Speaker 1: Quest. Yeah, welcome friends to the Christian O'Connell show podcast
Speaker 1: in the studio right now. Ronan Keating. If you need
Speaker 1: any reminding about the pedigree and the class of Ronan Keating.
Speaker 1: In the nineties, it was in one of the biggest
Speaker 1: boy bands in the world, boy Zone, huge all over
Speaker 1: the world. They sold back when there were records twenty
Speaker 1: six million songs around the world, and then goes on
Speaker 1: to having an even a bigger solo career, selling some
Speaker 1: of like twenty seven million records around the world. You
Speaker 1: might remember some of them when you say Nothing at All,
Speaker 1: which is in the movie notting Hill number one in
Speaker 1: seven different countries. Ronan, lovely to see you. You and
Speaker 1: I used to work in the same building. So Ronan
Speaker 1: and I were rivals on breakfast radio. We were listen
Speaker 1: to this us we were we were.
Speaker 2: No, not really, I was learning from you. I mean, look,
Speaker 2: I came in as the new boy, and I remember
Speaker 2: you had the big show at the Breakfast Show.
Speaker 1: Give me you're on the big salary. I prefer always
Speaker 1: preferred those way round. You. You had its stature. There's
Speaker 1: roaning money and then pay me.
Speaker 2: I mean, you were the man and honest to God
Speaker 2: like you you and who else was it?
Speaker 1: Richie? I used to do show Richie.
Speaker 2: I love it. Richie stayed around a long time afterwards.
Speaker 2: He's still there, he still he's still there. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I think Chris Evans and yourself were the two DJs
Speaker 2: that I would, you know, kind of listen to and
Speaker 2: and you know, take lesson from because I mean, you
Speaker 2: know what you're doing. I was the new boy on
Speaker 2: the block. I loved it seven years on radio.
Speaker 1: So you finished this year?
Speaker 2: Yeah, finished it, finished it and I walked out. I
Speaker 2: left and she ended June, I think, or end of July.
Speaker 1: And did you enjoy it?
Speaker 2: I did? I loved it.
Speaker 1: I was great fun. Radio was great fun.
Speaker 2: It was amazing. I learned so much about myself. What
Speaker 2: did you learn about yourself? Just you know, because I
Speaker 2: was sixteen when I joined the band, and I was
Speaker 2: on the other side of the desk. So I was
Speaker 2: being interviewed and I was, you know, I was fired
Speaker 2: question People were firing questions at me, and I was,
Speaker 2: you know, I was answering, whereas I was taking time
Speaker 2: to think about the artist that I was and the
Speaker 2: performer that I was. And you know, when I was
Speaker 2: sitting down with you know, Ed sheer In or whoever
Speaker 2: an interview in these sort of artists. I was thinking
Speaker 2: about myself and who I was, and and the answers
Speaker 2: that I gave, you know, a knee jerk reaction answers
Speaker 2: that I would have given. It's changed me. It's changed
Speaker 2: the way that I, you know, that I get interviewed.
Speaker 2: It's changed the way that I that I get on
Speaker 2: stage and perform. The things that I say between songs
Speaker 2: are different now when I'm on stage, it's it's really
Speaker 2: it's bizarre but brilliant.
Speaker 1: And also, do you have an even greater appreciation because look,
Speaker 1: our stories are storytellers, right, don't you have an even
Speaker 1: greater appreciation joy hearing stories as well? Yeah, because radio
Speaker 1: is its best. It's a storytelling me.
Speaker 2: You it absolutely is. It is. It's telling stories. It's
Speaker 2: been in people's lives as well. You know, we were
Speaker 2: talking about it before the show. You know that the
Speaker 2: years that we went through COVID and being in people's So,
Speaker 2: did you still go into London? Yeah? Yeah, Well I
Speaker 2: did a lot of the shows from home because that's
Speaker 2: what they wanted. They wanted us to be at home
Speaker 2: out of the studios and obviously not in close proximity
Speaker 2: with each other. So I did the show. But when
Speaker 2: I did start to go back and you realize, you know,
Speaker 2: you're in people's bedrooms and bathrooms and.
Speaker 1: You're be careful with that. That b be a tell. Yeah bedroom, bedrooms,
Speaker 1: but that's why you've had to quit that kitchens Yeah yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: room but no, you know.
Speaker 2: You were really you know, people didn't communicate with each other,
Speaker 2: so we were communicating. We were telling the stories like
Speaker 2: you say, and and and they were really listening and
Speaker 2: it was very very special.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well we did. Obviously you're in Melbourne, so we
Speaker 1: we had a pretty nifty cheek two years. But it
Speaker 1: was it was a privilege to actually be on the radio. Yeah, time,
Speaker 1: it really was. It really was. And so why have
Speaker 1: you just had enough? The hours?
Speaker 2: It's a lot. Yeah, I mean your granddad now, I'm
Speaker 2: a granddad now. It is as you know, it ages you,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: Getting it out of it. You're like, there's no aging
Speaker 1: on you twenty one.
Speaker 2: I'm twenty one, forty seven year old. No like getting
Speaker 2: up early every single morning, well five days a week.
Speaker 2: But also it's trying to go to bed early the
Speaker 2: night before, and what that does to me because I
Speaker 2: was the night oul. I was going to bed super
Speaker 2: late because I've becoming off stages or whatever, and then
Speaker 2: you can't wind down. It takes ages, so you're not
Speaker 2: in bed till two or three in the morning. Then
Speaker 2: you sleep in in the morning. And that whole shift
Speaker 2: in my life was quite dramatic, and I enjoyed it
Speaker 2: for a while, but then I really started to grade
Speaker 2: on me and all the things that I missed out on.
Speaker 2: You know, I'd have to say no, I couldn't go
Speaker 2: to dinners, I couldn't go out see friends because I
Speaker 2: was going home and getting to bed earlier.
Speaker 1: I just thought, look, I can't do the early bed thing.
Speaker 1: I still don't go to a nine till ten. I
Speaker 1: just can't do that. Dallas Man on the radio, Look
Speaker 1: the kids are putting you to bed. I know they're
Speaker 1: going dance to light where they think in dance a
Speaker 1: light way. You got to bed at seven o'clock, you see, alcoholic,
Speaker 1: That's what.
Speaker 2: Some of the people on the shows would do. They've
Speaker 2: got to bed seven or eight o'clock at day. I said, what,
Speaker 2: it's only when you start to get a bit of
Speaker 2: time then before the kids to bed and you get
Speaker 2: to sit down and watch a box set or whatever
Speaker 2: the hell you set.
Speaker 1: Well, you've got DVD exactly, TV series what you call
Speaker 1: the plenty you're gonna watch? Where's watch a DVD or
Speaker 1: place academy?
Speaker 2: Oh, now you're talking.
Speaker 1: So will you ever come back to radio?
Speaker 2: No? No, no, I look seven brilliant years. I love
Speaker 2: the team on Magic that Got One has actually just
Speaker 2: replaced me. Harriet Scott and Got one now are doing
Speaker 2: breakfast and it's just been announced. It's great. I have
Speaker 2: a great relationship.
Speaker 1: I left.
Speaker 2: You know a lot of somebody said to me when
Speaker 2: I was leaving, there's not a lot of people that
Speaker 2: get clapped when they leave a radio shop, clapped out
Speaker 2: the door, you know.
Speaker 1: No, you're right. It's an amazing thing, isn't Everyone should
Speaker 1: be clapped out when they leave a job they've been doing.
Speaker 1: Quite us, it was the best thing in the world, right,
Speaker 1: you've obviously had, you know, standing ovations and stuff. Being
Speaker 1: clapped out of your own workplace, what's amazing.
Speaker 2: It was amazing. And somebody said to me, there's a
Speaker 2: lot of people that, you know, they literally they get
Speaker 2: told to clear out their desk and they're not coming
Speaker 2: back tomorrow. You know. It's that kind of thing when
Speaker 2: you get thrown out of radio almost so I guess
Speaker 2: it was. You know, I went out on a high,
Speaker 2: seven brilliant years. I just want to get back to
Speaker 2: making some music and spending time with my family and
Speaker 2: my kids and my wife. And yeah, that's the real
Speaker 2: decision why I decided.
Speaker 1: So let me tell you this. Right yesterday I googled
Speaker 1: you just to check you out and been canceled. You
Speaker 1: know these days.
Speaker 2: Good Look, I hope you haven't.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, it's all good. It's all good. And
Speaker 1: the first headline I saw from the good old Daily
Speaker 1: Man is that you have quietly key wedding, quietly moved
Speaker 1: to Australia. Is a little suitcase here.
Speaker 2: Quite loud about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, we've had a I lost my brother last
Speaker 2: year and it's been Yeah, it was tough. It's been
Speaker 2: really really tough on all of us.
Speaker 1: The family, and it must have been devastating.
Speaker 2: Yeah it's you know, a year later and I'm finding
Speaker 2: that I haven't really started to deal with it, to
Speaker 2: be honest. So we decided we were reevaluating life. We
Speaker 2: wanted to be around Storm's fam My wife's Australian. We
Speaker 2: wanted to be down here with the family and be
Speaker 2: around them and the kids also, as you know, the
Speaker 2: Ausie way of life is an amazing way of life
Speaker 2: and we wanted to keep the kids that opportunity while
Speaker 2: they're still young enough. So the kids are in school
Speaker 2: in Sydney, we're here from that.
Speaker 1: They loving It's a different lifestyle. It's my god, they
Speaker 1: love it.
Speaker 2: I asked them. I actually said to them the other
Speaker 2: day I was walking them to school. How cool. I
Speaker 2: walked the kids to school. I was walking them to
Speaker 2: school and I said, where do you prefer to go
Speaker 2: to school, guys, and the in England or here? And
Speaker 2: they both said, hands down here here, Dad love it.
Speaker 2: The teachers are so nice. That's actually what they said.
Speaker 2: The teachers are so.
Speaker 1: This is a much more positive, friendly country. And look,
Speaker 1: you know, we are both from countries where you can
Speaker 1: get in the sea. You just need a lot of
Speaker 1: jabs and medication afterwards. Cold either it's cold, that's putting
Speaker 1: it mildly.
Speaker 2: It's cold, it's damp. It's the damp. It's got me,
Speaker 2: you know it. And only people that have been in
Speaker 2: what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: It's the damn So is this home now? Have you
Speaker 1: quietly moved to Australia? You just here for a while.
Speaker 2: We're here for a while. We're going to probably be
Speaker 2: here at the back end of every year for the
Speaker 2: next four or five years, kind of chasing the sun
Speaker 2: a little bit. We're going to go back to the
Speaker 2: UK for summer next year, but we'll Yeah, we're here
Speaker 2: for a while and I don't see that changing.
Speaker 1: Awesome. Yeah, Lord, Now tell me this. We had a
Speaker 1: look on chat gpt right time ten roading. You ever
Speaker 1: put yourself into chat ChiPT.
Speaker 2: No, I don't even know what that is, right, honest
Speaker 2: to god, you.
Speaker 1: Don't know what chat chept is? Of course you do?
Speaker 2: Ai oh Ai, yeah, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1: Well called a chat gpt, right, is this right? You
Speaker 1: were a trade you were a carpenter. No chat gpt.
Speaker 1: They're raving about it. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean we built a house in the over the
Speaker 2: last five years.
Speaker 1: When you say weed, do you mean obviously got people
Speaker 1: into do well? Yeah, but you know we got ripped
Speaker 1: off by dodgy builders. Yeah, we got ripped off.
Speaker 2: In this country.
Speaker 1: There's a bad reputation about some Irish builders. Well, the
Speaker 1: Irish builders didn't rip you off.
Speaker 2: There was English and Irish are involved, and they ripped
Speaker 2: us off.
Speaker 1: And the hell rips off ron.
Speaker 2: We call it pop star attacks. Honestly, I was talking
Speaker 2: to Ed Sheer and he got shafted as well.
Speaker 1: Right, there's got some dodgy guttering or drive.
Speaker 2: It was a little bit more than that. But my
Speaker 2: wife ended up taking on the job of construction company,
Speaker 2: set up a construction company. She became the architect, she
Speaker 2: became everything. She did the whole job. I was on site.
Speaker 2: I'd come home from magic breakfast and.
Speaker 1: You will barrow put on.
Speaker 2: I was near I being, you know, drilling me hand
Speaker 2: or whatever. I wasn't believable baptism afar. I remember there
Speaker 2: was lads putting plaster borderup and and I came in
Speaker 2: and says, what can I do? When he says, oh, well,
Speaker 2: you wouldn't cut that plaster border, I didn't have to
Speaker 2: cut plaster board. So I went outside YouTube how do
Speaker 2: you put plaster? Figured that out, started cutting up the
Speaker 2: plaster board and bringing it in. Idy great job.
Speaker 1: I didn't know you had a trade pass.
Speaker 2: No I didn't. I was I worked in a shoe
Speaker 2: shop before Boys On?
Speaker 1: Is it crazy? So you go to that bad at sixteen?
Speaker 1: You know, now you're a dad and you see what
Speaker 1: sixteen is like you still a young kid.
Speaker 2: Yeah, My eldest boy is twenty five, so it's mad.
Speaker 2: By the time I was twenty five, I had left
Speaker 2: Boys On and and I had had him my boy,
Speaker 2: and it gets crazy. Yeah, yeah, I mean life's it's
Speaker 2: thirty years Christian, thirty thirty one years now since I
Speaker 2: joined them.
Speaker 1: But how do you look back on that periody with
Speaker 1: life now? Can you see it differently? Do you appreciate
Speaker 1: it in a different way? Because I think you guys
Speaker 1: were so famous, like megastars famous.
Speaker 2: Well, to be honest with you, it feels like a
Speaker 2: different per I don't you know. I look at it
Speaker 2: and I think I'm looking at somebody else's life. We don't.
Speaker 2: I was just talking to someone about it yesterday. Bless
Speaker 2: them that the awful news are youngly in pain on
Speaker 2: what happened. And you know, I think that the record
Speaker 2: industry has a lot to answer for with the way
Speaker 2: that artists are protected as such, especially at such.
Speaker 1: A young age.
Speaker 2: He was sixteen, I believe when he when he drew
Speaker 2: in one direction. You know, we didn't get any training.
Speaker 2: There's no media training. Nobody comes and tells you how
Speaker 2: to do an interview or or what to say or
Speaker 2: you know, how you should say something or whatever whatever.
Speaker 2: You know, there's nothing there. And I think they need
Speaker 2: to be protected, like when you do the Voice or
Speaker 2: you do X Factor, any of these shows, we have
Speaker 2: basically psychologists who are there on hand to help need that.
Speaker 1: Yeah they do.
Speaker 2: You know, they get the chair doesn't turn, or you know,
Speaker 2: they get told that it wasn't a great performance or whatever.
Speaker 2: You know, they devastated, so you need somebody to help
Speaker 2: them down easy, you know. And none of that was
Speaker 2: there for supply for boys home when we were sixteen
Speaker 2: and sometimes as God knows how scared I am now,
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: But I'm look.
Speaker 2: I tried to keep me feet on the ground and
Speaker 2: realize that I don't believe the hype too much. People
Speaker 2: need to be protected more in this in this bloody
Speaker 2: famous world or whatever that means.
Speaker 1: And you know we do because the pressures there they
Speaker 1: are under now way more than ever before. Yeah scary,
Speaker 1: I mean social media have skilled Do you want to
Speaker 1: be in a boy band? Now, I don't think I
Speaker 1: would be honest with you, rather be a coppenter. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I run past board.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, I think what's a good better at us?
Speaker 1: This is a guy you've sold about fifty million? What
Speaker 1: any former middle aged boy band?
Speaker 2: Perfect? Well, actually I was talking to Gary Barlow. He's
Speaker 2: in Australia at the moment.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: You take that boys out here and I was seeing
Speaker 2: them tomorrow. Gary and I I think we have we've
Speaker 2: kind of well, we've lived a very similar life, but
Speaker 2: both of yeah, i'm're at a very similar stage in
Speaker 2: our lives now. Yeah, maybe we will start a band.
Speaker 1: The to of us.
Speaker 2: We've been talking about doing something together. So maybe that's
Speaker 2: what you do.
Speaker 1: You know, what is time for a middle age old
Speaker 1: boy band? There you go, Yeah, our cell tours. You
Speaker 1: just do afternoon shows. Come on, we can sell a
Speaker 1: little bit modern r please.
Speaker 2: Christen's mike.
Speaker 1: Face that I said.
Speaker 2: I know what they are.
Speaker 1: They're a good time.
Speaker 2: They're a good time. All right, you do a few
Speaker 2: warm up okay, great, yeah, we do the warm up there,
Speaker 2: that's a good Then you go to the MCG Now
Speaker 2: I like way you've gone.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, thanks, Now tell us about Oaks Stay. You're looking
Speaker 1: forward to performing?
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, performing today, and I've been at Melbourne all
Speaker 2: week obviously. I performed on Tuesday at Melbourne Cup with
Speaker 2: Ricky Lee one hundred thousand people. The reception was phenomenal.
Speaker 2: It was really it was incredible. I kind of put
Speaker 2: out the mic at the end of one of the
Speaker 2: songs and they sang the line back to me and
Speaker 2: it was just this wall of voices. It was so powerful.
Speaker 2: It was really special. So you're very much looking forward
Speaker 2: to performing today. You show me someone who's owned a horse.
Speaker 1: I have.
Speaker 2: Yeah, big mistake, huge, huge, huge. Did you lose money?
Speaker 2: Give anyone advice done by a horse? I lost a fortune? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Didn't win anything, it did.
Speaker 2: Actually we did have one wine down in Limerick somewhere
Speaker 2: in Ireland, one of the big major tournaments. Yeah, it
Speaker 2: was a major. I think we sold him after that.
Speaker 2: I wasn't going to get any better.
Speaker 1: It was a nightmare, all right. Lovely to see you
Speaker 1: man too.
Speaker 2: You really well. I don't know about that. Thank you,
Speaker 2: you do too. It's like a smile on your face,
Speaker 2: you know how to smile, And I no, no, I didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't smile, so I was forty six.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much for coming in.
Speaker 1: Thanks christ The Christian O'Connell Show podcast