Louis Walsh

A lot has happened to Louis Walsh since he last spoke to hotpress much of it amazingly good. Back then, in 1997, he was simply the manager of Boyzone, Ireland s first and foremost pop band, a phenomenon many people in the rock fraternity dismissed as a total fluke. That perspective may have been given even more credence after Walsh predicted in hotpress that things will happen for his latest signing at the time, the Carter Twins, only to see them slip swiftly into obscurity. But entirely eclipsing that relative failure, two of Louis Walsh s other acts have subsequently soared into the outer stratospheres of pop: Westlife arguably a more successful boy band than Boyzone and who, among other remarkable achievements, recorded a highly successful duet with Mariah Carey and Samantha Mumba, the second of Walsh s protigis to break the much-sought-after American market.

Not surprisingly then, during this interview Louis Walsh is continually interrupted by vibrator-not-ring calls on his mobile phone. Telling him things like the shipment on Westlife s single is 400,000, it should be a Christmas number one. And that Cliff is on board for a Tom Jones-like Reload album Louis is doing with Lulu, the 60s icon who recently asked Walsh to manage her, after he was recommended by Elton John. Louis also reveals that Roy Orbison s widow, Barbara, flew into Dublin recently to discuss the possibility of Westlife recording a duet with the original Big O. Maybe Crying or In Dreams , says Louis.
Even if you are the greatest rock snob in the world, you d have to be a fool not to recognise that all of this makes Louis Walsh a major player in terms of the music industry in Ireland and, as such, the perfect choice for the hotpress interview in this, our end-of-year Christmas annual. Even if Louis, as a self-styled lover of pop, is still vocally suspicious of the mag s keeping Ireland safe for rock n roll founding principle. This particular encounter took place in the deliciously lush Commons Restaurant, on Dublin s St Stephen s Green, hours before Walsh attended the recording of a TV show with Westlife, filmed in the Temple Theatre.
How do you feel about the fact that Westlife s latest album is being kept off the top slot in the British charts by none other than The Beatles?
Fine. Though The Beatles aren t doing any promotions! No signings, anything. John won t get up and do all that shit again! But, seriously, the media created that whole hype about Westlife versus The Beatles. You know I m more of a pop music fan than to ever, legitimately, compare Westlife to The Beatles! It s not our fault we re in competition with The Beatles, but I d never compare Westlife or any band with The Beatles.
In his recent biography Ronan describes you as the Peter Pan of Pop , which definitely draws direct comparisons between yourself and Sir Cliff Richard!
I call Cliff Harry ! As in Harry Webb his real name! And I ve no problem being compared with Cliff. Though I hope I have a better dress sense than he does. He has a dreadful dress sense! And I m very happy he hasn t got a Christmas record out. But Westlife fucked him last year.
Sorry?
Kept him from the number one slot in some charts!
All of which may have led to Cliff losing his contract with EMI.
I think he can get it back. And I have been in talks with the head of EMI to see if Cliff can get his contract back. Cliff is a pop icon. A lot of people in the media don t like him and I don t understand why. I admire him for his longevity and for making a lot of good records. Okay, he made some really bad Christmas records but he had nearly a hundred hits over forty years and I ve great respect for that. But, to get back to Westlife being kept from the number one slot by The Beatles that s only in the United Kingdom. I want America for Westlife. I got a taste of it with Samantha who s massive there but I want more. She s the new Janet Jackson and that s something I want to push as far as it can go.
Boyzone didn t break America. That too, was your dream. And theirs.
I blame the record company, Polydor. They had no faith in the band. There was no push, no plan. But if I knew then what I know now we wouldn t have even tried to break America with Boyzone. We didn t make the right record for American radio. You ve got to make a certain type of record to suit top 40 radio and we didn t make that type of record. Our records were too nice. Even the Backstreet Boys now have a harder edge and they re huge in America.
Ronan, in his book, says he, as a member of Boyzone, was envious of the fact that Westlife did get the major push in terms of huge resources, top producers, key songwriters.
Arista Records, in America, is unbeatable. That s what Westlife have going for them. And that s why they can t really fail. Look at the fact that they got to record a duet with Mariah Carey. Boyzone never got a break like that in America.
Boyzone certainly ain t getting much of a break from Louis Walsh these days. When you appeared on the Gerry Kelly Show you seemed to sum up the talent in the band by saying Ronan had it all , Stephen was so-so and the other three Mikey, Keith and Shane were basically talentless.
I see too many politicians on TV lying through their teeth. I don t want to be like that. So when I go on TV, I try to be honest. And be myself. That s why people like me. I don t pretend Boyzone were an amazing group. It was a fun group, they d great personalities. That s all.
But do you believe Ronan had talent, Stephen was so-so and the others were shite?
I didn t think they were shite but Ronan was the best singer in the band. I ve always said that, from day one.
That was a view rejected from near-enough-to-day one by Boyzone producer Ian Levine who said Ronan couldn t sing. something Ronan admits made him so angry that years later, when Levine approached him, Keating said feck off.
I thought I was wrong then. And Levine is suing over the book. He claims he did say the kid can t sing but never told us to get rid of him. And doesn t remember meeting Ronan afterwards. He s not a nice guy. But at the time he was a hot producer in the UK. He d done Take That, Bad Boys Inc., Sinatra and all that stuff. But, yeah, Ronan was pissed off. Yet it made him determined to prove he could sing. So Ian Levine telling us that was a good experience. It showed you can t believe anybody. You have to go with your own instincts.
Louis, you didn t tell us, from day one, that only two of Boyzone had live mics on stage. Did you ever stop and think I m conning their fans ?
No. I loved it. Thought it was brilliant fun. Many acts lip-sync, believe me. A lot of rock acts sing to backing tapes. World acts. And the point is that Mikey, Keith and Shane had their place in the band.
But was it purely decorative?
They were there. And if I was picking a band tomorrow I d pick the same five guys.
Really?
I would. Because they were all characters. That s why it worked. Their personalities got them to where they got. You worked with them, on the first official Boyzone book, so you know what I m talking about. You must have noticed that whenever they walked into a room they lit up the place. So, definitely, yes, I would pick the same five again.
Did Keith, Shane and Mikey get on your case after the Gerry Kelly Show?
Shane and Keith did. They weren t happy about it at all. They called me at the Smash Hits show and said what do you mean, Walsh. What s the story? I told them I went on the show and said what I had to say. And they said but it upsets our families. I said I don t want to do that but I can t go on TV and bullshit. And I can t. Yet I m not on bad terms with any of Boyzone.
I ve heard you are with Mikey Graham, in particular. How did he feel about your comments on the Kelly show?
He hasn t contacted me. He s too busy promoting his record.
People promoting that record with him said to me that his major problem with Boyzone is that you were in love with Ronan from the start, treated him as your pet , your boy. Even Ronan, in his book, says Boyzone would moan Ronan can t do anything wrong as far as Louis is concerned. I ve even heard you ended up hating the rest of the band.
I didn t. That s absolutely untrue. But I do rate Ronan. You can go with him anywhere in the world and he ll come out glowing.
That does sound like you re besotted by Ronan!
Absolutely not! I just think he s got great enthusiasm, talent, the lot.
Is Ronan besotted by you? Does he treat you as a kind of father-figure?
No. Despite what you said earlier, we re just good friends!
But can you understand why some members of Boyzone would be jealous of your relationship with Ronan?
Absolutely. He was the person I d talk to most in the band. And he would listen. He wanted the same things I did. And he s as driven as I am. He s into music. Buys albums every week. Like I do. That s the level we communicated at.
But when producer Ray Hedges originally decided Ronan and Stephen were the main Boyzone songwriters reducing Shane, Keith and Mikey to a subsidiary role why was Mikey, in particular, edged out given that he already wrote songs?
We wanted hit songs. We could never take a chance, in Boyzone, because we needed a number one or number two record. So to get that, you had to go to the best songwriters.
But Stephen wasn t a better songwriter than Mikey, was he?
No.
Mikey s new single is getting a lot of airplay and positive reviews like the one in the Sunday Tribune.
Those people don t buy records. Let s see how well it does in the charts. If it does well in the charts then it s a good record.
Are you saying Mikey doesn t have the talent for writing hit records?
Not for Boyzone. He s not a pop writer. He s a singer-songwriter. You d put him in with the likes of David Gray. Meaningful lyrics. But Ray Hedges liked Ronan and Stephen. Worked with them an awful lot.
When Ronan says, in his book, the band ended up getting credit on a whole batch of songs from the first Boyzone album, that suggests Ray Hedges actually wrote them.
They wrote with him. They all contributed a few words.
A few?
Yeah. They were only kids. Learning their craft.
Bud didn t all the guys get co-composer credits on the songs?
Yeah. But they all did write a few words here and there.
And receive a similar percentage of publishing royalties?
Yeah. Boyzone was definitely a co-op.
There must have been tension in the band over that. If, say, Stephen and Ronan worked with Hedges on songs and Shane, Keith and Mikey only occasionally came on board as Ronan suggests then everyone shared publishing royalties with Ray. That must have led to a bloody war!
There wasn t a war. Because Boyzone were all too naive at the time. They were we re all friends in this together. That s how it was.
But they re not naive now. So are any members of Boyzone saying I should have gotten more ?
Not yet.
Why did Boyzone turn down U2 s The Sweetest Thing ?
We didn t turn it down. It didn t work out. We were in the studio myself and Ronan trying to make the record and Steve Lipscomb, the producer, said it wasn t going to suit us. Wasn t in the right key. So we dropped the idea. Then U2 recorded the song themselves and put us in the video so we were happy with that. It was Paul McGuinness idea (for Boyzone) to record The Sweetest Thing . He met me on a plane and suggested it to me. But we are slightly in awe of U2. I admire what they ve done. It s a fantastic business, management company they have. And I know Edge very well. We were involved in the radio station bid with the IRTC. We had an amazing radio idea. Myself, Edge, John Reynolds, John Rocha, Cork Examiner, lots of people. We were working on it for three years. But we didn t have the right political contacts.
Do you really believe that s what happened in relation to your IRTC bid?
I believe we would have done the best radio station but those muppets in the IRTC didn t want to give it to us. Definitely, somebody got it who didn t deserve it. So I have no faith in anything in this country, to do with the government. As in the IRTC. I don t believe in the IRTC. Never will, again.
Aren t certain people who were refused that radio licence, taking a case against the IRTC?
Yeah. And I m backing John Reynolds on that because this was John s brainchild, he really believed in it.
Last time, you told hotpress John got a 50% share of your 20% of Boyzone because he put up the #10,000 needed for the band s first video, made by Bill Hughes. But after Boyzone hit the big time and huge budgets were allocated for videos, Bill was cut out of the equation. Likewise, Reynolds no longer co-manages Boyzone, Ronan, Westlife or Samantha Mumba. Is that how Louis Walsh freezes out old friends ?
The record company, at one point, said we need videos for MTV and we need world-class directors . Bill was as good as most of those world class directors but, in their eyes, he didn t have the name. But I, myself, rate him highly and will be working with him next year. On a Lulu documentary. As for John Reynolds and Boyzone, the fact is that Boyzone is no more. Our contract has run out.
But was anyone in Boyzone bitter because John got his 50% even though all he d originally invested was #10,000?
Not really. Because who else would have given the money at the time?
And John has no share of Ronan who is managed by yourself and Mark Plunkett. Nor does he have any share of Westlife, co-managed by yourself and Ronan, who, I hear, has a 10% interest in the band.
That s right. John has no share in either. But he and I are doing a new girl band together.
Did John choose to get out of the Ronan and Westlife deals or was he edged out?
He was doing his new clubs, dance music and all that. And he knows I m into pop. But we re still great friends. And John was worth all the money he made out of Boyzone. Because he, as I say, went out-on-a-limb with that #10,000 when no one else did.
While we re talking about money, Boyzone, way back, went out on more than a limb when, according to Ronan s book, they had to escape through a hotel window in London because they couldn t pay their bill. This suggests you left them impoverished while you were swanning around some other hotel!
I know Ronan s story is true and Boyzone did have to throw their bags out onto the street! But the story Ronan doesn t tell is that the reason the bill was so big is because one of Boyzone was phoning up sex lines! That s the real story. Four of them went out one night and the other one obviously had a good time on the sex lines. But I honestly don t know who it was!
Liar.
I don t know! And I wasn t swanning around in any hotel at the time. In fact Boyzone had more money than I did, because they used to get paid, by me, every night at the end of a gig. And if there was anything left, I kept it. But there was nothing left. Almost always.
Even so, there is this belief that, from the start, you had Boyzone on a measly wage.
The music business is not like that anymore. You have to be fair, have fair contracts, fair lawyers. It s totally above-board, now.
Ronan says he never saw you as angry as the day you read that two word vinyl crap review of the first Boyzone album.
That was in some silly magazine! And I must admit I hate it now when hotpress calls me to try and put, say, Westlife, on the cover. (It s the other way around, Louis. Your people have been calling hotpress to put Westlife on the cover Ed.) Especially when they slagged all our records all along. But hotpress will put us on the cover because they know that means they ll sell twice as many copies. But they re just using and abusing us. Besides, hotpress is not a pop magazine.
That s a load of bollix, Louis! I myself did hotpress cover stories on Boyzone, Ronan and Samantha Mumba.
I know. That s why I m doing this interview. But more often than not hotpress slags our records. Because it has all these loser reviewers who hang around, in leather jackets, with rock bands. Frustrated rock stars. Or managers. Who shouldn t be writing about pop records. So we re an easy shot for these people.
The same is true of that horrible guy on RTE television. I forget his name. He s a fat guy. On Don t Feed The Gondolas. Anyway, he came up from Cork to interview Boyzone and he s the biggest wannabe in the country. He has a go at everybody every week because he, more than anybody else in the entire fucking country, wants to be a star. I won t mention his name because he wants the fucking publicity. Suffice to say this guy made a silly, fucking record and went all around the country, playing in front of records shops. He s a major wannabe. And he s not gonna be! That s the kind of guy who takes cheap shots at us because we get hit records. Let me say this: Brendan, you re not going to do it, so give up the pop business!
Bitchy! But moving on to another subject, Ronan says he was aware, from the start, that Stephen Gately was streetwise . But when did you guys realise Stephen was gay?
I definitely didn t know at the start. Till he was in the band. Then I heard a few stories, approached him and he said I am gay, but I don t want anyone to know. Then we were all panicking. Because, at the time, it wasn t cool to be gay.
Even though some of the guys in Take That were rumoured to be gay? What did you think of what Liam Gallagher said at the Q magazine awards?
Who can believe what Liam Gallagher says? Take That probably weren t gay. And there are rumours about so many people in bands. But we, in Boyzone, absolutely agreed we would cover Stephen s homosexuality up and never let anybody know.
Even so, when I wrote the 1995 Boyzone book, Stephen s sexual inclinations were so much of an open secret in the music business that whenever Stephen spoke about how he hoped to one day fall in love with the right girl I had to change the gender to person.
You knew. But it was Stephen s secret. And, as I say, we were looking after him all the way on that.
Did you ever have to buy off anyone to protect Stephen?
No.
You did give a Boyzone column free every week to the Sunday World to cover up one story about Stephen.
The Sunday World had a story but never used it. And, as you say, lots of people knew. But the fans didn t. And we didn t want to ruin the image. If only because it would have affected Stephen an awful lot.
But all of Boyzone knew and had no trouble with Stephen s homosexuality?
Why should they?
Any member of the band could have been homophobic.
Sure.
And Shane's claim in the current issue of Loaded that he'd rather be shot in the head than have sex with a man has been criticised by the gay community and would suggest Shane may be homophobic.
I have nothing to say about Shane's statement. Other than that Shane is out of our lives now. I don't manage him anymore. And to answer your original question, the rest of the members of Boyzone were Stephen's best friends and stood behind him all the way.
Stood behind him ? Wrong phrase!
Fuck off! The fact is that Stephen was very professional and I don t have anything bad to say about him at all.
Apart from the fact that he s only a so-so talent!
Maybe. But in terms of Stephen being gay we never saw him with anybody. He kept to himself. He was so discreet nobody knew anything. But now everyone knows he s with Eloi Dejong and lives in Amsterdam with him. As in, Eloi who was in a band called Caught In The Act.
Pretty appropriate given that, in the end, one tabloid newspaper threatened to out Stephen which led to him coming out in a rival paper. Did you all back him on that?
Absolutely. Stephen did it himself. And it s the best thing he ever did. We were just worried about him. Not about how anybody else would respond, at that point.
That s understandable. Because before coming out Stephen always seemed to live in terror of being asked that one question. Are you gay? As many gays are.
That is how he was. Fearful of everybody. But that brought Boyzone closer as a band. They all bonded, even in the sense that they wanted to protect Stephen.
Even so, Stephen did piss off the gay community when he replied ugh after being asked in some pop magazine did you ever kiss a guy? In fact, I was with Boyzone at a gig in London, for the gay community, when they threw t-shirts at the band, with anti-Boyzone slogans.
But Stephen didn t mean to offend gays. He was just frightened when he was asked the question. And there were no major repercussions from the gay community.
So when you sign an act like, say, Westlife, do you ask about their sexuality, check to see if they are gay?
No. Now it wouldn t really matter. But when Boyzone started it would have. Yet now so many top acts are gay it doesn t matter anymore.
You did tell Boyzone from the start pretend you ve no girlfriends.
And I also said I d never like to see them drunk or behaving in the kind of non-professional way that might damage their image. Which is also why I was against drugs.
So Boyzone simply got locked, or whatever, behind your back !
Of course they did. But I knew. And I knew they had to do that because the pressure was so great. They worked so hard that, at night, when they went into their hotels, it was let s get some drink. That was their outlet. I d no problem with that.
Is that why you stayed in a separate hotel? To give Boyzone the freedom to indulge in whatever?
I didn t and don t want to become a part of it all. So I did leave Boyzone to their own devices. Besides, I don t want to see them in the morning!
Maybe not. But despite you being against drugs , you yourself have tried certain substances Louis?
I smoked a joint and did a few lines of coke in the early eighties but I was never what anyone would call into drugs and I really am the opposite now. Totally opposed to drugs because I ve seen them fuck up too many people.
I recently asked Ronan did he lie in his biography. He replied I didn t lie but I didn t tell the truth , explaining he could never tell the full story of Boyzone. Does this mean Boyzone management have slapped a clause of confidentiality on the band?
No comment! And I wasn t with them on their tours so I don t know what they got up to.
Do you feel you must still protect Boyzone?
Yes.
Are you saying that whatever may be revealed about Boyzone in the future, right now you must remain silent on some issues to protect the band?
Yeah. I have to.
Did you know Ronan was drinking too much after his mother died?
I knew that, at night-time, when he d go into his hotel he d drink a lot.
And you didn t say Ro, this isn t the way to ease the pain of your mother s death ?
No. Because I knew that was his way of dealing with it.
Even so, Ronan does admit, in our interview, that he could have ended up seriously dependent on drink.
I know he could have. But Yvonne (Ronan Keating s wife) sorted him out. She s the best thing that ever happened to him. Apart from Boyzone.
Nevertheless, there was that much-publicised story about how Yvonne smashed up Ronan s car after she rumour has it caught him in bed with Brian Kennedy.
All those stories are so annoying because there isn t a grain of truth to them. I heard that rumour was started by a policeman in county Kildare, who had a grudge against Ronan. And you re right, it did spread like wildfire. But it was absolutely untrue.
Ronan says, in his book, that Brian Kennedy was out when that story broke. Still, I ve heard he was told to get out of the country, do Riverdance for a year, till the story was forgotten. And that his record company dropped Brian because the public point-of-focus became his sexuality not his music.
I don t know Brian as well as Ronan does. They are great friends. But I don t believe that Riverdance story. It s bullshit. And I don t believe Brian was dropped by his record company because of his homosexuality. The only reason you d be dropped by a record company is if you weren t selling records. And I like Brian.
Would you manage him?
No. He would be too precious. He wants a say in everything. From his clothes to his hair. But he has a great voice. And I don t believe his career was damaged by that story about him and Ronan.
Did Ronan feel that story damaged his own image?
No. The only person he was really worried about was Yvonne and she just got a great laugh out of it. She s a great friend of Brian s, too.
Let s shift the focus to Westlife. When you put those guys together did you decide there would be no decorative members, they all must be magnificent singers?
Yeah. And when Westlife started they were six, but they weren t good enough. I wouldn t have kept the original six. I kept three.
That must have infuriated the three you let go.
It did. But a pop band is like a football team. You re only as good as your weakest link. And I am the manager. So I have to make those decisions. The same happened with Boyzone, when I got rid of Richard Rock and Mark Walton. They weren t right. They didn t have the necessary goods. But, in terms of Westlife, they know now that what I did was right. Back when I met them they weren t great. They d done that one major gig, in the RDS, with Backstreet Boys. Yet I knew there was something there. I particularly liked Shane and Kian because of their attitudes. So I said why don t you come to Ronan s twenty-first because I could talk to them there.
So you only asked two members of Westlife to Ronan s party?
I couldn t take on board six guys from Sligo! Because they looked like six guys from Sligo. They had the Sligo haircuts, clothes, everything! It s the way they re brought up down there!
You re from Mayo so what s the difference?
I m not making records! Or rather, I m not selling myself on the sleeves of records.
Your smarmy face is on telly advertising The Irish Times !
So? It s better than advertising the Sun or Star, isn t it? But, as for the guys from Sligo, I knew I could never make anything of them. The look, the vibe, the singing was wrong. And it is such a competitive business so visual you have to get it one hundred per cent right. But Westlife didn t want the others to go, initially. They said we re all best friends. But then they went with it. And it was the best thing we did. Otherwise Westlife wouldn t have made it. They d still be in Sligo! I can sell a band to a record company but they also have to deliver.
Why was Ronan delivered 10% of Westlife?
He helped them along initially. He sold them, liked their voices, saw in them what Boyzone were like in the early stages. He gave them inspiration and advice.
Now he says he s backing out of that role with Westlife.
He s been so busy with his own career, around the world, that he hasn t had the time to give them, the time they need.
Do Westlife seriously need Ronan anymore?
They like him as a friend.
Meaning they probably don t need him. So do you ever fear Westlife might get so popular they don t need you?
Probably. But I could always do another band. And the record company would sign me. Look at the success of Westlife. Eleven nights at The Point sold out. Seven Number One s! And My Girl probably will be number one for Christmas. And I m involved in everything with this band. More so than Boyzone. Westlife listen to me!
Are you prepared to finally admit that you re a millionaire?
I probably am a millionaire but one million isn t enough. Yes, the money has come in from Boyzone and it s still coming in but nothing has come back, say, from Samantha Mumba, because the record company invested so much in her. And the same is true of Westlife.
Is each of Boyzone a millionaire, something they said, back in 95, was one of their main ambitions?
They re all millionaires, yeah.
How do you account for your flops such as The Carter Twins?
I would have kept them going. I got them on a Smash Hits show, they got Best New Act and did an album. And even though it didn t sell very well, I would have still kept them going. They left me. They sent me a solicitor s letter at the same the time I started Westlife.
Why?
I don t know. Ask them. They haven t worked since. But they re actually very nice guys. I never disliked them.
Do you regard The Carter Twins as a flop?
No. I look on it as an experience. And, again, I never actually fell out with the guys. But they weren t very driven, about the business. They thought it was all going to land on their lap. Nothing lands on your lap.
Would you manage The Corrs?
No. I don t believe in The Corrs as much as John Hughes did. I think he s done a fantastic job on them. They re massive.
But if you d seen them in Whelan s years ago would you have gone for them?
No. I was told to go and see them in Whelan s yet didn t. But The Corrs do get a lot of bad press here for being so bland. And the music is bland. Yet it s successful and selling millions of records so nobody can knock that. But they are a pop act. They lift a lot of the old Horslips stuff and it is diddly-eye. But they look good so it s the package that s selling. And in that sense they probably were influenced by the success of Boyzone. But it hasn t happened for them in America, yet. Even with this album. Though I do like the Mutt Lange produced thing they did, Breathless . And that just makes me even more aware that producers are the most important people in the music business these days
More important than the artist?
To me they are. They make the songs. Craft the songs. You need the best producers in the world to get a hit.
So was Ray Hedges the real Boyzone?
Initially, yeah. But they grew out of that. And he was definitely B*witched.
You gave him B*witched.
Yeah. I don t regret it. Because they haven t really done well. I never believed in them. They were nice girls but I never saw star quality.
Talking about producers, how do you rate Pat Leonard, who did great work with Madonna? He s one of seven producers who worked with Ronan on his new album.
He didn t do fantastic work with Ronan after all that. Pat Leonard didn t deliver the tracks as good as we expected. And he is a top producer in America. But I m happy with Ronan s album. It s done fantastically. And Life Is A Rollercoaster is massive. I think Gregg Alexander, who wrote Rollercoaster , could do a great album with Ronan. He gets Ronan out of the pop thing into the more credible rock thing. Which is AOR. But the producer I want most is Max Martin. He works with Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, Celine Dion, sprinkles goldust over records.
You re always slagging rock, now you admit it s exactly that more credible side of music you want Ronan to move to!
No! It s still pop! Savage Garden are pop. Elton John is AOR. And that s where Ronan belongs.
When you employ big-time producers big money must change hands.
It does. But the record company pays. So those producers are on a huge take of each record. That s what they ask for. Getting the producers is one problem, paying them is another. You pay them a certain amount to make the track but then they also own a slice of the royalties. And want it instantly. And they have lawyers to see they get it. That, too, is why I say producers are sometimes more important than artists. That s why Max Martin is the guy I want most of all. For Westlife. I want to get him for next year.
What else do you aspire towards
Ten number ones with Westlife.
To beat The Beatles?
In modern day terms, yeah. As I said earlier, we re not competing with The Beatles, musically, but we are competing in terms of their record of number ones.
Are Westlife handling fame well? Or are they also secretly drinking, doing drugs, and whoring around?
Definitely not doing drugs. I m sure they re drinking. Whoring, I don t think so. But it wouldn t matter to me.
Kian apparently fancies the fuck out of Samantha Mumba.
Yeah, I think he does. As for what else I aspire towards? As I say, I d like to do another band or two. Maybe a band that plays their own instruments. But it would have to be pop. I couldn t do a rock band because they bore the fuck out of me. And they re far more pretentious than pop bands. And don t work as hard as pop bands. What else do I want? Ronan to break America. I think he will. And Jimmy Iovine, who broke U2 in the States and is backing Samantha, believes Ronan will make it in America. And Ronan himself wants to make it there. Desperately. But if he doesn t he ll gladly settle for the rest of the world. Either way, Ronan has a huge career ahead.
Ronan has said you ll be with him all the way?
I hope so! But if not I can always get someone else, find people with talent. A year ago she was nobody.
Do you really feel, in your heart, that if you lose all your major acts you can replace them?
I do now.
Some might say that s total arrogance, on your behalf.
It s not. In fact it s the opposite. Very insecure of me to feel I might lose them all. And then have to start again. But if I do have to, I know I can find someone else. There s always another artist out there, always another band. And I can get them a record deal.
So, at the end of the day, you probably do see yourself as the man who made Ireland safe for pop as opposed to rock n roll?
Absolutely. And not as just a place for diddly-eye music either! But let s face it, Ireland never was safe for rock n roll music. That s a fucking lie. We only had U2. Then who had we got? The Hothouse Flowers? They only had one hit! So nobody outside Ireland ever really heard of them!
Ground control to major Louis! What about Van Morrison, Thin Lizzy, Rory Gallgher?
Okay. Van Morrison is what I d love to see Ireland as safe for. And Thin Lizzy and Rory Gallagher. Van is the king of all those artists as far as I m concerned. But I d still say Ireland never was the centre of the universe, as far as rock music is concerned. And it definitely isn t now!
Thanks to you! So, while we re talking about Van, would you manage him?
(laughs) No. I d be afraid to even talk to him! But I love his songs. I love his music.

Ronan Keating will be Joe Jackson s guest in Under The Influence on RTE Radio One on St. Stephen s Day at 11.02 am. Other guests the same week, at the same time, include Mark Knopfler, Janis Ian and Andrew Lloyd Webber.