Articles
Boyzone? More Like Dads-own!
Ronan Keating's looking forward to being top of the Pops but will fatherhood help him get over the loss of his Number One fan?
You'd think a pop superstar responsible for an entire nation of love-sick school-girls would be flanked by bodyguards, but Ronan Keating arrives accompanied only by a young publicist. He's taking time out from his hectic schedule with Boyzone to talk about hosting a new BBC1 talent show, Get Your Act Together, that goes behind the scenes as young artists battle for the chance to reach the dizzy heights that Ronan now occupies.
"It's an opportunity to open doors for people into the music industry," he says, settling down with a whiskey and Coke. "It happened for us and I'd love to return the favour. But I don't want people to forget I'm a singer and songwriter. That's where I came from and where I'll stay."
It's just five years since the working-class teenager from one of Dublin's poorest areas answered an advert to form a boy band. "Every young guy wants to be a movie star or a pop star. I wanted it badly," says Ronan. "I still want it. The day you don't want it anymore, it'll leave you."
When Boyzone began touring Ireland, they were often pelted by beer cans and cigarettes. Yet Ronan looks back fondly on those days. "We were lucky. Most bands end up jamming in a garage for 10 years before they get a record deal. It took us a year. Looking back, they were probably the best days of our lives. Now it's tougher. People think it's all big houses and being driven around in limos. OK, so there's a certain amount of that, but it's a lot of hard work."
So where are the bodyguards? "We're grown men, we can look after ourselves. At home I go to the pub and walk my dogs and do the normal things in life - getting groceries, washing the cars, putting nails in walls around the house. Not that I'm much good domestically, but I try. That's what's important."
There's a restlessness about Ronan as he poses for the TV Times shoot. He's had his photo taken a thousand times so he knows what to do, and he's amazingly confident for someone of 21. Constantly on his mobile phone, he's animated as he talks to friends and his wife Yvonne, who's expecting their first child on his birthday in March.
If the baby's a girl they'll call her Marie after his mother, who died last February aged only 51 from breast cancer. It's obvious from his face that the pain of living without his number one fan is far from easing. "It gets worse to be honest. I found the woman of my dreams in Yvonne, and I lost my mother. I don't even think I've started dealing with what happened. I used to pray that one day I'd wake up and realise she's gone. It's as if she's on holiday or something, you know?"
She would have been thrilled at the way his life's turning out. "I believe my mam is still very much with me. She guides me every step of the way. I go to do something and I try to think whether or not I should do it, and I hear her saying what she's say in that certain situation, and I know she's there."
He and Yvonne married unexpectedly last April on the Caribbean island of Nevis, but they first met 11 years ago when she was 13. "I was helping deliver to a local store when we caught each other's eye. We said hello and then I left. She came back the next week waiting for me but I wasn't there because I was sick and I never went back to that job. Years later we became friends. I dropped her home one night, passing the same shop, and told her about the little blonde girl with pigtails and braces, and she said "That was me." It was just the weirdest thing."
"She's the most beautiful woman in the world, but not flash. She's my soulmate. Right now she's in fine form. Blooming, as they say, and eating tons of chocolate."
As he faces his next important role - as a father - he clearly feels ready for it. "I've lived my life far beyond the way other people live it. I've travelled the world, have money in my pocket, and been through some major life changes. It's been a hectic ride but I've come out of it OK. Settling down with Yvonne is the next step in my life."