Tony Cowell chats to Brian McFadden
Aformer member of Westlife, Dubliner Brian McFadden’s old group sold over 50 million records. In 2017, the 40-year-old joined forces with Boyzone’s Keith Duffy to form Boyzlife. Here, Brian opens up about the lads having to cancel their tour when lockdown started, and why he’s postponed his planned wedding to his fiancée, Rochdale PE teacher Danielle Parkinson. The star was previously married to Kerry Katona (with whom he has two daughters – Molly, 18, and Lilly, 17) and model Vogue Williams. Here, Brian opens up about the Boyzlife debut album, recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and his friendshp with Keith…
In 2017, you formed Boyzlife with Keith Duffy – were you surprised by your success together?
It was only supposed to be a one-off idea, but after the first tour sold out, we did a second one – and we realised people wanted to hear all those songs we did with Westlife and Boyzone. So, we became a band and have just released our debut album. We just never planned for that kind of success, so I’m really grateful to the fans.
How do you get along with Keith? You two seem close.
We’re best mates.
We both had that experience of being in hugely successful boybands, so we were friends before we got together as Boyzlife. We’ve never have an argument, we like being in each other’s company – we have kind of grown up together and we both like to speak our minds. We’re both in our 40s now, but we still feel like we’re 19. We love a drink and a party, we have the same silly sense of humour and we play golf together. It’s pretty good.
You were in the middle of a tour when lockdown happened, weren’t you?
Yes, we literally had to just stop everything! I went home to Manchester and have sat there for three months watching the rain fall. But, to be honest, being in lockdown was good for me to reconnect with the family and spend some time with Danielle – I’ve actually really enjoyed it.
Have you been able to spend time
with your daughters?
I was lucky, I had Molly with me for two weeks here at home, and I’ve been spending lots of time on Zoom and FaceTime with Lilly, who is with my parents in Ireland – so it was good to be able to see her, if only on a screen. I’ve loved every minute of it.
Is it true you had to postpone your wedding because of Coronavirus?
Well, it was planned for next summer and I wanted to take the whole of next summer off, get married and go on honeymoon – but I’m not sure I can do that now, because our tour has been moved to next summer. It’s all OK, we are not in any rush. We’re still getting married, we just haven’t picked a date yet.
On the new album you work with an orchestra – how was that experience?
It was amazing. We wanted to do an album of original songs, but we thought before we do that, we need to wrap up the past 20 years of our life by doing those Westlife and Boyzone songs that everyone loves – but this time, with the Royal Philharmonic.
Your new single, Swear
It Again, was Westlife’s first-ever hit, in April 1999, to go to number one...
I will never forget it, because it was my 19th birthday and it was the first song I had recorded with Westlife. I’ve been singing that song for almost 22 years, so it’s completely drilled into my head. But I have so many fond memories of that period of my career. There was no social media in those days, so you had to wait for the midweek charts, to find out if you had made it to number one.
So, Simon [Cowell] would phone Louis [ Walsh] and then Louis would phone us with the good news!
Louis Walsh was the
‘Keith and I are best mates...We’ve never had an argument. We have the same silly sense of humour’
powerhouse behind the band, wasn’t he?
Louis had a vision with Boyzone – he wanted an Irish boyband to rival Take That, so that’s why Westlife happened. What Louis wanted with Westlife was to ensure we had what he called ‘forever songs’, ones that would stand the test of time. I never got along with Louis while I was in the band – it was only afterwards that we became firm friends.
Do you ever regret leaving Westlife?
No, I wouldn’t change a thing. It was right for me at that time. I had had enough of all the touring. I wanted my life back. Nowadays, I am much happier in my life. Every time I go out on stage, I’m thinking, this could be the last time, so being older, I have a different mind-set. Nothing lasts forever. I appreciate what I’ve got.
Last year, you competed on Dancing on Ice – any plans for more reality TV?
Not really! I didn’t really plan being on those shows, either. When that opportunity came along, Keith had got back with Boyzone to do their final album, so it came at the right time for me – to fill my time! These things happen for a reason.
Boyzlife’s debut album
Strings Attached with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is out now. Tickets for their UK tour are on sale now.