Michael Buble was warned his career would be "over" if he dropped out of the spotlight to look after his cancer-stricken son.
The 44-year-old singer put his music on hold indefinitely after his eldest child Noah, now six, was diagnosed with liver cancer in 2016 but was told the decision would be one he could never come back from.
He admitted: "When I went away and went through our family stuff with our son, I never knew if I was coming back.
"Then I had different promoters telling me, ‘Listen Mike. This might be over for you’.
"People forget quick. They do. You step away and they move on to the next thing."
Thankfully, Noah has beaten the disease and Michael – who also has Elias, three, and Vida, 16 months, with wife Luisana Lopilato – has returned to music and admitted he cried for "two hours" after his comeback show in Dublin’s Croke Park last summer.
He told BBC Radio 2: "My first show back, I played Croke and I cried for like two hours afterwards.
"It was too emotional for me. I was too happy. Noah is great, thank God."
Michael is now preparing to go back to Canada for the festive season and is relieved he won’t have to fit in any last-minute Christmas shopping trips.
He said: "I did all the Christmas shopping. Thank God for online shopping."
Despite having released his own seasonal album, ‘Christmas’, in 2011, the ‘Haven’t Met You Yet’ hitmaker admitted his family prefer to listen to other artists’ festive tunes.
He said: "It’s funny.
"We don’t play mine very much.
"But we had Bing Crosby playing in the van driving on a family vacation … they love all that stuff."