WHEN your father is Hollywood star Clint Eastwood and your mother is model Maggie Johnson, it must be hard to make your own way in the world.

But, somehow, Kyle Eastwood has managed to carve himself a niche as a respected jazz musician. On Sunday, he’s playing the Southport Jazz Festival, but staying overnight in Liverpool.

“I grew up hearing about Liverpool and The Beatles, so to be able to visit after all this time is a real pleasure for me,” says explains Kyle, 42.

“They were a huge influence on me, so it’s a privilege to be staying in their home town.”

Growing up in Carmel, California, Kyle remembers listening to records of jazz stars such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Miles Davis playing in the house, as well as the fab four.

“I grew up surrounded by music,” says Kyle. “Everybody played one instrument or another.

“When I told my father I wanted to be a musician, he was happy about it. My parents gave me my taste in music and my love of jazz from an early age.

“My father plays piano, my mother used to play, and my mother’s mother was a music teacher at Northwestern University in Illinois.

“Some of my earliest memories of music are of jazz. My parents took me to the Monterey Jazz Festival a lot when I was a little kid. One advantage of having a famous father was I got to go backstage. I met a lot of artists, greats like Dizzy Gillespie and Sarah Vaughan.”