SAS: Who Dares Wins' Jason Fox brings his Embrace the Chaos tour to York Barbican

I did expect the bulging biceps, straight-talking and go-get-it attitude that fires his Embrace the Chaos show as he prepares for appearance at York Barbican on Wednesday, April 8, but alongside that there’s a vulnerable, funny, softer side that these days he’s man enough to reveal.

Now 49, born in Plymouth and raised in Bedfordshire, Fox joined the Royal Marine Commandos at 16 and served for 20 years, involved in counter-terrorism and narcotics missions with the Special Forces before being medically discharged after a PTSD diagnosis.

Since 2015 he’s been one of the directing staff on SAS: Who Dares Wins as well as making documentaries on Mexican drug cartels, Afghanistan and an ultramarathon in the Arctic. Authoring four books, including his autobiography, Battle Scars, Fox has been open about his past mental health struggles, and is involved in supporting several charities, co-founding Rock2Recovery to assist returning servicemen and veterans. He’s also rowed the Atlantic, kayaked the Yukon, hiked to the North Pole and most recently completed an ultramarathon in the Arctic, raising money for charity.

Embrace the Chaos aims to ‘reboot your thinking, rebalance your life and push you beyond your comfort zone’, and is also the title of his latest best-selling fourth book. It sees Fox telling stories about his life and adventures and how he learnt as much from the failures and his mental health breakdown as he has from the military.

“It’s me bringing to life stories I've experienced, a follow-on from my Life at the Limit show, which was a chronological journey hinged on my mental health experiences but this one's more about lessons I learned within that. It jumps about a bit - more chaotic,” he laughs. “There's a lot of stuff that goes wrong and that helps me tell how I got over it. When you look at those, upon reflection they're normally quite funny, so there's a lightheartedness about it.

“There are some serious sides as well obviously, but it's me telling those stories, explaining how I learned through them and having a laugh along the way.”

He also takes questions from the audience who ask him “all sorts”.

“There are some bizarre ones and some really good ones. A lot of people ask about me finding purpose again because I went through a phase where I didn't know what it was.

“I personally wanted to call it ‘Remember You Will Die’, a translation of a Latin phrase I love, ‘memento mori’, used by the ancient Stoics to remind people to embrace life because at some point it's all going to be over. So we shouldn't mull over doing stuff too long, we should, a lot of the time, just go and do it. And have a good time.

“People didn't think that was appropriate because it seems a bit negative so we settled on Embrace the Chaos. There are some lessons but also stories I've never told before and I Arctic Adventure features heavily,” he says referring to the 500km, ten-day race through the Swedish Lapland hauling 45kg sledges of survival gear in -25°C temperatures which was captured in a Channel 4 documentary.

Despite being a tank of a human being, Fox insists his show isn’t just for people like him.

“There's something for everyone, serious undertones, good fun and anyone that wants to know what a chaotic life I led, come along and find out.”

He seems very chilled today, is his life still chaotic?

“No. I mean, I throw chaos into it, but not the unwanted kind. I go and do crazy things, like the Arctic race but outside of that, I'm a little bit more controlled in the madness that goes on. I hope.”

So what’s in it for those of us who would never get in the military, never mind attempt a condensed SAS selection course?

“The book itself is just about life. Life is chaotic. If I'm being brutally honest, the stuff that tripped me up when it came to mental health wasn't necessarily my military life because I was taught to be a really good soldier and had a lot of money thrown at me to get me to a point where I was good at doing something.

“But the other stuff that we're all privy to, normal, everyday life, I'd never been taught to deal with. Whether that was having an argument with my partner, having a child that gets sick, not having money to pay for X, Y and Z, getting divorced, all that. That’s what tripped me up. Life is chaotic and sometimes we can't avoid it. So we need to embrace and manage it and not be freaked out."

When I ask what’s the one thing we could all do today to cope with life Fox – father to Honor and Amy from his two previous marriages and a baby boy Jack with wife Jules – gives a surprising answer.

“As adults, I think we should lead life more as a toddler. I don't mean soil your pants and stuff, I mean, basically as adults, because we've been through stuff and learned bad habits, we have a tendency to dwell on the past and fret about the future. We worry about it when we shouldn’t. The past is done. We can reflect on it, learn from it, but don't dwell on it. The future is up for debate. It isn't set in stone and we're worrying about something that doesn't even exist, which is ludicrous.

“We should spend more time in the now, which is the only thing that actually exists, and toddlers are brilliant at that. They'll hurt themselves, cry, pick themselves up, crack on and do it again because they're not worried about the future. They live in the now. We should do more of that.”

Jason Fox rings Embrace The Chaos to York Barbican on April 8. Visit www.jasonfox-official.com