Practically every documentary about the 1960s features that old scene of hippie kids sticking flowers into rifles being held by soldiers.

Fast-forward 40 years and James Blunt could fill either role.

"Completely, yes," says the 28-year-old Blunt, whose music career has taken off following his stint in the British Army.

"Coincidentally," he says down the phone line recently, "when we were in Kosovo and we drove our tanks into the capital there as peacekeepers, our tanks were absolutely covered in flowers. I have an amazing image of it. It's such a weird picture, to see these weapons of destruction covered in nature."

Blunt's debut CD, Back To Bedlam, recently entered the top-10 on the Canadian charts, and he'll make his Toronto concert debut tomorrow night at the Mod Club.

Back To Bedlam topped the British charts more than a year ago, and while Blunt continues to write new material, he doesn't think he's going to have time to get back into the studio until September 2006.

"My main thing is touring at the moment, since Canada and the United States are big ol' countries, aren't they?" said Blunt, who several years ago spent a month in Saskatchewan as part of a military training exercise.

In this era when any 16-year-old girl singing into her hairbrush in her bedroom one day might be an international music star the next day, Blunt seems unique in that he actually has some life experience to draw upon.

"I never had a hairbrush, I have to admit," Blunt said. "But there have been plenty of people who had life experience and then became musicians. I guess nowadays there is a lot of fast-turnover pop, with people fresh out of school.

"But Jimi Hendrix was in the army. So was Elvis Presley. And Kris Kristofferson. So there were people before and there will be people after."

After leaving the army in 2002, Blunt was picked up by Elton John's publishing company.

"I wasn't that familiar with (John), but of course, there are certain songs of his that you just can't avoid," Blunt said. "Now, I obviously have listened to more of his music and studied more, and there are some songs that reflect such genius.

"He comes from that golden era of singer-songwriters in the early 1970s, with Elton himself, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Lou Reed, Cat Stevens, Paul Simon. It was a very special time."

Speaking of special times, Blunt hopes to have one tonight when he's in California to be a presenter at the American Music Awards. Then he'll be boarding a plane and winging off to Toronto.

"I hope I get to go to the after-party first," Blunt said.

If not, he always can take some form of party with him on the plane, in true rock-star style.

"We'll make it happen," he said confidently.