Join us as we uncover the musical journey of Keith Duffy, from the beginnings of Boyzone to his personal struggles and triumphs. Delve into the dynamics of the band, including Louis Walsh's wild accusations and confidence-shattering personality, their memorable moments on tour, and Keith's advocacy for autism awareness. Don't miss this insightful episode filled with candid conversations and heartfelt reflection.

About Keith Duffy:

Keith Duffy, born on October 1, 1974, in Dublin, Ireland, rose to fame as a member of Boyzone in 1993. Beyond music, he excelled in acting, featuring in popular TV series like "Coronation Street" and "Broken Things." Keith is also known for his philanthropic efforts, supporting various charitable causes.

Take Note:

Business Insights: Keith spills the beans on the inner workings of the music biz, from band dynamics to financial hurdles. And yes, he just might share if he ever took a cheeky turn as a stripper.
Money Matters: Learn about managing finances in showbiz, from blockbuster gigs to smaller projects.
Life Reflections: Keith shares heart-warming stories about fatherhood and chasing dreams against all odds.

Timestamps
0:00 - Intro
2:39 - Where did it all begin?
12:29 - Going on the Late Show as a New Band with no Music Yet
14:38 - What Happened to the 6th Guy?
20:55 - How long did it take from auditioning to releasing a record? And what was Louis Walsh's role?
26:20 - How does the dynamic work in the band?
38:06 - Stephen Gately Passing
43:54 - Going to see U2 in America on Tour
48:40 - Detour Story - Boyzone One Off Tour in Sumer 2015
51:46 - I wanted to do a one man show
53:46 - Working with Brian
58:16 - Going from the Big stuff to the Little stuff
01:03:04 - AJ from Backstreet Boys and Joey from NSync Working Together
01:05:47 - The Fear of Failure on Trying New Things and not being able to go back. E.g. TV to Hollywood and back
01:09:43 - American vs UK Soap
01:13:45 - When did you start to see the money in Boyzone?
01:16:07 - Were you given an actual wage?
01:20:12 - Keith's Children - Jay and Mia
01:22:33 - Mia's Diagnosis for Autism
01:33:05 - Conclusion

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As an entrepreneur, investor, funding expert and mentor who has been building and growing businesses for both myself and my clients for more than 20 years, my fundamental principles are suitable for all industries and businesses of all stages and size.

I’m constantly involved in funding and advising multiple business ventures and successful entrepreneurs.

My goal is to help YOU achieve YOUR financial success! I know how to spot and nurture great business opportunities and as someone who has ‘been there and got the t-shirt’ many times, overall strategies and advice are honest, tangible and grounded in reality.

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Take Note:

Business Insights: Keith spills the beans on the inner workings of the music biz, from band dynamics to financial hurdles. And yes, he just might share if he ever took a cheeky turn as a stripper.
Money Matters: Learn about managing finances in showbiz, from blockbuster gigs to smaller projects.
Life Reflections: Keith shares heart-warming stories about fatherhood and chasing dreams against all odds.

Speaker 1: 0:00

Knew we would introduce you to people as this is Keith, the big one in the back to Ken Singh. It's shattered my confidence.

Speaker 2: 0:05

Keith Duffy, welcome to the show.

Speaker 1: 0:07

Thank you very much. It's lovely to be here.

Speaker 2: 0:08

That's really wind back to

Speaker 1: 0:10

the beginning. So starting back in ninety three when boys aren't kicked off. It's so successful that we couldn't appreciate it. We couldn't even enjoy it because was so tired.

Speaker 2: 0:18

So after this audition, the six of you have been picked, so you you now know you are the band. Colafo was

Speaker 1: 0:23

in the original look for boys on. A lot of people don't realize that

Speaker 2: 0:26

you and Shane don't get as much attention from a singing perspective as it piss you off.

Speaker 1: 0:30

I'm not enjoying this So our aim way down is to look down. I think I'm gonna drop out of the band. Do you have that fear of faming those look quite been asked, freely watching young man, let's just sit down the top you. They're quite concerned about your performance tonight.

Speaker 2: 0:42

When did you first start to save the money in boys time?

Speaker 1: 0:45

Everybody thought we were millionaires and we had an apotopes in. We went ungrateful. It was just very difficult to be grateful.

Speaker 2: 0:56

Hey, Matt Haycock's here with a quick introduction just to say, I hope you're liking the show, but please, please, like subscribe or comment. That's how we can bring you better guests. That's how we can make the show better each week. So please, please. That's all I ever ask of you. We never charge. We never ask anything else. Just please give it a few moments of your time. Guys, welcome to another episode of Stripping off with Matt Hacox. Where today I have got a guest who is gonna be an absolute belter. He's a singer. He's an actor. He's a philanthropist. He's an all around great guy. He's businessman, and he's a good friend of mine, and he sat here at home in Dubai. Keith Duffy, welcome to the show.

Speaker 1: 1:35

Thank you very much. He's lovely to be here. I love your studio. It's very comfortable. And I got a wrote that introduction now for for myself there. That sounds even better

Speaker 2: 1:45

when you say it. You know, I've actually I've always wanted to do these in the house because I thought I've shared a couple of other people do podcasts at home in Dubai. I thought, you know, the the the view is good, the assessing's good. But as you know, it was raining like crazy last week. And I think all the forecast studios must have had so many cancellations that they're that the back logging up. So we get to we get to be in the comfort about our own home.

Speaker 1: 2:05

I think it's nice, man. I mean, it's it's it's more natural and it just gives us the the surroundings to be able to be relaxed and talk freely and being open, you know, it's nice it's

Speaker 2: 2:14

a nice vibe. For me, it's always about the chair. I mean, there's a studio we used to use out here a while ago, and it looks really cool in there, but the chairs, they're quite small on the really high and I sit on there. I kinda can't wait to get off them. You know, you want to make you want me to be comfortable like you say you can just relax and then and jet away.

Speaker 1: 2:29

Yeah. I think I think you have better conversation when your environment is relaxed and you can just, you know, put your feet up, you know, take all the stress away and just chat.

Speaker 2: 2:38

Well, look, we've got so much to talk about that we could we could probably make three episodes out of this. Right. So let's let's rewind back to the beginning and let's let's talk about how how it all began and and where it all began.

Speaker 1: 2:52

Wow, the million years ago. Back in nineteen ninety three, in Dublin, in Ireland. It feels like a lifetime ago. It's it's funny because My son recently turned twenty eight, which just I can't believe I had a twenty eight year old. I mean, Boys on's boys on a lochase. So starting back in ninety three where when boys on kicked off, we had a six just nearly seven years of of of great success.

Speaker 2: 3:22

Ninety three is when Boson was created or when you when you had your first hit?

Speaker 1: 3:25

We had a first hit in ninety four. We were created in in ninety three.

Speaker 2: 3:29

What were you doing before that? I mean, I mean, were you a singer, were you a performer at all?

Speaker 1: 3:33

Well, I came from quite a head working back working class background, so I've I've I've I've always been grafting. I've always been working. I've been working from an early age. And when I when I was thirteen, fourteen years of age, I was selling potatoes. And told them,

Speaker 2: 3:47

ten of the times. That's very Irish. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 3:49

I mean, I work I works at selling potatoes and fruit and fruit and veg. I worked in an ice cream van in the summertime. I worked in the golf driving range picking up the balls, which was interesting because we used to do that well and ranges open. So I used to play a sport in Ireland called Hurling. I'm fifteen man on a on a team and It's it's basically garish football except you have weapons. Right? We have these hockey sticks. And and these were helmets. While we were when we played that game. So my mom used to make me aware that Hurland Hemant while I was working in the golf driving range, picking up the golf balls in case and then hit me in the head for To be honest, I don't think any damage would have been done, but it saw this might have popped out. Maybe that's about it. Yeah. I I worked as a bellboy. I worked as a waiter. I worked as environment all before the age of fifteen or sixteen. And then I ended up working in a department store by that. Was the manager in the store, and he got me and my brothers in there to work for summers and Christmas and weekends and holidays and whatever. And but when Boyzone started, I had done a year's college of architecture. I finished my final exams. I walked all the all the way through school and I managed to do okay in my final exams in school and I went to college and I want to I wanted to be an architect. Well, I I didn't. To be honest, I didn't. But I was I was good. I had a flare for for first of all, it's called mechanical drawing. In between thirteen, fourteen, fifteen years of age. And then when you go out to do your final exams, it's called technical drawing. And I just had a flavor. I was quite good at this and I enjoyed it. There was not enough lot of things I enjoyed about school. I didn't like school at all and I was beginning to my sport. I played Irish football and hurling like I said. So school academics were a really my thing. This is the only thing in school that I like to do, which is drawing. And so like I said, I went to college for for a year. And due to start the second year in the September, but I went to weigh in a very, very first holiday. I'd never been on an airplane before. I was eighteen years of age, never left Ireland. So never left Ireland. Never been on an airplane. And I went to Greece place called her services in Crete with my buddies on holiday. And take that were huge at the time. And myself and my pals, it's quite ironic actually because myself, my antibodies, And every every time we we go out in Greece, people used to tell us that we look like take that. You know, look, we we always dressed like boy band members, I suppose, and it was just ironic because there was no there was no hint of boys on at the time. It wasn't anything at the time. It was just coincident. And I came back off that holiday and the auditions for boys owned without October. And so when it came out high had a nice time from being in Spain or in Greece, should I say? And I met Louis Watch in an nightclub called the pod And it was the first nightclub in Ireland that wasn't a disco. You know, it wasn't like your local chart music being played by DJ. It was proper proper club music that was mixed. It was very like the Ministry of Sound in London at the time. It was the first kind of night club that had a mixture of gay people and as being straight people. It was the first environment that I was in. That that wasn't your typical homos and your their straight, if you like, place. So and I I did not have many friends that were gay, so I I was quite nervous in that environment. And then I was dancing on a speaker on the stage one night. And then this guy starts kinda pulling up my trousers. And I I was looking down and he said, can I talk to you? Can I talk to you? And I was going, what? And and I I thought he was propositioning me to break at a time. I said, no. No. No. No. I'm straight. I'm not like that. I'm not like that. He goes, what are you talking about? I mean into the VIP room. And the VIP room in this nightclub is really cool because it used to attract a lot of the the the big kind of celebrities in Ireland at the time. You too bano in the last day being there quite a lot. And I remember Michael Hochten's been in there with party eight. God rest assured him that was a long time ago. But this guy, his name was Louis Walsh, infamous now from the X Factor on TV shows, so such. But Louis brought me into the room and he asked me could I sing. When I come from a very musical family, my dad was a great singer and great guitar player, piano player, my brother's a great guitar player. I was into the question I did. I was in a marching band I played, so I'd drum for it for years, and then I played the kit in a couple of rock bands in my teenage years. So I was very, you know, comfortable with radio's go family. But about a week pre previous of this, I saw the front page of an Irish newspaper, and it had the Irish take up. Auditions written on it, and it was a photograph of Shane Lynch who's in Boyse Olin Whitney and Collin Farrell. So Collin Farrell was in the original line up for Boyse Olinner. A lot of people don't realize that. And I saw that these guys were were staring off a harsh version of take that, basically. And then I knew Shane were you, well, he grew up down the street from me where I grew up and I dated one of his sisters years ago. And we worked out together in the same gym. In fact, we Jade, Shane and I were working out in the gym all day, and this this young attractive lady came into the gym one day and asked both of us if we would do some mail stripping. You know, my initial reaction was no way to ten chains that were like, how much should we get paid? And we hadn't got much money at all in those days. And I think it was fifty quid for fifteen minutes, which sounded like it's way too good to be true, you know. And when you haven't got any money, that's a lot of money. So we we did it. And it was only for one night only. But we went to some nightclub afterwards, and we were no top, just these leather waistcoats. And we got photographed in this this club afterwards. And I was working in in this department store in Dunkin' during the day at the time of my dad was the boss, my dad was the manager. And every afternoon, he'd go in for his cup of tea and he'd read a newspaper. And, well, I was in the newspaper and had mail strippers, Keith Toffey and Shane Lynch. And, you know, my my mother's a boy who was actually, you know, mean, she wouldn't be very happy with the fact that someone was tripping. So I was I was shitting myself to my mind that we're gonna see the clip in the newspaper. But that was I knew Shane well and I saw his picture in the newspaper, the artist take that and I kind of thought, I'd love to do something like that, you know. If he could do, I could do it type of thing, you know. And I said, Vishay, look, when you're doing that, when you put a good word in from you, whenever it is, let's put nothing together. But I don't think he ever did. So it was coincidental that I met nearly watching this nightclub when he he brought me into the VIP room and he asked me what I'm seeing and I told him I was from a musical family and I said to him, it's it's to do with the boundary chain in Chicago and Faroe. And he goes, yeah. You know what I mean? I said, yeah. Yeah. I know both of them already. And he goes, that's great. That makes for a great friendship already. So Louis really wanted me to come to the final audition, which he told me was on the following Wednesday, but we know more of our fans back then. So I gave my mother's I gave my mother's home phone number, but I wasn't really staying at home, which at that time I was kind of I was a drifting between one mates flat and another mates flat and stuff like that. I wasn't even gone into college that much anymore. So I I gone to Greece on holidays, came back and I didn't wanna go back to college. I didn't wanna go back to do architecture. I'm left handed, you see. So when you do an architecture, if you're left handed, you smudge the oils because you go on that way. Know, if you're right handed you down. So it was a difficult one for me. But nevertheless, anyway, I parched it that weekend. On Wednesday, I I was in OEM or gone for any audition or anything like that. So and I did internal. And I just thought it would disappear and go away. And my my man got word to me. My mother got word to me to say that a man had been on the phone, asked him why I didn't throw up. And my mother said, look, he's having one more night of auditions, and he really wants you to go. At this stage, they'd gone from six or seven hundred people down to, like, ten, and I was going straight in on the end. Right. So it was down to eight people that night I turned up, and six people actually joined the band that night. Six, but that was a Thursday night in in October ninety three. And six of us were in were in the final court. Connor Farrell didn't make the final final court. I'm sure he's exhausted, you know. He had done done an amazing career for every day too, but and there was sixes at the time in the original lineup. And Louis Wall said to say, okay, guys, the first thing you're doing as a band, you're on the late late show tomorrow night. So the late late show would be the most infamous live chat show in Ireland that has been on for forty or fifty years.

Speaker 2: 12:28

And so and just to be clear then. So so after this audition, the six of you have been picked. So you you now know you are the band. I mean, there's no song, there's no recording. You you've just got six of you.

Speaker 1: 12:38

That's

Speaker 2: 12:39

ready to go out and and your first gig well, not gig you first appearances going on this late show. Just just to start showing who you are.

Speaker 1: 12:46

That's it. And then we just wanted to get the popularity out there. We wanted to get the awareness that we exist out there. And we said, well, what are we going to do on the TV? On in a live TV, but what are we going to do? And he goes, I don't worry about that. You figure something out, he said. So so we we I'll tell him what we're gonna wear, what what are we gonna do? And Shane's sister, Tara, was a choreographer. So she came up to the TV studios with us on the Friday night and she put together, like, a a little dance routine to a club song that was there at the time. A bird, baby, burn, baby, energy, and I wear the I was wearing white jeans and my granny had ironed white jeans and she'd ironed like a white vest for me to wear. Shane had given me a set of Budweiser braces that he got on some prom or not in a pub somewhere. And then we're in the dressing room and I have my weight vest on my weight jeans and the broadwiser braces and Shane says to me, I don't know, take off the vest mate. Go buy go buy a chest and he said, and I got bare chested on the way down there is. So I said, okay. You sure? Yeah. No problem. So we did not. And to this day, we still get we still get

Speaker 2: 13:54

And when did you sound so nineties boy band?

Speaker 1: 13:56

That doesn't even when when you look back at all

Speaker 2: 13:58

the pictures of people with the with the denim, with the with the no shirts.

Speaker 1: 14:02

Oh, man. But every single country that we became successful in would always show that clip. That infamous boys don't clip, the first clip on the show. I mean, you must have seen it yourself I mean, everybody is saying it's the most embarrassing tape ever. Yeah. You you look at it now. Well, because

Speaker 2: 14:17

I'm gonna look at it now. We're we're gonna put play play over this.

Speaker 1: 14:25

Yeah. But it's funny. We we came back, I think, and maybe twenty years later, and we got dressed up in the same clothes and done it again on the same show just for some fun. This will happen to the sixth six. There was six guys, so there was Roland Keaton, Stephen Gaitney, God rest of the soul. And there was Shane Lynch, myself, Then there was a guy called Mark Walton, and there was another guy called Richard Rock. And Mark Walton, it was actually his idea to put the band together. He was a friend of James. And they approached Louis Walsh together with the idea. They'd gone to see new kids on the block and the point depot in Dublin. Yeah. And they kind of thought, we could do that in Ireland. We could have an Irish version of that. So they went to Louisville to say, look, we want to put a band together and we believe you might be able to help us do it. And then Louis ran with the idea because he knew everybody in the music business. So After the first photo shoot, Louie didn't like Marc Walton in the shot. So he he he talked about the band and he looked better with five. And then Richie Rock, who is the son of a very famous Irish singer, Irish folk singer, Dickie Rock. It was his son. But unfortunately, at the time, Richard probably wasn't professional enough for Louis Vuitton's taste. So Richard was pushed aside. And one of the guys that never made it past the auditions was Moikigram. And he literally set out a number for him. So he he kinda came down. He Mikey got down to the last seven, and they only took six. So we rang Nike up when we got Nike in and that was the Boyzone. That was that's what Boyzone was properly formed with its original members. And that's when we got a record deal. So that was him and I know it's all changed overnight then. We got – we went to the UK. We did a tour called the Smarts it's as much as roadshow, which was genius stroke to get us on that tour. Because everybody on that tour was already a signed artist There was e e seven d and bad boys, Inc. And EYC and all these bands, PJ and Doken, which is out in deck. And we all toured together. We were the unknown artist on the on the road, everybody else is well known. We'd we'd love me for a reason, was the first song that we performed on that tour. And it was a tour of all the arenas all around the UK. And all of the bands used to travel on the bus together. There are great great days, great, like, Neties pop music was a great time in music. It was a great time for music. And so we were we were up against two other bands on the road. There was a band called Juice. And another guy called Nick Howard, I think his name was, and that we were the three new acts on the tour. And every night, there was a big big three big bump ins at the back of the venue and you put in your favorite band and there was a competition to win the opportunity to sing live on the top of the pups and was the top of smash the smash hits Paul Leonard's party, which has been hosted by Will Smith. In the London arena. And it was a big, big deal. A lot of big American artists were over, a lot of really big famous singers were on tape that was performing. So it was a really big deal to to so if we won, we get the opportunity to perform live on the TV show. So we won and we got to perform live in the TV show and it just blew up after that. It blew up after that. We, I think, lo and be very easy meant to to number two for Christmas. We didn't get the number one spot unfortunately on that one. And then as we brought a key to my life next, We brought it which we rolled ourselves. It was our first own written song. And then it just like I say, we're we're not we're living on airplanes, private jets, Fiestar Hotels, our whole life's just changed. We were said that to Jeremy, by the record called me, they just dropped a little bit far east on the radio on Germany. Not became a big hit while we were promoting that in Germany did a radio promotional tour of Germany that was supposed to last maybe a week or ten days. The record when you're getting in contact with us to say, look, it's dropping in Belgium. Do you mind not coming home? Can you go straight to Belgium? Leave all your clothes into the hotel, laundry to be washed and dried and cleaned for you. And we'll cover all the bills blah, blah, blah, then you're calling this break in Far East and Yigata. So a trip that was supposed to be like a week to ten days and running it to six weeks, seven weeks, and all of the all of Europe started breaking for us and Southeast Asia then just went absolutely nuts out here in the Middle East. Beraheme. And every every just day, and our lives just changed overnight. And we it's so successful that we couldn't appreciate it. We couldn't enjoy it because we were so tired. You know, you actually got to rest when you went on tour. Because when you go on tour, You only work at nighttime. You're on stage for two hours every night, but the days are pretty much your own. When you're on a promotional tour, Europe at six o'clock in the morning to do radio, then you do TV, then you might be done. And remember, there was no digital cameras back then. It was all filmed. So when we were gonna photoshoot, you'd have to get on the light set up, take one photograph and the guy would put the print on the exam to heat it up, and then they'd open it up, and it's If the lighting was off, we have to sit down and wait for the lighting guy to fix the lights. And it it could take all day. And then, you you know, there'd be five of us in the picture. And we got a stylist there and it won different blocks for every shot. So every time you've done a couple of shots, you have to check out for closing into a new and it just the whole day, you just used to go. There'd be no time to train or exercise in the gym. Your diet was awful because you're just grabbing food on the go. And what should have been a really, really joyful time in our lives. It ended up just becoming tiresome and And, you know, we went on grateful. It was just very difficult to be grateful because we were so tired all the time. And and to the wreck our company, we're just a sellable commodity, and we have to stay on the shelf. We have we have to be accessible all the time. And and they don't, you know, they don't see it that we're human beings. And we we need a break. We need to help to see our families. I mean, I was a very young dad. Like I said, my son recently turned twenty eight. And, you know, boy, that was in ninety six where boys on were at the top of their of their career. You know, so wanted to get home to see my son. I wanted to get home to see the family. And it was just it wasn't possible that we didn't have holidays for years. It was a

Speaker 2: 20:53

tough So just going back to some of the beginning bits on that and so because obviously, we kind of kind of three or four years, but just just to pick up on some key bits that, you know, I would interest me in my audience. So when when you you talk about the fact that it it was it was like an overnight success and and, you know, you kinda did your first show it all kicked off from there. But how long a period are we talking about from that first order? So the audition happens. You you the next day you go out and and and you start to be announced and announced to the world and there's five of you. When when do you then start to go into the studio when do you rehearse, how would it actually take you to get a record out, to get a single out?

Speaker 1: 21:35

Okay. Well, Louis Watts was brilliant at manipulating the media. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 21:39

And and just because I was I know Louis from from the TV shows he'd done. And I guess from anyone younger listening. He's, you know, we probably don't know who Louis is, but was he was he a manager back then. As if he he's he's not the record coming of service. He's the manager that puts you together, and then he takes you off to try and get your record contracts.

Speaker 1: 21:58

Absolutely, a hundred percent. Louis was in the music business at the time. He was booking bands in the clubs and night clubs all around Ireland. Back in back in the in the seventies and the eighties, we had We had a lot of bands in Ireland and show bands. And basically, we had a series of amount of talent in Ireland. But with the troubles that were in Ireland, like historically, through the 60s and 70s, a lot of international artists wouldn't come to Ireland to perform. There was an ignorance surrounding the troubles in Ireland. The troubles in Ireland, we're we're we're we're pretty much restricted to two are true tree counties in the north of in the six counties in the north of Ireland, but most of the trouble was was restricted to two or three counties. But people just assume that because Ireland is such a small country, everybody just to see how close she was on, you know, was it was in at war. But it it wasn't. It was only in the north of Ireland. It was it was in Dublin where I grew up you know, Belfast is only maybe an hour or twenty minute drive, but on Belfast was was, you know, whether it was war zone, really. Back then, perturbine wasn't at all, but people didn't realize that. So we believe we used to put together our show brands to go around the country performing in giggling, other people's songs, cover verses of American artists and English artists, some of them be even better than the original artists, but we see the original address wouldn't quote the article because the trouble said that. So that's that's what we did. That was historically what he did. And he was a big man for It was a big month for the eurovision. So yeah. So Louis Louis was known in the in the circles of the eurovision. He had a winner with Johnny Logan twice. He had a winner with them in the mountain once. I mean, Louis won the Eurovision three or four times. He's been part of the winning team three or four times. So he will be well known in those circles. But he he wasn't well known outside of Ireland at all. I mean, I didn't even know who he was until I met him first. But then obviously I learned who he was and where he'd been up to. And then while when boys almost come and to and then Ron and Kaden very sadly lost his mom. And that had obviously an adverse effect on him over time. And he he didn't really deal with it at the time. He just wanted to get stuck into work, and that didn't work ultimately. And he kind of felt that he wanted to get off the the conveyor belt for a while. Which is unfortunate at the time with such as life because we were about to possibly break the states we'd been made, a priority actively broken in America. When university records bought over the Polygram. And a lot of UK and Irish accent couldn't break the states at that time, so we were given a fantastic opportunity. But already decided to take a sabbatical of a bloody year at the end of ninety nine, and it was in November. We had another about six weeks left our diary that we said we'd commit to before we took a break. And it was in that time that we were in LA and we got a phone call from the the the boss of the new venture of Universal Polygram. And he said, guys, I got great news for you. You've been chosen to be the priority act to be broken in the states by the new record company, which would have meant we were gonna be away forever. We wouldn't have seen family and friends. We wouldn't have seen anybody. But it it would have been worth it for your career, for your success. Financially, especially. But, you know, round round and wanted to stick to his cons. Steven wanted to stick to his. Steven wanted to do some records and music and stuff like that. Myself and Shane were very happy to keep cracking on, to keep moving forward, you know, we didn't do a lot of the lead vocals back then. You know, there was restricted really. The sound of Boyse's arm was Roan and Keaton and Steven Gailey. And Lewis attitude was if it's not broken, that's start trying to fix it. We're successful with these vehicles, so let's keep going that way. So yes, so we broke up for a year. And that year grew into seven years. And in in the in the interim of that, I came out, hey, this is going back twenty three years now because I came out of Boson at the end of ninety nine. And my daughter, Mia was born in two thousand. So I didn't know what to do. I hadn't got the confidence to be a lead singer. I hadn't got the confidence to go sing in a vopria mail because I'd been suppressed for so many years. But Louis Walsh and Louis would introduce you to people as this is Keith the big one in the back to Ken Singh. You know? And and it killed. It shattered my confidence. You know? How how does the

Speaker 2: 26:20

dynamic work in the band like that? So or sorry. It's the dynamic. What what about the politics of the fact that, you know, you guys are spoken about, like I said, are you guys approving what you and you and chain didn't don't get as much attention from from a singing perspective and, you know, Ronan and Steve Steve always get the singing. I mean, did you just die seven days when it is? Or does it piss you off? Does it drive a wedge between you and the other lads?

Speaker 1: 26:45

No. It didn't drive a wedge. It did piss me off. Though, because I you know, my my dad was a very talented singer. My dad was a great focused, you know. And I used to as a kid going to see my dad performing all the time, and for him to be so passionate at music and for me to be in a band now, he was delighted. But then when I wasn't singing much, it was I kind of felt like I was letting him down. So and I needed the credibility for myself. I needed people to see my capabilities. And if I'm not getting the opportunity to, you know, to go the forefront, it's it's a waste of time. So I was gonna leave the band in the early days. And I I I I rang my dad when I asked to after we came off our first up tempo song was a song called So Good, and we had just performed on top lipops. Saturday night, seven o'clock live in BBC one, down in L Street studios in London at top of the pop. So I remember watching that as a kid, you know, when we were going up, we only had BBC one and an RT one, which is the other station. We didn't have all these platforms like Netflix and Sky TV and all this type of stuff. So seven o'clock in the Thursday evening was a highlight of the week. He got to watch top of the pops and I remember looking at the studio when you have all these people make the audience and they'll be so close to to their to their hero whoever was singing. I used to say God wants to go to that show. Look how close the air to the singer. So to get to go on top of the pops years years years later, it was amazing. And in actual fact, we've just recently shot a documentary about the life of boys on, and I think we've performed on top of the pops twenty seven times, which is amazing. But this this was our first open tempo song, so we got a choreographer in to do a dance routine. And look, I'm not gonna lie. I was never much a good dancer. You know what I mean? I was I was a tough man in the football pitch. Danson wasn't my forte at two left feet. So it took it always took me twice as long as the rest of the lads to learn the dance routines. And even at that, I get them backwards. But Louis Walsh and his partner who was another manager, who's called John Reynolds, who's passed away since God arrested. They both came over to see this performance on top of the pups. And obviously, I wasn't great. And our tour manager who became a manager later guy called Mark Plunkett. He He he Mac wasn't very tactile. He wasn't very affectionate. It was very he was very professional. So if he ever kind of reached out to you in an in an affectionate manner, you kind of wonder what was wrong. And this particular night he dropped us back. We were living in the Langham Hilton at the time in London. And he was talking us back to the hotel. And he said, oh, the boys called me Doster. And he said, Doster, you know, can I come up to your room for a minute? Oh, and I'll have a chat with you. And I thought that sounds ominous, you know, what's going on? So we went through when we sat down in my bedroom and he goes, look, I've been asked, probably we watched and John Reynolds to sit down and talk to you. And they're quite concerned about your performance tonight. I said, okay. The dance that I take it, he goes, yeah. He said, look, maybe it might be an idea. To go into the dance studios in a little bit earlier than the rest of the labs and and get a bit of one on one time with the choreographer and, you know, I was trying to do it that way, you know. He said, look, he was a he was in the band himself. He was a base player in in Iraq bound himself back in the day. And, you know, he had to take a bit of time there to go and get some more lessons. He was the bass player and he, you know, they wanted his bandmates, wanted him to top up on his skill set with his bass player. And he said, look, I did and it was the best thing I ever did. And don't take your prayers to me. Just just, you know, just it's it's not your your strength, so don't give yourself a a good opportunity. And I got really pissed off with that. I kind of touched it now up. I'm not enjoying this. I'm not singing the songs. I'm not a great dancer. I'm not getting the opportunities. I thought I would get in the band. And every job I've ever done, like we spoke about earlier, I mean, I've I've sold vegetables door to door. I've decided the street. I've picked up golf balls. I worked at the department store. I was a barmen. I was a lounge guy. I was available. Any job I ever did. I always took pride in the works that I did. I always took pride. I always did a good job. Even if it was just counting in price and ten inch dinner plates in in the hardware department, I would do it, and I'd and I'd make it look good, and I'd walk away from the garden. I did that. And I would take pride in my work. I I couldn't find a part of the job in the band that I could take prident. Everybody did something better than me. Someone signed better than me. Someone died better than me. Someone dressed better than me. Somebody spoke better than me. I don't I need to find something that I can do that's that I can take pride in. So I rang my dad and I said, look, dad, I think I'm gonna drop, drop out of the band. This is early enough early days And he said, why? He said, Keith, over five or six hundred people auditioned for that band, and you got chosen for a reason. They know what they're doing. Like, what's your problem? I said, well, look, come back at a chance. I feel suppressed. I don't take pride in my work. I said, I need to do something that I'm proud of. And he said, look. He said, find whatever that is that they saw on you. Find what that is and polish it, you know. And he said, and and own own your position in the band and and you know, try to fight your way forward and eventually it might, you know, get to sing a song or it might you know. So I I I I taught my dad's voice and I nook him down and I I start ringing a new watch more often and I said, look, I wanna sing more and I wanna do more lead vocal. And and it works because then what Louis did was Louis sent me in to work with a producer called them Ray Madman Hedges. And I wrote some songs at Ray and I signed them. And then on all of our live shows then, I used to sing my own life songs. Okay. The the rest of the boys would would would would the rest of the boys would get its clothes changed by stage, and and I would do what life and I think my songs. There are really kind of up tempo rock songs. My vocals will be very rock orientators. And so so I was happy with that, but also he allowed me to put one of my songs on the b side and have one of the boys on singles and The boys own song no matter what, which to this day is in the Guinness Book of Records, is one of the biggest or the biggest selling boy band song of all time. And nobody ever told us the rules and the regulations. I've heard the music business worked on a financial basis. So we had no idea at the time that a CD or a tape that we had originally and then it went to CD, but the B side is fifty percent of the publishing royalties of the a side.

Speaker 2: 32:49

Okay.

Speaker 1: 32:49

So it's equal. So so so it doesn't matter if you're not a very talented songwriter. Put any type of crap on the b side and you will get fifty percent of the publishing royalties. Now in Ireland at the time back in the nineties, Publish Royalties were tax exempt. And we play a very high bracket attacks and everything else. So, publish Royalties. So, if you write a song, if you write a play, if you write a movie, If you write anything, it's tax free. And it was an intent of my team put together by the t shock, which is like the prime minister in Ireland at the time, Chinese Hahi. And I think spun off from you too. They were trying to encourage artists to stay in Ireland or to come to Ireland and the best way for that to happen was to give them an incentive in their taxes, and that's Publishing royalties was the tax exemption. So we weren't told that. We didn't know that. We put we put covers versions though. A daily believer where the monkeys be recorded, that song will put on the b side of room for a reason. So we made the monkeys another morning, however, of that song. We could have bought, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And this is how we all found out. We put a song called rearview being that I wrote on the b side of no matter what, no matter what was it in my Angela Weber. And it was for a musical call recently on the wind, and it became our biggest hit of all time at the time. And I had a beach site. And we were in a new castle in the Marmez and hotel in new castle the night before a gig, and our accountants came into the room. And they gave me a check And there was no check for anybody else in the band. There was only check for me, and a check for Angela Gabbard. And there was a considerable amount of money. And I go, what's this far? You're royalties off the b side of of no matter what. And I said, wow. This is, yeah, it's fifty percent of the a side. So that's when everybody start right and that's when everybody wanted to start right and the song is getting the B sides because then you realize there's money to be made here, you know. So that was a nice little payday that day I have to say. So I I I did get to get creative along the way from time to time. I mean, no no more definitely no more than what I'm doing now. I mean, what I'm currently doing now with Brian McFadden, you know, I I've written in the card of the whole album with Brian, I'm up singing the lead vocal of every song, fifty fifty. Brian is a great performer. Brian is a very, very naturally talented guy. You know, he could pick up the yellow pages and he could sing it. You know, my vocal capability is limited to compare to Brian's, arm my dad's for that manner. But, you know, if all three had my vocals, I need to warm up before a show. I need to to exercise and warm up before a show. Brian doesn't need to. We could just go up and sing. My confidence levels now are are are much better than fine. You know, I can get it and do what I do. I mean, I've been forming there for thirty years, so I've got loads of confidence. Like, things that things would put amateurs off wouldn't even bother me. I wouldn't even realize. And so yeah. So so how does it work? And Louis Wallace was the manager. He went and he got Polygram records and opened the signage to one of their companies called Polydoor. Polydoor then we had a note had a hidden island with Polydor. And then the UK sister of Polydor decided the sign is for the UK. Then our first song was released in the UK, which was for a reason. That was a big hit in Ireland as well. And then Ludwig was the one that had a progress in the other territories. And so now our main record company was based in London. And then we were done touring for six or seven years Going into the studio, recording the songs, going into the dance studio, learning the choreography. And even if there were slow songs, we started choreography, the five of us. Mean, love love for a reason. I was literally a hand movement. It was like, don't love me for fun girl. Let me be that one girl. You know. So there are all the different kind of unified dance moves that we did together. And and That was it until, like I said, we took that year out into – in the end of ninety nine into two thousand and we just disappeared, didn't see each other for seven years. At the end of two thousand and seven, BBC put together to do a a medley of three of our songs for children in need. For for the big charity, children in need show. And we got back together for over three or four days in London, and we rehearsed the Medley and put a dance routine together for the three songs that were in the Medley. And to perform my children in need. We had a great time in the studio. We were a messers and we always had a bit of boundary, bit of form. And we realized that God, this is great for them. Maybe we can go back. We're all a little bit more mature now. We've all gone off and done solar projects, oil and at the Coronation Street for years. And I became much more known for Karen McCarthy than Keith Duffy. So going back to the boys after doing that, and we decided, what about if you get back together and we go back in the road? Would it work where people buy more? They buy the tickets? Who knows? So we got our promoters and our agents back on hand and we put a tour on Saint and it sold out in like four minutes in two thousand and seven. Into two thousand and eight. We turned two thousand and eight. The third went into two thousand and nine, and we went into the studio, and we start writing and recording a new album. Which ultimately was released called brother. And the reason for that was in October of two thousand and nine, the tenth of October two thousand and nine, Unfortunately, Stephen gave me lost his life. In in New York, he had a pulling anema, which basically meant that he had a heart attack defect that was undetected and it was hereditary. His uncle had died similar style circumstances a couple of months previous. He he he vomited and and unfortunately choked him as long didn't to be clear out his his his airways and and he he died. And that was a really, really, really difficult time. When when had you last spoken to him prior? We we we've been in the studio record in the album. Middle album together quite a bit. And myself and Steven, all through the years where boys on wear together remain great friends. I went to see all the shows. In New Western. Joseph and I made his Technicolor dream called Chidi Chidi Bang Bang, where he played the kit catcher. And at Christmas time, he'd always do Panto, and I'd always go and see him in his Panto. So I kind of maintained a great friendship with Steven over all of the years. And then he was on holidays in New York. And unfortunately, we got a call to say that he passed away and we all flew straight to New York actually and we put all the ranges in place to get him to bring him home. And it was a very difficult time, very, very sad time. And we we slept actually in the church with Stephen, the night before his hero because His mom and dad had left the family house and they moved into his into help help what they got as supported hell out of credit for the living assisted living, sorry. And they didn't have a room to lay Steven out in the house because it would be a real traditional island to to have the body laid out in the home and we've awake. People come in after the night and and drink and sing and pray and all this other stuff and didn't have the room to do it anymore. So I had offered his mama dad to use my home and to come out and but why live in North County Dublin in there from the city center. So they they they wanted Ronen actually offered to use his home as well. But again, Ronen is outside the room. So we said we'll just have to go to a funeral home and then we'll put Steven in the church and she was, oh, or he can't today. He doesn't like the dark. So I said to her, well, we'll stay with him. Will sleep tonight in the church with him. So the night before the church, thanks for the funeral, we all slept in the church with Stephen. And it was it was a very funny night. Because Stephen had a great sense of humor. And it was all very surreal for us. You know, you're having emotions come over like waves of emotions come a woman here laughing at the next one year crying. But it was on the radio that we had decided to spend the night in the church and with the sacristory door, where the priests the the priest's room was called the sacristory, and it was Saint Laurent Altuhl's Church in Sheriff's Street, which is a city center in Dublin. Fans flew in from all over the world. They did the gardens of the church to get ready for the funeral. They painted the reins. They cleaned the streets. It was unbelievable. The the kindness and the generosity that people showed us was was was mind blowing. But we're in the we're aligned on the floor in front of the in front of the altar in the church. And we get a knock on the door about eight o'clock at night. And there's a shop in Doman City Center that sells camp and stuff. It's it's army bargains, it's called. And they brought down a box of four mattresses and seat bags and pillows. Which is really nice, you know. And then another half an hour later, we get another knock on the sacristi door. And there's a very famous fishy ship shop in Dolby Karl Burdox. It's the best fishy ships in the world. And they said they own a lot of fishy ships for RT. And then there was a in in the IFSC, them. There was a wine bar, and they said there were bottles of wine and beer for us. So it was just it it was on the radios of people that we were there.

Speaker 2: 41:44

And who was in the church?

Speaker 1: 41:45

Just just a four of us and steel. It's over two o'clock in the morning. We're lying on the on the floor in front of the altar in our sleeping bags and I get here so many on. Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me. On whose stock? Like, here's in the church. Now with their churches surrounded by priests, we knew we were safe. But I said, I looked up it was Daniel O'Donnell and Magellan, his wife. You know Daniel O'Donnell? No. Daniel O'Donnell is a very, very famous Irish singer. Your audience will all know him. He's he's historically famous for for being a real showman and and and the mommy's love him. The mommy's love him. And he he'd be like a hero to all of our mothers and, you know, and he's a lovely, loving man, a real sincere, gentle man. And he just he he he he heard on the radio that we were in the church and he popped down with his wife to say hello, which is really nice. And that was that we did know what to do then after we lost the hour. It was never going to be the same again. So that was in two thousand and nine. And we toured again in two thousand and eleven. And it was too soon.

Speaker 2: 42:45

And and just just remember so at the point that he passed, you you were still active again because you'd you'd just been in the studio were ready to bring

Speaker 1: 42:53

it on your album,

Speaker 2: 42:54

and you and you ready to tour again as well? Yeah. So so so so when he did when he did pass, everything got pulled on hold at that point.

Speaker 1: 43:01

No. There was to her dates in play. We were waiting on the album to be finished. So we went and finished the album.

Speaker 2: 43:06

Oh, so some of the albums got him on and some album.

Speaker 1: 43:08

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We album. There's a song called gave it all away. And it's a beautiful song. And Ronan and Steven Sangeli, Vocus on, and they all sing all of the song and then the producer of the side, which parts he's got to keep in. And and the the it was a song that we couldn't release There was some sort of political problem with the song, with the lyrics of the music and the melody or something, but it was written by Mika. And it was Carl gave it all the way, and it was a beautiful song. We wanna Thiehl's favorite songs. And we were told we weren't allowed to release it. There were some politics within the record company, and Stephen was really disappointed. So When when Steven passed away, we were getting a lot of media interest and it wasn't very healthy for us. They were hanging inside our houses and our sorts of stuff from Larry Mullen, the drummer from you too, he reached out to us and said, look, you know, do you want to come over? We're we're playing the state at the moment in LA. Trying to come over to CDLA show, you know, get you away from Ireland for a few days and give you some peace and quiet. So myself and Roan and our partners flew over to LA. We were stating the Beverly Wilshire. And the U2, as brought us to the show in Pasadena, in the Rolls ball of Pasadena, which is amazing. And it was the first concert in the world to go out literally to millions and millions of people. It was a livestream on YouTube. It was a livestream on TV. It was a hundred thousand people in the Rolls ball in Pasadena, but it was gone. It it was been blasted out all over every social air network. It was amazing. But I was there. And Ronan and I were standing on the music desk with every celebrity you can imagine in a day. The Column Filer was there. David Pechem was there. And all sorts of actors and singers were all at the Shell, Don Johnson. I mean, I remember going into the to the VIP pre Shell drinks tent, and everybody in the room you know, you know, every single actor and singer you can imagine was there. It was an amazing experience. But, anyway, we were staying in the Beverly Wilshire. And we're getting out of the lift one day. And as we're getting out of the lift, Mika is standing there. And we we've just been trying to get this song off the ground, but we couldn't release it. And the reason we did want to get it off the ground because of Steel's favorite song, and the opening line of the song was I've learned to live before I die, which is just desire because the e e e passed away then. And we told Meek of the story. And the next day, a guy called Lucy Engrainge, who's has been out of the press recently for for knuckle razors, but Lucy is the big boss of the record company and and Lucy Rangaro and has said, look, I don't know what he did, which have got that song makers been in touch and that song is yours to release. So we recorded a video of his writing letters to Steven, tell them how we felt about life as we as as it was then. And and the video we basically shot the video for the song and still features in the song. And it it it was a dedication to his life, basically. And and we released that song and that and and we called the album to put their album for our brother. And we toured in two thousand eleven, but it was too soon. We were we were messed up myself and Shane. We messed up. We we drank too much. We did too much of everything. And ultimately by the end of the tour, we were broken. So we we had to just stop and go away. And

Speaker 2: 46:26

and why are we doing that? Because because of the pain from Steve

Speaker 1: 46:29

Yeah. There was two You get used to the dynamics of five people on stage, and he was such an amazing performer, such a talent, losing him was just a huge void that we didn't foresee before we went on to or without them. That was twenty eleven. And then a twenty thirteen we start getting phone calls off record company and management go look. You boys is your twentieth anniversary. Do not want to get back together do a tour for your twentieth anniversary. We've had two years that have seen each other, and we decided to get back in and and and see how we'd feel about going back on the road again. And we did. And we brought Stephen with us this time. You know, on stage, all footage, video footage, all sorts of stuff to make them feel really proud of the show. And that helped us a huge amount So the tour in twenty thirteen, the twenty twenty anniversary tour was a great time. And it was shortly after that, it was I ended up going into the west end, then went back to Corie for a while, and then they went into the west end, and they did a show called a handful of stars in Trafalgar studios. And that was a great experience. That was a great experience. It was a tough one because when I'm performing as an actor on a straight stage, I have to be good enough that people see past, to keep Sophie from boys on, and see past Kieran McCarthy from Coronation Street, and see the character that the writer us betrayed. So I have to make sure that I'm a hundred and ten percent professional on these gigs. And I really love that. It scares the shit out of me. That that that space in Chicago studios. I think there's only a hundred and twenty seats. It's not a big venue, but it's intense because it's in the half round and everybody's rake seats are raked. So you're down on the bottom and everybody's around your eyeballs everywhere. And I think I like I at moments in the show, I had twelve page monologues to do. And it's it's tough, you know, except panicking if there's an empty carriage, they call it, which means you forget your words, you know, and and if that empty carriage comes in, that empty train carriage comes in, like, god. You have to make sure you've got the ability to to improvise and get through the scene. But I loved doing that, and it was me doing that. So there was just to tell you a funny detour story, boys almost getting back together to do one off shows that summer. It was the July of two thousand and fifteen, I think, And the World Cup final was us. It was a two thousand fourteen or two thousand fifteen. I can't be sure, but it was a Sunday of the World Cup final. And there's a Matt Me show on the Sunday, and they moved it to the Monday to give me the Sunday off because boys and were performing in high pack with Tom Jones in ten CC. And it was the day we were confirmed, like I said. So there was a hundred and twenty five thousand people there that day, and we did a two hour set. It was an amazing show just an ocean an ocean of people. It was amazing, it was electrifying. And I'm coming from playing a hundred and twenty seater to playing a hundred and twenty five thousand people and it was a great night, but the theater's harder. The theater's harder because it's more intense. It's more personable. It's more full of people can see your eyeballs. You're from the one hundred and twenty five thousand people, you don't get I contacted anybody here just looking at an auction of people. But to to to tell you, the difficulties of what you have to adjust to sometimes. So we were there after that show. We always historically would bring our crew and the people that work with us to Benny Hannes on the Kings Road, which is a Japanese restaurant with a Taponaki, they cooked a bit of fun. And it's a great bit of fun. And we would always go there and it'd give us a lock in there for a lot of hours in the morning. We'd have a great party in there with the crew of the field. It's fantastic and blah and blah. But the next day, I had I had the Matt and I showed it was moved from the Sunday to the Monday, so I turned off to the studio to do the Matt and I show. And I'm dying with a hangover and the stage manager comes in to say, guys, don't get changed. The rule of the theater is If there's more people on stage than there is in the theater, the show was canceled. And I said, well, we're sold there. What do you mean? Just know. The email that was supposed to go out explaining to people that the Sunday matinee has been moved from Sunday to Monday didn't go out. So there was people killed up on Sunday for the show that wasn't on. So no return upon the Monday. There was seven people. So there was there was there was eight of us on stage Those seven people turned up to see the show. So she said, you can go home. I was never so happy in all my life. I put back on my CDs, I was about to walk out the stage door. She was, guys, guys, guys, you're not gonna believe it. You have to do the fucking show. You have to do the show. Some fuckers have to come up and buy the ticket. You have to so there is eight people in the audience and eight people on stage, so the show must go on. So eight people, two hour show, I thought, oh, we got a mama long. You can you can hear your voice echoing off the walls because the place is empty. So we went there anyway and it's my my my best friend Rico in Toromont, Toromontage is a boy's life. He worked with Boy's own. He wanted to support the art, and he supported my career. So he went and bought a ticket. And he sprout across tree seats at the front train to make the place look busy. And the thing about it is, if you had to just tell me, I would have just got my ticket and say come tonight, don't come today, you know. Anyway, I had to do a full performance for eight people. I have to do a hundred and twenty five thousand a day before. So that, you know, That's being grounded. That's being grounded. That's being able to adjust to your situation. And it was sorry. It was at that time. That I can that I wanted to do on one man's show. It was the only thing I hadn't done before, and I I wanted to write my own show.

Speaker 2: 51:54

Single or acting.

Speaker 1: 51:55

No. Stand up, singing. No. Not sing and acting, but not even acting. Maybe just tell him a story. I don't know. I wanted to write something that I could do on stage in my own because it's the ultimate loneliness place in the world and it's terrifying scary. And I want I like the fear, the something about the fear, I like, and I wanted to try and do it. So I was talking to a guy called Des Bishop, who was a stand up comedian from America. He's our Irish American. And he's a really, really talented, very, very, very intelligent guy. And I told him what I wanted to do. And he said, like, standoff comedy. I said, yeah. Well, I wanna be funny, but I wanna be detaining, and then I wanna be sincere and possibly sad. He goes, that's a life story you're talking about. So he said, why don't you do another biographical show? He said, think of the career that you've had, Keith. Think of the people you've worked with. Think of the stories from backstage, the parties on the night. So he said, five different parts of your career are boy's own, people that you've performed with, and tell the story of how you met them. How did how did you feel when you were performing? We are nervous. The difference between, you know, not being famous. Obviously, being famous and meeting these people that are your heroes. I mean, off the top of your head, who like, who's really really cool that you worked with? And I started thinking I went, well, actually, you know, I'm I signed with Paverazzi in modern in Italy, he said this play the jet defliers over. He goes, that's a great story. So he said tell that story. And what song did you sing with Coverati? And this is what we're saying no matter what, he's saying it operatic, and we're saying it are. He goes, We'll then tell that story and sing that song. There's one prior to your show. To get a few more stories and a few more people and then He said that that that you've got a full art, you know, audiographical show. So I went away and I brought the show, I worked the Joe Cockerbee King. Glory, Estefan, Moriah Carey, you too, the BJ's. There were so many different stories I thought geez. I haven't known for two or three shows here. So it was at that time I saw from Brian and had always met each other over the years. Brian's career started with West Life on the boys on tour. They were our support artist back in ninety eight. So they were at Australians when they were a arena tour. We played the back of trucks. We played nightclubs, discos, We had no clothes. We had to wear our own clothes. We were and change that on the garage. You as a mechanic, and he gave us overalls to wear on stage. And orange, pretty orange overalls you are on stage. You know, Westlake came in, got a record, the Australian way, off the back of the successor of Boys on Movie Watch. And Rowan Keaton was their manager at the time well,

Speaker 2: 54:19

I remember even in the press and the and the side, that wasn't just a publicity gig.

Speaker 1: 54:24

It was a complete publicity gig from Louie's point of view. Boys are we're gonna come till the end of the day is quite soon. Rowan is no doubt gonna have a solo career. Anyway, we wanted to manage Rowan and keep Rowan beside him. How to do that? We'll give ownership of the management of of ResLife. So we were touring in Thailand in in ninety ninety six, ninety seven. And my dad I rang my dad when I and he said, enjoy yourself, son your days are pretty much numbered. I said, how do you mean? He says, well, why are you guys at tour in Southeast Asia? Noovie watches our over to TV and the press put them together a new boy band from Sligo. I said, you're kidding me. He said, no. He says, I'm telling me he's getting ready for your demise, so he has something ready to go when you guys decide to split up. He got rounded to comparative management, which obviously then, you know, encouraged vulnerability to want wildlife to to come on tour with us. Because bands back in those days would spend a huge amount of money to be your support act because they're getting ready made audience. West Life came on for free. They didn't have to pay on because Ronan and Louis were their management. But that's the way met Brian. I mean Brian were similar characters. We get always going well. He was living in Australia, I might be touring with boys on. I'd always go out on the piss of brine and have a bit of fun play golf of brine. We were invited to play a lot of the same events in golfing together. And I'd met him on one of these charity events we played golf videos. He said, I said, how are you getting on? He just come off from Australia. He said, I'm playing Weylands in Dublin on Saturday night. Weelons is a very credible rock venue. So the go from a boy band to play in Weelons is pretty cool. And Brian is going to gig there with his full life band, but on his own songs that he had written and released in Australia. So I said to him, our comments here show, I was finishing up in the West End and a handful of stars that play. So I went to see Brian Shell with my son, Jay, and I know and we've myself, we're sort of a lot of communal friends. So we went to see Brian Shell after the gig, he was brave. He blew the roof off the place. After the gig were in the dressing room, having a few points of guineas. And Brian said to me, why do you walk towards a moment? I said, well, I'm I've just finished writing another biographical show, then I go on a tour. I've done a deal with the Hilton hotel group, and I got to do the functionalities of the Hilton hotels across the UK. And I said, I'm very, you know, very excited because that sounds great idea, man. And I was telling the stories, you know, Paverati and the BJ's, and this time, you're like, oh, wow. I'd love to do something like that. He said, And I'm kind of thinking, I wanted to do all my show, but at the same time, if it was in the warm venue every night like a residency, that would be fine. But the fact that we're going to be touring a very lonely world on the road and you're touring on your own. So I said, look, why don't we rewrite it together? Now I'm gonna change it. The two of us will do it. That means you've got the back catalog of all the boy's own hits. And the West Lifets. The boys are fans and the West Lifets fans if they're not the same. And I said, and we're having a great bit of fun. So he said, yeah. So we reload the show. We put it on sale and it sold it for hours. The whole tour, fifty two dates sold it for hours. Four nights into the show. It was called boys life stories left on music. It was Boyse Eve was never supposed to be a recording artist. Boyse Eve was just the name of an autobiographical show. And organically accrue with the recording actors. We went into the studio, the album, and so forth. And and we've been singing and giga ever since. But it started off like another boy, Africa, It was called boys live stories after music. And three or four nineteen, we'd sell much material. The first show was three and a half hours long. It was way too long. So we put it down to an hour twenty to an hour forty and took half the content out and realized we had another shell ready to go. So we put another shell on stage story left a music pack too for the following year. And we put that on sale and that's all. And until because it only COVID happened, we've been nonstop for the last seven, eight years now. So it's, you know, it's it's great. And Brian's helped me enormously with my vocal ability. We sat down with the vocal coaching. And we sat down. We wrote the shows together. We just wrote recorded our own studio album. And as you know, we were we were here gigging in jawyer at Gulf of states on Saturday night, and it was great for them.

Speaker 2: 58:15

How how how does it feel doing this smaller stuff after after obviously, you know, many years of doing the big stuff. I mean, we talked about it a minute ago. You have the eight the eight month theater and then a hundred and twenty five thousand people. When when when you've used to doing boys own and, well, I don't know how big an arena is, but you're doing twenty, thirty, forty thousand seats and and and you're doing that regular And then and then now you do, like, the boys' life stuff, which which is to a to a small audience. So does does that ever hurt the ego?

Speaker 1: 58:43

No. Not at all. Not at all. And they can understand under question. It's amazing to play the big venues. The arena tours are great stadiums are just There's an old saying, stadiums are for the bands. Peter's are for the fans. Alright. If you're a fan of the group, Peter, we'll try to see them in the theater, and then you would like to see them in the stadium. So there you might as well watch it on TV if you're in the stadium. We didn't do any. We didn't do a stadium tour. We we did a couple of stages. We never done a stadium tour. Our tours were predominantly in boys on marinas. So you've got the MEN, you've got the wanube arena. You've got all these arenas around the cities of Aydol, this is a gorgeous one now in Glasgow. What's it called? The omega it's a brand new state. So it's it's it's like it's like I can't remember the name, but it's it's I got to perform on it with Boson in the last 25th anniversary tour that we did in twenty eighteen. I can't remember the name, but stunning. It's a wall. It's a wall of people. It's like a half half half what you call the the big circular venues I can't remember what was it? It's it's half

Speaker 2: 59:48

a colon exam.

Speaker 1: 59:49

Oh, maybe a colon exam. Yeah. It's like like a half a colon exam. Right? And it's just a wall of people. There's loads of layers

Speaker 2: 59:54

to it,

Speaker 1: 59:54

and it's just feels like they're on your on your on the stage with you, but there's millions. It's it's a fantastic. The hydro, the hydro glass, a brilliant venue. When you're backstage, Belfast was our first gig back after seven years away, and it's to call the Odyssey in Belfast. And it holds about eighteen thousand people, which is a which is a lot of people. And it's that more, that scream of the crowd that I haven't heard in seven years. And we're all we're all under the stage ready to pop up in our in our trapdoors to come on to the stage after being gone for seven years and that energy and that roar of the crowd just you're on to that stage, man. And you're a shitting yourself. Oh, yeah. I'm not I mean, nerves aren't even it's unbelievable. When you have another solar. And then you're you're catapulted another stage and the energy you take off the crowd, you just honestly, you perform the best you can ever perform. Did they lift you? The crowd lift you? And it's an amazing experience. And I I be lying to you if I told you. I don't miss that. Of course, I feel it's it's an amazing feeling. But the theaters that we gig in now, myself and Brian, It's very personable. You know, we see the whites of people's eyes. They they they go on a journey with us. It's it's great to have the the super success and the super fame of arenas, but the something gorgeous about playing the theaters. As an artist, as a singer, as someone that likes to entertain people. It's it's much more personable, and it's really, really beautiful. It's an enjoyable experience. The arenas are always will be a phenomenal feeling. But just to be still thirty years later in a position where we're selling out theaters. And these theaters, you have to remember, historically had the biggest superstars in the world performing in the backstage in these theaters. They have all the posters of the of the people that have performed there. Historically before us, and everybody who's anybody has performed in these theaters. City halls, town halls, theaters, two hundred, three hundred years old, The the history that goes with them is phenomenal. You're a part of a movement when you perform in these places. And it's very special. It's very special. We have a new tour of all the theaters in the UK just launched last week for January, February, March, twenty five next year. So that's the next time that we're gonna throw the UK. And I'm really looking forward to. I'm really excited about it. There's also there's also stories of our plans being made and the bands blue are back together. And there's talks we've got the same agent and there's talks of blue and boys life coming together. And doing an arena tour together with the same live band and and, you know, doing a joint headline type thing, you know?

Speaker 2: 1:02:48

And would you all be on stage together or then they do it but you do it. We'll do it

Speaker 1: 1:02:51

a bit daily or they'll be and then we'll do a bit together. So that's that's the this this talks with that at the moment. And, hopefully, comes through fruition because that will be great for him.

Speaker 2: 1:02:59

Well, there's one way ban junkie. I've got my fingers crossed for you.

Speaker 1: 1:03:02

Well, I've got I've got another scoop for you that you love right. So AJ from backseat boys and Joey from the Enzinc have decided to do what Brian and I did, a hybrid of the two bands And we saw and obviously, we we toured with the boys for years, so we've reached out to them, and they're very, very excited about the prospect of and sync backstreet Boys, Boys Own and West Life all being represented on the one stage for a tour. So that's something else that's in the pipeline at the moment and hopefully comes through fruition.

Speaker 2: 1:03:33

And and I guess from a business perspective, when you do things like that, you can you could play bigger venues as well. Can you be because there's more and there's more audience room. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:03:42

I mean, the bigger videos are great, but they're not important. You know, what's important is that you're doing what you love to do. Yeah. And Like I said, as a fan of music, I'd much rather see my heroes in the theater.

Speaker 2: 1:03:53

I'd rather be in the front room here now. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:03:54

Yeah. I'd rather I'd rather do that they go to stadium, you know, with their great book. If you're in music, Clover, you'd more try to see them. Like, when when he Dell was only breaking, and she she broke very quickly. She went from theaters to fucking stadiums overnight. She honored the gigs that were already in her diary that were smaller. The theaters that she started off in. And there's a beautiful theater in Dublin called The Olympics, and it's it's started with history. And my buddy used to run the place. So I got to see Adele because she's an amazing singer songwriter. And I got to see her in the Olympic and I got to Royal Box that my I was literally sitting as far away from you as I was some horror that night as he was there and it was beautiful. And I was in that venue as well for the script when the script really blew up they they had booked to do a gig in the Caribbean. I had the Royal Box and I was right beside him. And there's something amazing about experiencing a band when your off coast comparison like that. And I suppose for fans of boys on a West Life or boys life, they're getting that experience and I know how exciting that is. So they're getting that experience and I'm happy to give them that experience. You know what I mean? And like I said, I'm just happy to be working, doing a job that I love to do. I mean, my data regardless of so I only lost me that a couple of years ago, and I missed him terrible. I'm a, we're great party. Yay Inord, boy our boys like album. Yay Inord, the whole album. But he's brookily honest I'll I'll be sending demos of songs that we don't and he goes, that's a turkey. That shit. What do you think? And I'll send them the finished I need it's a no change I tweaked that and I take the Brian, your Brian's gonna know your dad's right. And before we mastered any song, we got my dad's approval, you know. So we dedicated the album to him when we wrote him a little poem. Play down on the arm, which is really, really nice. But my dad always said, if you enjoy what you'll do, you never work a day of your life. And it's it's it's very, very true. Very, very true.

Speaker 2: 1:05:45

And tell me, I guess, similar vein of question. When you've been doing a good few years of the mother of your boy's own, and you and you talk about taking hiatus. As in at that point, like, you know, January gonna take a year off and come back or or you know, people like to break off and and do solo stuff. I mean, you know, I may be completely wrong, but, you know, when you look at so many other people do it, it it never works out well for them, you know, like, you a big time TV actor in the UK, you know, wants to go and break Hollywood so they go. They never break Hollywood, they they never get back on the TV back in England again either or, you know, someone who's been who's been good as a four or five piece band. They, you know, they wanna be the solo star who go off and judge our solo stuff. He never works. When you take that break or when you go and try something, do you do you have that fear of failing? And and then and then the inability to go back to what we're working at for you anyway? Or are you just that's a single minding on? On your goals on your journey and your career progression. And if and if that means that, you know, it doesn't work out and some doors are being closed and you don't care.

Speaker 1: 1:06:53

Yeah. So that's an interesting question. I mean, I I would be guilty of that myself. When I was in Coronation Street, I, you know, I didn't have huge amount of acting experience before then. A lot of amateur stuff and I was a kid, but I always loved been on stage. You know, you learn the craft quite quick in a soap. They shoot at a very, very fast speed. They could shoot up to ten episodes a week. And you're only given the scripts maybe two or three weeks before the shoot, but you can't land in that head because you're you're already in in in a shoot So you learn your lines the night before you shoot them really. I mean, you read your story line, you read your scripts, but you learn the lines off book the night before because you're shooting every day and they don't shoot in sequence. Right? So they don't shoot, you know, what happens after the year? They'll do they'll do blocks of five So you might do a scene from episode five, a scene from episode three, a scene from episode two, and you could be working with two different directors on different blocks So it's it's a real you know, you learn the job very, very quick on the job in a soap. It's I think it's the toughest acting gig there is. But when my contract was my first contract was coming up, I wanted to do my work. I I loved being behind the camera, and I loved the the job. So like anybody, I can't had ideas of grandeur, and I went over to LA for the for their pilot season. I didn't know this. Yeah. I went over a pilot season usually from the end of February to March, right through May, June, April, May. And it's it's when they cast all the shows that are coming out of. On Netflix, on Apple TV, on Amazon, the movies, they the or the indie movies. It's when they cast for everything. So everybody from all over the world wants to be an actress in LA at that time, and it's a rat race you know, if you go for a specific role with one of the bigger studios, you go into a room or a waiting room and twenty people sitting around the room, all going for your part. These people are trying to take your money off you. They're trying to stop you paying your mortgage. They're, you know what I mean? And you're in that room and There's no retalking because you're all you're all you're all against each other, and it's a rat race. It's really tough. I mean, more than two percent of the actors make it to the top level, you know, and that's what everybody's dreaming of. So I went over anyway, and I got very close to some really big stuff. I got I got I was down to the last two for a show called Boardwalk Empire Okay. Years ago. And I was actually told I had the gig, and they they they always give the gig to two people. And at the last minute, they decided to join us again. So they I was contracting and everything. From where I was gonna be pulled up in New York and Chelsea where I was gonna be living and and and it's it's life changing. It's life changing. You know, the minimum the minimum payout, I think, on an on an American show or was at the time it's a twenty five thousand dollars per episode. But then you get a repeat fee of, like, thirty seven percent or something like that. But and if you're doing episode since twenty five thousand dollars in peak and a quarter of a million and you're doing what you love to do,

Speaker 2: 1:09:43

how quickly they record compared to life view now.

Speaker 1: 1:09:45

That's a that's a UK soap is completely different. This this stuff, you prepare well. You prepare properly. You have time to digest the scripts, to understand it, to work with the director, to get your creative mind working, you know. But like I said, with the question you asked, people that leave a band to go solo, actors that live in a a soap to to to want to be a movie star. I mean, it happens all the time. Some people do make it true. Mhmm. Most people don't, you know. It's it's it's a tough one. It's a real tough one. And I I had to come home with my tail between my legs, you know, I kinda had that we were we were celebrating and everything in that role. You know, where'd you would you get one? It's like a chain reaction. You know, just get one after dinner if you're good. You're just getting one after the other. It's getting that gloopy break and your your your fee goes up every time on every job you get and it can never go less So let's say you do two or three jobs. You've got about twenty five grand an episode up to a hundred and fifty grand an episode. The next job, the hiring you, the next two to the hiring you. Has to give you a minimum of what you Alaska paid. So you're going straight in on a hundred fifty rand an f. Like, it's it's it's really look, you're doing because you love the job detail. I mean, my my preference is theater. There's no morning in theater, but I love I love, you know. So get in the movies and get in the payday and forge you the ability to go back in the theater. But look, if you don't push yourself and if you don't have ideas of grandeur and if you don't take a chance, you'll never know. You know what I mean? And and that's the thing. And if you don't make it, or at least she gave it a chance, it's it's difficult. It's tough. You know, Ronan Ronan left boys on for for a solo career. And he's had a relatively very successful career. I I do think Rowan is a very hard worker. He's a grafter. He works hard. My god. The arrows that guy works. Is is driven. But I I'm sure he would have loved his soul career to go further than it did. But that's because he's hungry. You know what I mean? He he wouldn't. You know, you get the likes of the success that Robbie Williams had after commenting on to take that. And that's that's a difference you need. That's that's unique. I mean, he where he played, what's the venue played tonight? A hundred and eighty thousand people are nice. The master place topped Robbie Flat. Back in the UK. Yeah. Color in the neighborhood now. That's worth. Never force. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, let me play in network. That's massive for me. He did even a stadium tour. I mean, a warm man coming over a boy band from fucking stock port. Is this from easy from stock port? Stoke. Stoke a trend. So like that's a huge success story. He was bigger than take that everywhere. Now, take that when done to do a stadium tour themselves later on, put the carry viral he didn't go on. I mean, Kerry Brown was a great singer, a great songwriter, but he did he did make it as a songwriter. You know what I mean? Not not to this not to the level that Robbie did. You know what I mean? So there's loads of examples of people that that they have a so successful career, but it's not to the level that they would have likened it to be. You know? And it's I mean, to be brutally honest about it, boys life in my mind and I do. Yeah. To be very honest, we do enjoy the gigs that we do. But I'd love the opportunity or the option to go and play in a arena tour, you know, because look, we're not getting any younger. We have to provide for a future. We have to provide for a pension. As you know yourself, my knees are fucked. You know, I need I need to get two new knees, and that's gonna be off the road for at least three months. You know, and I've got bills to pay like everybody else. So during the arenas is cream. Okay? So if you're doing two or three nights in the same arena, that's a lot of money because you've got all the bills for the load in and the load out. But if you've got two or three nights in the middle, There's no load in and no load in. So you're making pure profit. If you only do more money in the venue, you're limited to the money that you can make. Because you've got the load in and the load out on the same day. But if you get two nights or even three nights, the difference financially is not just doubled. It's tripled. It's quadrupled. It's quadrupled. It's when

Speaker 2: 1:13:44

when did you first start to see the money in boys own? You know, how how

Speaker 1: 1:13:48

Yeah. So everybody thought we were millionaires and we hadn't a pot of pissing. Well, everybody thought we were so famous and everybody thought we were millionaires and we had another penny. We no. We we most fans get an advanced payment. Like Westlake's got an advanced payment. We never got an advanced payment. Our record caught me never paid this advance. And I was telling you before, the record call was you get your clothes clean and we'll pick up the bill. Defines are in private jets and chauffeur driven cars. We're looking at all this going, wow, this is amazing. Until we get to like, when we do start to make money, and that Moody's does start rolling, it's nowhere near where you think it's going to be. So you you your accountants will honor the record company and find out what money is due to you? What's coming? What's, you know, what expenses have you got? And then you're looking at all these shelter driven cars and private jets all being recouped your part of your money. Right? But it's not recouped at the price that the record can be paid for us. They put their own levy on top for paying for it. So if you're gonna if you're gonna rent the private jet for twenty five grand to bring it to Paris, Right? By the time you paid that back, you're probably paying back thirty two grand because you're paying back the twenty five grand plus the fifteen percent levy for the record company. So they they recoup anything that you spend. You come to the hotel bar, you're signing all the drinks in your room, you have more people over there drinks and you're living like a king, And then two or three years later, you realize that Power bill was eighteen hundred quid and it's coming out of your money with a fifteen percent levy on top. You know, so you're not educated like this. Nobody explains this to you. Nobody breaks it down and and helps you understand how the music business works. Now it's not like that anymore. Since downloading and streaming and all these different platforms are legal or not legal, ninety percent of the revenue of the Music business has gone because nobody's biting albers or CDs anymore. So the the money's gone. The money in our business now is is selling tickets. Going back to your point, would you like to do the arenas? Financially, it makes a huge difference. Yes. Creatively, the theatres that we play in are fantastic. We enjoy the night. But if a theater holds two and a half thousand people or three thousand people and an arena holds thirty thousand people. We've to work ten times as hard to make the same money that we'd have to deal in one night. Do you know what I mean?

Speaker 2: 1:16:06

So back in the boys own days, obviously, you signing bills and and record company taking care of things. But were you given, like, an actual wage

Speaker 1: 1:16:12

to live on as well? No. No. We we In the early days, we see a thirty quid a week, a week each, which was crazy. We got paid. Our first paycheck was ten grand each. And I remember when that paycheck came through, why Tyler's the richest man in Ireland? And how

Speaker 2: 1:16:29

long have you been in the bound men? Sorry? How long have you been in?

Speaker 1: 1:16:31

Two and a half years. That was the first time you're paying out of money. Yeah. The pipeline payments in the music business take a long time to come through. And now obviously, you're touring, and the touring is your own money. That's what to do with the record company. Now the bands of today, the legs are one direction where they were. They they signed what's called a three sixty deal. Right? Three sixty obviously being a full circle. So that means the record company I'm not doing what the record company used to, which is just through the records. Then you got your agent and your promoter to do the concerts. Then you got your merchandising company that do the merchandising, and it's all separate entities. The record could be changed on that, and they created what's called three sixty contracts for all the guys coming through like the x factor that might that might get a record deal. And then the guys coming through, they want the record deal. They just wanna sing wanna do what they love to do. Some of them wanna be really famous. Some of them just love the craft and they wanna sing. But they have no choice for to sign a three sixty deal. So the three sixty deal incorporated, your merchandise, and your ticket sales, every single thing you do.

Speaker 2: 1:17:31

It's better for you as an asset.

Speaker 1: 1:17:33

No. No. Because they for me to get the peace of everything then. You know what I mean? Like, that should be all yours.

Speaker 2: 1:17:39

I I I guess it maybe cuts both ways. Yeah. They a piece of everything, but they've also got to be, like, great reach to be able to be able to get you into flight flying.

Speaker 1: 1:17:46

But the comparison I'm making is the record deals of vol vols compared to the record is of now There's no money in the world of now. You're you're getting so okay. So twenty percent of something is better than a hundred percent than nothing. That's fair enough. Our record deal, which still stands in play, is one of the old ones. Yeah. So we'd still make money at the albums, but not a lot because I say, nobody's buying CDs and they anymore.

Speaker 2: 1:18:06

But you still, till this day, get paid for the thirty year old project?

Speaker 1: 1:18:10

Yeah. We would have residuals coming through. Royalties all the time. But you get that and everything. I mean, I did one show on BBC, I think it was called Death and Paradise. And it's a murder mystery show that shot over in Guadalupe, a French colony in the in the Caribbean. And I shot on one episode, I I played I have to base it in a band and I was the murderer. I killed the lead singer and it's who did a type thing. And it's it's I signed a deal, but the residuals that come in after every year. Just one episode. I kind of wish I had it on three of those episodes because it's it's it's unbelievable. But then you look at Coronation Street, and I I did coronation street on and off for ten years. And I still get paid from coronation street. I still get residuals from coronations. It's it's not like death and paradise is not as big as that I don't know why the difference is so big. But I still get residuals from it, but we used to get thirty seven percent repeat fee of episode fee. So if I was getting the thousand pounds in episode, I'll be getting three hundred and seventy pounds every time it was shown on an omnibus or on another program. And I'm I'm actually in the in the process of the moment to find me out. Am I entitled to that now? Because people are stopping me on the street. Because there's a big there's a whole rerun of all the coronation street episodes. I'm one of the channels at the moment. And it's it's obviously I've got a story line at the at the moment. So people for the first time in ages are stopping me again going, oh, you're a card in ages, you know. That was twenty years ago. And I was under a shell cult of hate. I played a body build in Coke Taylor and in this Irish drama, very, very good, very well written, very, very good show. I'm in series episodes or series four zero five. And that was great. And then there was another show and kind of a comedy show called The Job Lost And I did one episode of that, and I'm fixing the phones in the call center, the job center, basically. And it's very funny. So he just sent me the clips here today. And I I mean that, but they're all in Netflix. I haven't acted in years, and I'm on three different shows in Netflix. I'm trying to find out who owes me what.

Speaker 2: 1:20:11

You've you've mentioned your kids a couple of times while we've been having these chats. And obviously, you you've got you've got Jay and Mia. And how are they both now?

Speaker 1: 1:20:22

Jay recently turned twenty eight. He was born in ninety six. And me and my daughter, she's twenty four. She was born in two thousand. So I was actually in the big brother house on me as first birthday. I did a very, very first celebrity big brother, and that was back in two thousand and one. And Mia was born on the eleventh of March and I was in the house that day. And I got all the housemates that redid it for comically if we weren't being paid. Louis Walsh recently did celebrity big brother and He's been he's been noticeably bragging about getting paid six hundred thousand dollars. Right? Six hundred thousand pounds for doing it. We did it for free. And it's ironic that he's done it because I just left boys on at the time, we literally left at the end of nineteen ninety to two thousand. And I the first thing I did was celebrity big brother, which which was which was great for me because that's really what kind of got Karen Roberts, the executive producer of Coronation Street, and aware of who I was and what I because he wanted a large character in the in the soap and he has Irish heritage himself I'm waiting a minute to be taken care of as well. But me is twenty four. Me me it was one and I got all the cast members to senior happy birthday, but they didn't show it. They never put it out on air because they didn't want any favorability going on with with the voting. They didn't wanna give me an unfair advantage by by being so nice and caring. Jesus. My daughter's for his birthday. They shouldn't let me say, my wife had a fight when we wanna get out of the house because I didn't say, I'll be bridget to my daughter, and they're going to I wasn't in control of the editing, baby. You know? But yeah. Mia, my daughter Mia, which was about eighteen months old, we kind of thought she wasn't. Responding the way Jay had her older brother had four years previous. And we just we were a little bit concerned. We didn't know what what was quite the problem. She would do this kind of dancing thing with her arms and she'd get very over, over excited, overstimulator by the television and stuff like that. And and she was not there, but she wasn't really talking. So I had no idea the problem what was going on, but it was we didn't talk about it enough at all because we were afraid of what we might figure out. You know what I mean? It was a very, very scary time for a young family with a daughter and and you're thinking there might be a significant problem here, you know.

Speaker 2: 1:22:32

And is that how autism works and that you you don't find out pre birth, isn't it? You know, when you have all your baby, tests and stuff.

Speaker 1: 1:22:39

Yeah. No.

Speaker 2: 1:22:41

This doesn't show up.

Speaker 1: 1:22:42

No. No. And diagnosis is is is imperative Okay? The the early early intervention is essential for the future of the child. So a diagnosis is essential as early as you can because You can't access any of the services that you need if you don't have an an official diagnosis. But then in Ireland at the time, there was a three and a half year waitingist to the state to have a diagnosis done. They tell him the early intervention is essential. But yet, there's a train half of your weightings for diagnosis. So how can you help your child? So these are all the the issues. But I didn't know what autism was. I'd never heard of autism. I mean, it inherited the rainman and that and that type of thing, but that's not really a good understanding of what autism actually is, autism, spectrum disorder. And in in any spectrum disorder, it means it can be very, very mild and very, very extreme because it goes infinitely on both sides. I I had obviously, I was back in Ireland. I was trying to find out who I was. I was trying to figure out I left boys on a twenty six you know, my career effectively was over twenty six, and I needed to figure out what I was gonna do for the rest of my life. And I didn't know what it was gonna be singing or acting it. Present TV or radio. I didn't know why I knew I wanted to stay in the entertainment business, but I didn't know where I was where I belonged. So it was it was a tough tough time. But I had a familiar face, so people would often ask me to do charity work to promote the charity because if you have somebody with a familiar face, you might get a bit of press or media after back of it. So a friend of mine rang you when he said a friend of his was running a charity golfing event and I didn't play golf at the time. And he said he just wants to know, will he turn up to the golf club and get a photograph taken on the first tee? It would really, really support this charity. And I said, yeah. No problem. So I turned up, I met the guy who ran the charity, and and we swung the club on the first day, and all the press paparazzi were there. I had me in home in Dublin for years because I mean, I would be, but I wouldn't be out out there. I wouldn't be seeing there because I I don't wanna be able to see the family and I'd be gone again. So to get the opportunity to photograph me at the time where where it was called the journalists and all the photographers came out. So I was promoting his charity. I was once the charity is out, it's school that we put together and opened ourselves for the education and the intervention of children with autism. I said, what's autism? And he goes, well, my little girl has has autism and basically It's a neurological developmental disorder that can affect them, you know, learning difficulties. This is the whole array of different disabilities that seem to be related together through the word autism. And I kept asking them questions because every answer he gave me, I could I could relate it to my daughter. So I was getting really kind of emotional now because I'm top I'm I'm quite certain now that I figured out what the problem is with my daughter. She has autism. And he could see I was getting a little bit emotional, so he knew I was asking the questions for a reason. So he look, maybe my wife would be better to speak to than I am. So his wife came and sat down beside me and and we spoke. And I ultimately was was fighting the tears because then I knew I knew now. I I was certain now my daughter had autism and I was scared error in my mind. I didn't know what the fuck to do. I knew this was gonna break my wife's heart because she wouldn't know what to do either. So I remember going home. I rang my older brother, actually. And I was crying on the phone. I I left the golf course and I get into my jeep and I had blackout windows in the jeep. So I once again because the the lady came out with a four a wave of kibaiti from the God of course. And of course, I just wanted to cry. I started crying, but like I said, I had black windows. And I rang me all the brother. And I just said, I I was very emotional, the fellow to the building. I was like, where I where I was pissing down the rain. I was on the m fifty, which is the ring road outside the Dublin. And and it was dangerous because of the rains coming down and tears coming out of my eyes. I was very upset. And he said, look, just just just pull over. I'll be there in twenty minutes. So I pulled into the hair shower and my brother turned up and he said, look, just drive your car behind my line, I get your home. So he kind of driving from to me and I'm making a home. And he goes, look, I'm not coming in. This is gonna be a moment for you and your missus. So he said, I'll stay in the carrier's side. And if I don't hear from you in fifteen or thirty minutes, I go on home, I said, Great Grand. So I walked into the house And I'd realized my wife could see her being crying. She's she's, what's wrong with you? What's wrong with you? And I just said, look, I I think me has autism. And she gave me a smile across the face. Out of complete shock, and then he told me, and and me both cried. And that was the start of my journey. I realized is then the early intervention was essential, but it couldn't access it with ever diagnosis. The diagnosis is trained on half year waiting list. And so we're gonna have to find someone to do privately. And even to get the dorm privately down, there's no services available in Ireland, then I found lots of other parents that were going through the same shit that nobody wanted to look after their kids and nobody wanted to make tame the appropriate invention and and the tailored education that you need for a child in autism. So we just decided to do it ourselves as parents. We got the committee together. We started a boyish autism action. And I just drew myself right in to to learning and educating myself on what needed to be done. And that's how I dealt with it because as as Mia got older, she never spoke she never spoke to the seven. So But long long ago, no. No. It's not variable. Completely not variable. The first time we heard her voice, she came into the kitchen. I'll never forget, I had to hang over again, lime and the sofa, watch and tell you. And if she had to walk through this room to get to the kitchen there, She just walked ways, and she and she watched Annie, the musical Annie, over and over again. She had the same movies that she'd look at, and she'd watch here, the TV right here. And the, you know, the song tomorrow for many. Tomorrow, tomorrow, and she walked through singing that song. But she never spoken before. So it was like she was a deaf person trying to sing. Oh, like that. It was a sound. It was a noise. We knew what you could sing. We knew the song she was trying to sing. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. We were all bottling her. So It was just there was an amazing breakthrough. We had a system at Hong Kong, Texas. You remember, there was no smartphones. There was no iPads. There was no tablets. So we had Velcroed pieces of photo velcroed photographs to a chart of her bottle, her blanky, her favorite crisps, her favorite sweets. So when she wanted something, It's called the Pyxis, the Picture Exchange Communication. So she come in and and she play Anakos, show me on the chart. Show me on the chart. And she'd she'd pull off the the very cold of our milk, as I called girl, same milk, same milk, and this is what you have to do. And even if she just makes a stammer, she motor sculpted You go, good girl. Very good. Are you rewarded? It's it's rewarding all the time. And then you go to the fridge, get the the milk, which you don't let it take the milk. You go, say, thank you. She says, makes an effort to say thank you, and you go, you're welcome. And now she goes, put the characters back on the chart blah blah blah. But you've got to know where to take the chart away because they know they know they they're they're disability. They they understand it themselves and they use it to their own advantage. Right? So if you don't take the cards away in time, they'll get lazy with the speech. So you have to know. So the reason the day we knew to take the chart away. She she called that. She goes papa. I said, girl. I'll get the bubble. Hand the bubble. Say, say, thank you. She grabbed the airway, hand with you. You're welcome. She ran off. So, you know, and and she we we we opened a purpose school that had tailored education for the specific need of each individual child. There was a there was part of that tailored education from me was a thing called ABA. Applied behavioral analysis. It's in the form of education. I think it was developed and put together in Massachusetts, in the New England Center of Massachusetts, which is a great center for children with autism, really educated, children with young adults with autism. So we went and visited We went to visit the New England Centre in Massachusetts. And we we we we developed part of the ABA program in the school. And as part of the education, not solely. A lot of parents have children with autism that don't believe in ABA. They think it's a training in animal. They completely disagree. I can only disagree because I've seen the help that it has given me in educating my daughter. And me, you know, to let you know what, me is now me is twenty four now. She graduated from university two years ago with ASR honors. She's working for an American pharmaceutical company coding on three platforms and software development. She's got she's got a male companion who's a her friend. She she passed her driving test first time. She's unbelievable. She sets the barcel High for herself and she really needs to achieve. She always wants to be peer equal or better. And she talks in the middle of an American accent. But she's the most beautiful girl in the world, and she she she's my absolute heart. I love her to death. And her brother is so good with her, you know. He's four years older than her and he's always been her best friend and that takes care of her and and his girlfriend is very good for her too. So I'm very, very lucky. But, like, with the right diagnosis, at the right time, with the right intervention, it's it's disguised the limit, but you've gotta put the effort in. You've gotta put the time and the effort in. Parents have to put the time in the effort in, not expect somebody else to do it for them. They have to do it for themselves. And if they the the more time they invest in the child the bigger their investment will pay out later on in life for the for the quality of life that the child might have. You know, me is very content and happy. She's She's with me or she's with her mother most of the time, but she's very independent, and she's very happy within herself. And she's achieving our goals, which is which is the the main thing. There's a show on Netflix at the moment called Love and The Spectrum. And it's it's Every single kid is completely different, but there's so many similarities to having a childhood autism in the house. And it's amazing to see these families all over America live in so similarly to how we live with our daughter. And you just realize you're on your own, and there's a million families experiencing the same things. You know, high perform people high performing artists and children are young adults. They want to be loved. They want to be in a relationship. You know, they want all the things that we want for ourselves, you know. And and I experienced that with my daughter and me. But looking at love and expression, I can see the so many that the boys and girls like me out there, they all want the same thing. And and they suffer with the same anxieties. They suffer from the same stresses and and offsets. And and really, it's just if the rest of the world was to educate themselves a little bit more on autism and and, you know, understand they're trying to live in environment, whereas we should try even there for a while. And it just would make the world a much, much better place. But

Speaker 2: 1:33:05

it's been an absolute pleasure talking. Mean, like I said, at the beginning, we could make three episodes. We could probably make thirty three episodes out of this. So I hope we get to do around two again sometime soon, certainly, certainly go deeper on the autism story because I know know you've got plenty to talk about and how you how you've been raising money and and all the all the different philanthropic events you've done done over the years. So thanks a lot for being here, Mason.

Speaker 1: 1:33:27

Happening. It's been a great pleasure. Cheers.

Speaker 2: 1:33:29

Thanks for listening to strip it off with Matt Hacox. I hope you've enjoyed listening to this week's episode. But please remember to subscribe or to follow and please please leave a review. If you can leave a review, that's how we move up the algorithm. That's how we get to the top of the charts. That's how I can keep bringing you bigger and better guests that you'll love each week. Have you got any suggestions for guests If you got any burning questions you wanna ask, we'll slide into my DMs on social at stripping off with Matt Hacox.

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