Interviews - RONAN KEATING – 10 YEARS OF HITS Tour Programme interview

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“I don’t know anything else. I’m not a plumber or a carpenter; this is all I know.  I’ll never be complacent about it and I’ll always want to push myself on.  It’s absolutely still my dream job.  It gets better with years and with experience and I hope, please God, I can still be here in 10 years. 

That’s all I want”

Ten years on from signing his very first record deal, no one – especially not Ronan Keating himself – could have predicted he would now be celebrating an incredible decade of top 10 hits.  In that time, Ronan has toured the world many times over, sold over 30 million records and yet still can’t believe his luck.

“I had hopes and dreams when I started,” he remembers today with a smile, “and I wanted it to last this long but you never think it will.  You just don’t.  But then, I didn’t think I was going to join Boyzone.  I certainly didn’t think I was going to leave Boyzone and become a solo artist so I could never have predicted all this.  These things just happen and it’s all been amazing.”

The momentous anniversary and the greatest hits Ronan has released to mark it, have also provided him with a welcome opportunity to look back on some great years and amazing experiences.  Though Ronan has been singing as long as he can remember and grew up in Dublin, Ireland surrounded by music, his career first really kicked off the day he chanced upon an advert asking singers to audition for a new band being put together.  Having spent his teenage years singing covers of Bryan Adams and Nirvana in another local band he had left a year previously, Ronan figured he may as well give this new band a try, not for one minute suspecting his decision might shape his future in a way he could never dream possible.

“I had just turned 16 and I remember getting there and the hall was filled with guys of all shapes and sizes, all these really cool looking guys that were much older than me.  I just remember thinking I had no chance, I was never going to get in this band,” Ronan says.  “Everyone else there was signing ‘Careless Whisper’ anyway and I thought, I can’t sing that song! It’s too difficult! So I sang Father And Son instead, then they asked me back the next week and they picked me again and I was in the band.  I could not believe it.”

At that stage, Ronan had no idea what was in store for the band.  As far as he was concerned, they’d already made it.

“I didn’t care what happened then.  I didn’t care whether we were promised the sun, moon and stars; I just wanted to be in the band.  We were all young guys and it was like a youth club at the start, we just got on like a house on fire.  We’d get a few cans of beer and drive around to gigs in a white transit van, getting paid £60 a night.  It was brilliant.  All our dreams had come true just like that.”

He laughs when he remembers his first small brushes with fame.

“Honestly I thought I was famous the first day I joined the band! We all did.  The band was formed on the Thursday night and the next night we went on The Late Late Show so by Saturday morning we all thought we were fucking superstars, strutting down O’Connell Street! It was very funny.  I remember at the time I was working in a shoe shop and people started coming in saying, ‘oh you’re the guy from that band’, then young girls started coming in and not buying shoes so the manager got a bit pissed off!”

Of course, that was nothing compared to what was to come for Boyzone.

“When we came over to the UK for the Smash Hits tour it went really mad! We were walking onto the stage with 10,000 kids watching and we were only kids ourselves.  Everyone was just going crazy, it was unbelievable.  That was really when I thought, my God, this is incredible, what a feeling.  When you’re 17, you just get on with it and it becomes part of life.  I enjoyed every minute.”

The band also gave Ronan his first opportunity to travel the world, something that has remained a passion ever since.

“I remember places like Bangkok just blew my mind.  Holy shit! What a place! It was like nothing else I’d ever seen in my life before, only on the TV.  This incredibly colourful, wild, hot country where all these people are so wired and have so much energy.  Everything runs on 100 miles an hour there.  Obviously the down side is then you start to experience jet lag for the first time and you’re awake at 3 O’clock in the morning, a million miles away from home with no one to talk to and you just feel so lonesome.  When you’re 17 that messes up your head so it was a great time but it was bizarre too.”

When the time came to pick just three songs from that era to complete Ronan’s 10 years of hits album, there was no doubt which songs were still special to him and reminded him of all those good times.  Without hesitation, he chose ‘Father And Son’, ‘Words’ and ‘Baby can I hold you’.

“They were all really important songs to me, “Ronan explains.  “I knew ‘Father And Son’ because my brother Gary used to listen to a Cat Stevens album constantly and I knew every word so I sang it at the Boyzone audition.  Then when the band released it as a single, Yusuf (Cat Stevens) came down to Top of the pops with his son to see us performing it and Mikey and I got chatting with him and we stayed in touch and he’s become a good friend.  When it came to recording this album, I felt it was probably the most important song of the 10 years for me because it’s stayed with me constantly.  It was amazing to work with Yusuf for this album too.  He’s a very peaceful, gentle man and it was fantastic that he wanted to be involved”.

‘Words’ marked the beginning of an important relationship for Ronan too.

“Through that song, I got to know the Gibb family,” he says.  “They welcomed me in and I had an opportunity to write with them in Miami which was amazing so obviously there’s a lot of good memories that go with that song.  It was a great time in the band when we released it too.   Everyone was on good form, Boyzone were doing really well and it was actually our first number one.  And ‘Baby can I hold you…’ is just a favourite song more than anything else.  A good friend of mine put together a compilation tape for us lads when we were on the road and one of the songs on it was that and I remember listening to it thinking God, we should record this song and I called Louis and he agreed.”

Most of all, Ronan was pleased his greatest hits gave him the opportunity to re-record such classics and put them alongside his own solo hits. 

“It was sentimental recording them again.  It was really cool to listen back to all the old albums and bring up the good memories and look at the photos again.  It was really nice to do that again and I hope that on the re-recordings I have done justice to the songs and made them my own again.”

Hearing all his songs side by side on one record even shocked Ronan himself.

“I found it hard to believe I’d even had that many singles!” he exclaims.  “It amazed me.  I just got an award from the Guinness Book of Records for having 30 consecutive top 10 singles and it was madness! It was a real honour.  To be honest, I never set myself a goal to get to 10 years or bring out a best of album or anything like that.  It was never part of the plan.  The record company came to me and told me it was that long since I signed a deal so it’d be a cool way to go out on a high at the end of the year and then be able to take a break to make the next album.  I just feel relieved that I’ve lasted this long – I can’t believe it”!

The icing on the cake came when the greatest hits debuted in the UK charts at number one.  “I was delighted.  I got a call on the Tuesday when the midweek charts came out and I normally never take notice of them because it can change by Sunday but I was told I was outselling REM two to one at that point.  By Sunday we were outselling them three to one, which was such an honour because I’m a real fan of theirs.  I sold 100,000 albums in that first week and it just felt really nice to be back and know people still wanted me and were still interested.”

The album features every one of Ronan’s solo hits, from the upbeat classic pop of ‘Rollercoaster’ to the gentle lull of ballads including ‘She believes (In me) and, the song that kicked it all off, ‘When you say nothing at all’.

“We all felt a bit stuck in the mud with Boyzone and were at the stage where we all wanted a change so we decided to take a break.  Then Richard Curtis called up and said he’s like me to sing the song for his movie he was making.  He’d picked the song and everything.  I was basically just the voice to fill the shoes and it was just meant to a one-off.  But because that was so successful, the label came to me and said they’d like me to record an album on my own.  It was a massive gamble after having four number one albums with Boyzone.  To think that I could just turn around and do it on my own was very brave and very cocky of me looking back on it now but four albums later, here we are!”

Ronan has always used his solo career as a chance to push his own boundaries and experiment with his music, trying his hand at writing along the way and constantly working with different people to test possibilities of his sound.  As the greatest hits illustrates perfectly, each of his albums has a different flavour, a testament to where Ronan was in own life when each was recorded and what music he was listening to at the time.  His first album ‘Ronan’ released in 2000 was a chance for Ronan to see what he was capable of after years of being a band member, while enjoying his new found freedom.

“Being on tour is the best thing of all! That’s the best thing about making music and being in the business.  It’s your world.  It’s the only time of life I don’t have to work to a schedule! The day is yours.”

“That was a great time,” he admits.  “I just remember travelling around the world going to Asia and Australia and I remember my leather trousers that I’ll never wear again! They were very dodgy! How I thought I’d get away with that, I’ll never know but we all make those mistakes! It was a great time though, I had a lot of energy and I was focused and making it up as I went along.  It was bizarre but brilliant.  Originally when I first went out alone, It was scary but I had my band around me and they’ve been like a family to me on the road ever since.”

The album spawned three successful singles (Life is a rollercoaster, The way you make me feel and Lovin’ each day) and saw Ronan reach a whole new audience with his music, establishing himself as a solo star in his own right.  Elton John was so impressed by Ronan he asked him to join him on stage in New York for a duet of ‘Your song’.  To this day, the memory of sharing a stage with one of his heroes is still hard for the 27 year old to believe.  “It was nerve wracking!” he laughs.  “I did it twice too.  To sing with him at Madison Square Garden was the toughest.  To get an audience that didn’t know who you I was, was really nerve wracking, I’ll never forget it.  My knees went from under me.  My mouth went bone dry.  I could’ve done with a drink before hand! It was an experience though! And he’s wonderful.  He’s a true professional, a legend. Whatever happens, he’s make it work and make it look great and sound great, but you want to try and make it your own and then be the best that you can be so that’s what makes you as nervous as you can get.  I was a mess, I can tell you! I’ll never forget it.  And then, just when I thought that was bad s you could get, I sang in Dublin with him which was even worse.  In front of my own audience who knew what to expect.  You can’t win!”

The debut album also spawned a friendship and writing partnership with former New Radicals front man, Greg Alexander, and the pair took six months out in 2001 to write Ronan’s follow up.  While focused on that, Ronan’s home life kept him busy too.  Happily married to wife Yvonne, the couple had their second child, Marie, in the same year, two years after their son Jack was born.

“It was a massive deal having two children, “he remembers.  “One is one but two is like having four, it’s a big change.  It was unbelievable though to have a beautiful boy and a beautiful girl and we were so happy, over the moon.  The records were doing well and we were all able to travel together back then.  It was great.”

In fact, Ronan credits his family for his success in his career.

“They keep my feet on the ground which is very important to me and they’ve given me stability which has allowed me to stay away from that world of celebrity.  They are my world now.  They give me a focus and a reason for what I do but also they allow me to look at what I do differently too, in a much more light hearted way as only kids can only do.  I just try and be as normal as possible with them.  Go to the park with them and bring them to places they want to go to but just never involve them in this world.  It’s very easy to do that to be honest.”  The short time away from the spotlight allowed Ronan to concentrate on other things that really mattered to him as well.  In particular he chose to focus his efforts on the Marie Keating Foundation, a charity the Keating family established after Ronan’s mother died from breast cancer in early 1998.  “We basically have the three units that we’ve put out on the road in Ireland.  They’re education units where you can go on board and talk to a nurse and be referred to a specialist or just ask questions about anything you’re not sure of.  They’re expensive to run so we’re constantly raising money, and I can basically just help create a bit of attention for that”.

In November 2001, Ronan also traveled to Thailand to see the work children’s charity UNICEF are doing there in the fight against AIDS.  He visited youth groups, a specialist AIDS hospital and the homes of families affected by the disease.  “I was sent me some information about what was going on in Thailand and it just blew my mind.  They showed me pictures of kids and told me their stories and when you have children themselves, it breaks your heart.  I just thought people needed to know about it because we’re very naïve at home and ignorant about what’s going on outside our own background.  It was a very hard trip for me and emotionally it messed me up but it was very worthwhile and I hope that I at least brought some attention to the subject.”

Upon his return, Ronan began to work in earnest on his second solo album ‘Destination’, finally released in May 2002.  It confirmed Ronan wasn’t just a former boy band star who had fluked solo success but a singer set to around for some time to come.

“I worked a lot with Gregg Alexander on that album and we found a sound together that was quite up tempo, which was different for me because my albums have always been very ballad driven.  It was very exciting.  Though I kind of went a different route and we worked with a new stylist and I tried some quirky photographers but it was all a bit too cool for me really looking back on it!  It was a great experience though and I loved the album but afterwards, I had to have a bit of a rethink.”

The album included some of Ronan’s most popular hits, though, including the cheekily energetic ‘I love it when we do’ and the swagger of ‘Lovin’ each day, plus a gorgeous duet with Lulu in ‘We’ve got tonight’.  “Lulu was fantastic”, Ronan recounts.  “She’s the real deal.  She’s been around for along time and she’s an institution in the UK.  When she was making her duets album she asked me to come on board and it was great to work with her, it was very cool.  She’s got a lot of energy and she sings live and I’ve got a lot of respect for her.”

After Destination, Ronan was ready for a complete change and so started his new album with a different manager on board.

“The reason I left Louis is he wasn’t managing me and I don’t blame him, he had a lot of other bands on his books and he had no time for me.  It was an ongoing thing for a while and I do miss him though and I miss his friendship but the thing is, he’s got a hundred shots at this with all his bands and I’ve only got one so I have to get it right.”

Most importantly of all, Ronan began writing more of his own material, something he had been yearning to do for years.

“I love to write but I’m not the sort of person who believes I have to put all my songs on the album.  I just want to make the best album possible.  I love to write though and I’m going to continue to write for this next album as soon as possible.  I haven’t always found it easy to do it though!  There’s times when I can’t wait to do it and I have loads of ideas and there’s times when I just can’t.  I have to be in the mood and have an idea and the have the right frame of mind but when I do it, I really enjoy it.”

The resulting third album, ‘Turn it on’ was a triumph even by Ronan’s standards.  Though it didn’t quite repeat the chart success of his previous two records, it marked the emergence of a new, more mature sound and gave Ronan’s voice the chance to truly shine within that.

‘Turn it on’ was the best album I made I think,” Ronan reflects, “and if you ask any of the fans, they all agree.  It just wasn’t driven by that one big ballad to launch it.  I brought out the wrong single first and I believe that really did affect that album but you learn from those mistakes and that’s ok.  The songs that I wrote on that album and that I co-wrote and that I recorded that other people wrote are the best songs I’ve ever sung.  I was proud of it.”          

“I had hopes and dreams when I started.  But then I could have never have predicted all this.  These things just happen and it’s all been amazing.”

Another highlight of making the record was a recoding with LeAnn Rimes, in whom Ronan found a kindred spirit.

“LeAnn and I are similar people and similar artists.  I think we sell records to the same people and we’re of the same frame of mind. We treat people the same way and we have the same work ethic so working with her was very easy and I’m a great fan of her voice.  She’s a real talent so it was just great to work with her.  She was cool.”

The single’s success, however, led Ronan off another round of promotion and traveling, which eventually, unfortunately, resulted in the singer being hospitalised from overwork.  He admits the experience has changed the way he works and forced him to slow down.

“I definitely try not to work as hard as I used to work,” he admits.  “I take more time off and I only fly once a day now.  I just take things a little slower and little more stress free.  I think it all just caught up with me after ten years!”.

Certainly, he now cherishes every moment of free time and tries hard to get the balance right between his hectic work schedule and time at home with his family.

“I like to just be at home, watching the kids grow up and bringing them to school,” he explains.  “Apart from that, motorcycles are my passion too. I’m building a motorcycle next year from ground up so I’m very excited about that.  It’d be great to try some acting too, if I get the chance.  It’s something very different and it would be an incredible challenge and I don’t know I’d be any good at it but I’d have a go at if it something came up.”

After a European tour in February, Ronan will also be concentrating on writing and recording a stunning new album, set to be released towards the end of 2005.

“I don’t want people to think that I’m going away or that’s it or anything.  This greatest hits was more to close this chapter and move on to the next one and that’s what I’ll be doing next year.  I’ll be doing some festivals through the summer but my focus is on the album and making the best album possible for the fans.  I’ve made mistakes in the past and I have to remember who I’m making these records for.  So I’ll be quiet for while but I‘ll still be busy!”

Until then, Ronan will celebrate the last ten memorable years in style with his current tour; a long awaited chance for him to play all the songs that have sound tracked our lives over the last decade.  “Obviously it’s a greatest hits tour so I’m going to give you all the songs from the 10 years and a couple of new ones too I’m going to perform a couple of new songs that I’ve just written because I want to show this ’10 years of hits’ is not an end to anything.  The new ones will hopefully give people a taste and let them know what’s coming.  Apart from that, it’s just a rock’n’roll show with all the original line up in the band.  There’s no real gimmicks.  We’ve got a walkway into the crowd but that’s all.  I like to do that because it’s a great feeling to be in the middle of everyone.”

Most of all, Ronan is looking forward to saying a personal thank you to the people who really have kept him going through the years; each and every one of his devoted fans.

“I owe the last 10 years to the fans, “he states simply.  “They’ve given me the opportunity to do this for this length of time.  This wouldn’t be possible without them.  Everyone thanks everybody but when it comes down to it, I couldn’t do this without them.  I will always be here as long as they want to be here, for sure.  I can’t believe that they’re still there and that they still believe in me and they still believe in the songs.  It keeps me alive and that’s the main reason why I can’t wait to get out on the road.”

Don’t expect any extreme backstage demands either.  Ronan travels light on your and only needs the bare necessities. 

“All I need is lots of water really.  A bottle of Jack Daniels for after the show when people are around to have a few drinks. Some of those energy drinks like Lucozade.  A couple of bars of chocolate to give you some sugar and energy before you go on when you’re feeling wrecked.  A few bottles of beer for when you’ve got your mates in after.  And I always have my Playstation set up in a corner – it travels everywhere with me!  It’s very handy when you’re sitting in a dressing room bored stiff.”

Pre-show, his routine is equally straight forward and something Ronan has got down to a fine art over the years.

“Being on tour is the best thing of all!” Ronan laughs.  “That’s the best thing about making music and being in the business is being on tour.  It’s your world.  There’s no schedule, which is my favourite thing.  It’s the only time of my life I don’t have to work to a schedule! The day is yours.  Come 7 O’clock, half seven or whenever we go on stage, you have to be ready for that.  I have a stereo in my room and I always play some music before I go on stage, usually a U2 album to get me going.  I’ll definitely have their new album on tour with me this time.  Then I usually say a prayer before I go on and I warm up my voice for about 45 minutes, then I go in with the band and we sing a couple of songs to warm up together and on we go!”.

This year, now Ronan’s son Jack has started school, his family will only join him on weekends.  “I’m lucky at least because I have good mates around me and we keep each other going.  It’s grand.  There’s not many bad things you can say about touring, especially when my family are with me.  Then it’s okay being away from home.  I’m used to it by now!”

When he leaves the stage, the celebrations will continue some more.  “If family or friends are there, I might chill out backstage, have a laugh and a few drinks there,” he reckons.  “Otherwise it’s in the car, straight to the hotel, quick shower and down to the bar!”

Ronan may have been doing this for ten years but it’s obvious he is still having as much fun as ever.   He is thrilled at the success of his greatest hits but excited about recording his new album and taking his career in yet another new direction.  He may have an astounding ten years of hits behind him but, rest assured, it’s only the beginning for him.

“I don’t know anything else”, he shrugs earnestly.  “I’m not a plumber or a carpenter; this is all I know.  I’ll never be complacent about it and I’ll always want to push myself on.  It’s absolutely still my dream job.  It gets better with years and with experience and I hope, please God, I can still be here in 10 years.

That’s all I want.” 

“I don’t want people to think that I’m going away or anything.  This Greatest Hits was more to close this chapter and move on to the next one.  That’s what I’ll be doing next year.  I’ll be doing some festivals, but my focus is on making the best possible album for the fans.

I have to remember who I’m making these records for.” 

‘I owe the last 10 years to the fans. They’ve given me the opportunity to do this for this length of time.  This wouldn’t be possible without them.  I couldn’t  do this without them.  I will always be here as long as they want me to be here, for sure. I can’t believe that they still believe in me and the songs. It keeps me alive and that’s the main reason why I can’t wait to get out on the road.”