end result, but I wouldn’t have felt like me.”

We’ll happily shout you that drink Mr Nutini. Cheers.

Paolo Nutini's debut album is out on July 17 on Atlantic Records.