Highs and lows of shane filan

Published: Fri 29 May 2015, 6:52 PM

Last updated: Fri 29 May 2015, 7:55 PM

Former Westlife frontman turned solo artist, Shane Filan, will be the penultimate guest on Pat Kenny in the Round this Monday at 9pm, on UTV Ireland.

During the interview, Shane speaks about his rise to stardom from a young age and his global success with Westlife over a 14-year period, selling more than 50 million records worldwide. Following his phenomenal success, Shane and his brother Finbar found themselves in financial turmoil after their property company, Shafin Developments, went into receivership in 2012 – leaving Shane €23 million in debt. When asked if he had lost everything, Shane said: “Yeah, everything bar… Everything actually, yeah. It was really bad. We had just played Croke Park, it is incredible looking back at it. We played to 170,000 people in one weekend and the following week, I had a few hundred quid. I literally had a few hundred quid in my bank account.”

Speaking about the support he received from his family, and in particular his wife Gillian, throughout that difficult period, Shane said: “She’s just unreal. She’s class. I could’ve been very unlucky to meet somebody else that would’ve reacted completely differently and she was, it’s cliché to say your rock, but she was, she was like a boulder. There was nothing that was going to stop us. I remember telling her at the time, when we knew it was really bad, I remember I standing in the house in Sligo and I said, look we could lose this house. It’s not looking good. She said I don’t care, we could live in a cardboard box and that’s the type of woman she was, that was her comment. That’s when you realise Pat, life is going to throw some ups and downs at you, but if you have a happy family and three perfect children, you know I don’t need anything else. You just need to get by and I don’t need much more.”

Discussing the possibility of a Westlife comeback, the band’s manager Louis Walsh, contributing to the interview, said: “Of course. They don’t know it yet, but yeah, of course.”

Reacting to Louis’ comments, Shane said: “I think Louis was the most devastated fan when it all happened. You know Pat, it’s a question we get asked a lot and it’s something that could happen, but it is four or five people that have to make that decision, so it depends where we all are individually in our own lives at that stage. But yeah, it could happen of course.”

Before being discovered, there was one person who a young Shane Filan had to impress during an audition. With his fate resting in the hands of a man named Simon Cowell, Shane recalls their first encounter: “I’m going to blame Gillian on this one. I did a very bad audition. I was out the night before, I wasn’t in great shape. I arrived up and Louis saw it straight away. We walked in and we met this man called Simon Cowell for the first time. It didn’t go well and Louis wasn’t very happy with me afterwards. He kind of lost it. He slapped me in the face. It was crazy. He was shouting “what are you doing” and he was shaking me and saying “I was counting on you in there”. I thought my life was over. I thought that’s it, I’ve ruined my life. It was horrible but he (Louis) said “don’t worry, don’t worry, I’ve got a plan”. So, he dyed my hair blonde and grew it long for about three or four months and he said we’ll get him back. He won’t even recognise you. Louis always says “trust me, trust me” so that worked, thank God.”

Filmed as live in front of a studio audience of 150 people, Pat Kenny in the Round is an hour-long entertainment show, recorded in the Round Room of Dublin’s Mansion House. Pat Kenny’s interview with Shane Filan will broadcast on Monday, 1st June at 9pm, exclusively on UTV Ireland.

UTV Ireland is available on Sky channel 116, Saorview channel 6, UPC channel 110 and eVision channel 108. UTV Ireland also offers a catch-up service on www.utv.ie and on the UTV Player, available to download on smart devices.