MUMBAI: Music mogul Simon Cowell might now have a successful record label and television production company, but he spent eight "miserable" months trying to sell houses in London once upon a time.

"After I left the music industry, I was an estate agent for eight months. And I can honestly say it was the most miserable eight months of my life," Cowell said in a radio interview, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

"I worked for this really snotty company in Mayfair who hated me and I hated them, and I was so upset that my mum actually said to me, 'I've never seen you so depressed'. And luckily I was offered a job back at the music publishing company. I'm glad I tried it because it was horrible," he added.

Cowell later got a job working at EMI with music publisher Ellis Rich.

"We decided it would be funny to take out a newspaper ad of a picture of Simon and I apparently naked," Rich, who too was there during the interview, said.

"We booked and paid for it but forgot that the closing day was the Friday; on Thursday we got a call from the paper saying 'If we don't get that picture tonight, you're just going to have a big black box there'. So Simon says 'There's a photo booth in Bond Street station, let's go there.' Now it is half past four, Thursday night, Bond Street station, very very busy," Cowell recalled.

"So we get to the booth, I go in, shut the curtain, strip off down to the waist, and at that moment Simon flings open the curtain and says 'Oh my god, there's a naked man in the photo booth!' I'm amazed I didn't get arrested. He was difficult to manage," he music mogul added.

(Source: IANS)