Few singers can claim to have watched their careers take off while serving an eight-month jail sentence for attacking a man with a crowbar, but that`s where Toronto-born toaster Darrin ‘Snow’ O`Brien found himself on the eve of the release of his debut single Informer.

O`Brien was out in time to see the song climb to Number 2 in the UK in March 1993, but his criminal record put the brakes on his career, and he sank back into obscurity.

But what`s he up to these days? And has he managed to keep his nose clean?

Snow: ‘People thought it was strange that a white guy was singing reggae, but i grew up in a housing project that was half Irish and half Jamaican. I just filled my brain with it, and suddenly i was doing it myself. In 1989, i went to jail for a year for attempted murder.’ (He denied stabbing a man outside a pub.)

‘I used my time inside to hone my skills. If you can sing in jail and not get killed, you know you`re OK. After i got out, i went down to New York, i wasn`t looking for a record sing, and suddenly i was making an album.’

‘Unfortunately, i went to jail again in 1991’ (He pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm, after the incident with the crowbar), ‘Just before Informer came out. By the time i was released, it was a big hit in Europe. That was weird – i went to jail in a paddy wagon and came out in a limo.’

‘Informer sold three million copies, but i was kicked out of America because of my criminal record, and i was banned from Japan, too. My US record company just gave up on me. I`ve done a few albums since then but they only got released in Canada. I was finally allowed back into the US five months ago, so now i`m getting out there to tell people what happened. I`m not angry though because i`m better now anyway.’

‘I`m working on a new record right now, which i hope to get rolling later this year. People tell me i paved the way for Eminem. He paved his own way, but he got it easy. I came just after Vanilla Ice, and people were saying, what the hell is this guy doing singing in patois? I had to win people over the tough way. I`m still banned from Japan, though.’