BRITISH jazz-pop sensation Jamie Cullum, 29, has been compared to any number of musical greats since he burst onto the music scene in 2003.

He's been dubbed "Sinatra in sneakers" for his croon and low-key T-shirt-and-jeans vibe, and likened to Jimi Hendrix on piano for his string-plucking, side-slapping and even onstage acrobatic tricks that have left many a piano worse for wear.

But don't think that he'll admit to any of that.

"It's certainly not my intention to break things, but I don't want to be too constrained by the traditional stuffy image of the piano," he says over the line in a recent interview with my paper from Hong Kong.

Yet, this is the man who is widely reported to do liberal and exuberant damage to the instrument.

This reporter was in the audience when his onstage antics resulted in the keyboard lid flying off during his 2006 Suntec Convention Centre performance.

Not to mention that the cover of his latest album, The Pursuit, released earlier this month, shows an exploding piano.

He sets the matter straight thus, saying: "You know, I've never truly broken one irreparably, and any damage a piano suffers at my hands is always repaired and paid for - just in case anybody thinks I'm a ruthless piano thug."

The singer - who broke into the mainstream in 2003 with best-selling record Twenty something - was also coy when asked about his lady love, Sophie Dahl.

Cullum and Dahl, 32, a British writer and former cover girl, had been dating for two years before getting engaged in March.

Cullum, who has sold four million albums and has had Grammy, Brit and two Golden Globe award nominations, once told The Straits Times that "a great relationship would be when love and sex become inseparable".

Asked about this now, Cullum says: "That does not sound like something I would ever say to a member of the press; I can guarantee you that is something I did not say."

It's not the most credible statement from someone who, when asked what it was like to be 20.3cm shorter than 1.8m-tall former model Dahl, reportedly told Britain's Daily Mail: "I can assure you I make up for it in other ways."

Still, The Press Association reported on Wednesday that he is now deliberately keeping his relationship "private and personal".

But ask what made him decide to get hitched, and he softens. "It's not an intellectual decision, or at least it shouldn't be," he says. "You just know, don't you?"

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