Interview In BamS (December 2005)
© for
typing and translating MountainDew
They are sitting casual on a sofa, their
feet on a scratched coffee table.
Nicky Byrne, Shane Filan, Mark Feehily
and Kian Egan from Westlife
actually came to
But then the Irish boys answer to all the questions – on a gut level.
Hey Mark, you admire Madonna? I thought you are not interested in women.
Mark: Yes, I’m gay. I’m still allowed to praise a sexy woman. I’m not
blind…
Nicky: I’ll say it as well if I think a guy is good looking. Brad Pitt
is really sexy. Even though I really go for girls.
Mark: No thank you. Brad Pitt isn’t my type of guy. I’m in love with my
boyfriend Kevin McDaid. He’s wonderful – and gave me
a reality check on lots of subjects.
What do you mean?
Mark: I knew for a long time that I’m not interested in women. But I
never wanted to out myself, never wanted to let the
press know much about me. That has changed. I’ll stand to Kevin and I’m honest
with my feelings.
Did you discuss the outing inside the band?
Shane: We are always honest to each other. We talk about everything and
aren’t like business partner, we are like brothers. It’s important to us that
everybody’s alright. And if Mark is gay, then that’s the way it is.
Still there are always rumours that you guys will split.
Shane: Bollocks!! We love to be in Westlife
and we love music. Why should we split? Our friend Bono always says that you
should stop if two of your albums aren’t successful in a row. We didn’t even
have one bad album.
You recorded a song with Diana Ross for your new album. How did you meet her?
Kian: She’s grand, a real star. We met
her at Elton John’s house once and decided to do a duet.
Did you meet Michael Jackson at Elton Johns as well?
Kian: None of us met him so far.
People say, he want to record a song with you guys.
Shane: That’s only the half of the truth. Reportedly Michael want to
record an album next year and our manager told Michael that we would like to
work with him. We’ll only believe it will work out when we’ll perform the song.
Kian: We would love to work with
Madonna as well, but we would have to work out in the gym before!! (laughs)
It’s your first pop-album as a four-piece. You wanted to show your ex-member
Brian McFadden that you could it without him ?
Kian: We don’t have to prove anything
to Brian. He left us 2 years ago. He didn’t want to be a part of Westlife anymore. Nobody kicked him out.
Are you still in contact?
Shane: We phone quite often. Brian is our friend – but no band member
anymore.
Brian had some problems concerning drugs. Couldn’t you guys as a band not
save him?
Nicky: We protected Brian from himself in the past, looked out for him.
As a solo artist he is responsible for everything he says and does on his own.
Any chance for a comeback of Brian in Westlife?
Nicky: No!! We wouldn’t take Brian back in the band. He knew that his
departure could be the end for Westlife and he still
left. He acted really selfish. It wasn’t important to him what would happen to
us.
Brian probably at the one or another headline too much.
You in contrast are marked sometimes as some boring, beer-drinking Irish men …
Kian: We are just normal. We are smart
enough to stay away from hard drugs and don’t sleep around with sluts who are
going to give away some details the next morning to the press for a few hundred
euros.
Shane, you became a dad a while ago. Are you able to change your daughters nappies?
Shane: Oh yes! My wife Gillian taught me everything. I was there during
the birth and I’m sharing the nightshifts with my wife now. I can change
nappies, warm-up her bottles and rock her to sleep.
Kian: Nicole is a Westlife-baby.
We all looked after her by now – we are the best babysitters!
Credit/Source: BamS