The man who can be moved to tears: Danny O’Donoghue pours his heart out

The man who can be moved to tears: Danny O’Donoghue pours his heart out over The Script’s tragic losses, why he went on The Voice and how he’s not over his ex 

Danny O’Donoghue wants to be clear about one thing. ‘I am proud of all the songs on the new album,’ insists the lead singer of The Script. But some are more personal than others. One of the tracks on the album - entitled simply ‘#3’ – is called Six Degrees Of Separation: it is about his traumatic split from his ex-girlfriend, model Irma Mali. Another, If You Could See Me Now, is an emotional tribute to Danny’s late father – and to guitarist Mark Sheehan’s parents, who died within months of each other when he was just 12 years old. 

One of their best-known songs is The Man Who Can’t Be Moved, but Danny thinks these songs will change that. He describes them as a kind of musical therapy but admits the tribute to their parents in particular chokes him up and brings tears to his eyes. Mark cannot bring himself to even play the track in public and has to leave the room whenever it is played over the studio’s speakers. 

‘I haven’t played it for anybody and I need a minute with that song,’ Mark admits. ‘I can’t even tell you if it is a good song or not. 

‘It’s a page from my diary, I produced and wrote it but I have to walk away from it. It is just a weird one. 

‘It is a touchy subject for me – I lost both my parents quite young and it was a real dark point in my life. Like Danny said, it is something I have never talked about until now. I don’t know if we will ever find the right moment to play that live at all. I can’t even picture playing it live because it is so personal.’ 

Danny is a little better equipped to talk about his own loss. His father, Shay, was struck by an abdominal aneurysm and died on Valentine’s Day three years ago. He was 63. 

The singer was heartbroken and felt the day of his death was a poignant reminder of the love in which his father was held. He had a rose tattoo done on his left arm to commemorate his dad and the date of his passing. 

‘He was talking to me in the morning and he was dead by night-time,’ he recalls. ‘You don’t even have time to say, “That’s bulls***”. I’d been away for 10 years. I didn’t realise that I was getting precious time with my dad. 

‘I got to know my father as a man. The song is about what he would say to me now if he was here. It’s my favourite song off the new album, without a doubt.’ 

Danny is all too aware that though he lost his dad, he has much to be thankful for and is full of admiration for his bandmate’s enduring strength of character. 

‘Mark’s mum and dad have never seen him cry, have never seen the success or got to hear him put himself out there emotionally. To hear how he can so eloquently say what I couldn’t say was really great for me. 

‘To know everything he went through to put in his verse and what I went through for mine is a coming-of-age thing for both of us. It was an Everest moment for us. And we both held each other’s hands and just jumped off. 

‘I’m bullet-proof with any of the other stuff. If it is received well or not, it is no skin off my nose because I have this song. It means the world to me and Mark and that’s all that matters.’ 

Danny is pouring his heart out to me at an exclusive ‘listening’ party for the group’s third album #3 in Dublin’s Windmill Lane Studios. It’s due for release here on September 7 and all three band members are proud as punch of it. 

Wearing his trademark skinny black jeans and scruffy boots, Danny exudes a sense of cool as he happily lip-syncs along to five of their new tracks. 

His is arguably the best job in the world. At 31, he is a professional rock star and front man of The Script. 

Despite the fact that they have sold four million albums, Danny was not well known in Britain until he agreed to become a judge on the BBC’s The Voice. The show’s producers had signed up former Pop Idol Will Young before having a last-minute change of heart. Rumours abound that they wanted someone more edgy to complete the judging panel. Enter Danny. 

His fellow judges – Will.i.am, Tom Jones and Jessie J – all had well established profiles but for weeks after the show first aired he was referred to as ‘Danny O’Dunno-who’ on social networking sites. Of course, all that has changed since. 

The singer is adamant he did not take the high-profile job to become famous in his own right but to promote The Script and his music style. 

‘It is a constant battle because it is a contradiction in a way, because yes, we actually are famous,’ Danny explains. 

‘People ask me why did I do The Voice? Well, if you look at today’s industry there’s a quarter of that show that they were going to give to either a [solo] musician or a reality TV star, Will Young. 

Or… give it to the guy in a band, me. So, Mark was like, “Get in there for the band”. There isn’t much room for bands on the radio these days and it was all about putting The Script out there. And I managed to get our style of music represented on a show that teaches about music.’ 

The BBC are already planning to overhaul the coaching panel for the next season but Danny has secured his position along with Will.i.am. 

Tom Jones and Jessie J will not be back and while Danny insists he doesn’t know who will take their place, he has his favourites. 

‘I have messed around with the idea of Elton John coming back for Tom Jones. That would be kind of cool. It would be great to sit beside him. And then, maybe Adele for Jessie J. 

‘But then they might start rethinking me because the level has just gone up. I would have done the Irish one but honestly I was never asked to do it. If they had [asked me] I would have been sitting on the panel, I’m Irish after all.’ 

It’s just as well he wasn’t asked as the exposure he has gained has made him and The Script household names in Britain and significantly boosted their album sales. 

On the flip side came a wealth of media interest in Danny’s personal life as his burgeoning army of female fans clamoured to discover more about the strapping Irishman. 

‘It was LA Reid who warned me about that,’ he says. ‘He is our label boss in America and he told me to be prepared. Everything in your private life is going to get turned upside down. And I was like, “No man, you are crazy. Sure we can walk around Ireland and nobody hassles you”. 

‘But it is a whole other thing in the UK. There used to be girls hanging around outside the house. Now it is old men in trench coats with cameras. And that is really hard to deal with.’ 

Fame has already proved costly for Danny. While he was filming The Voice, it emerged he had split with his Lithuanian girlfriend of four years, Irma Mali. 

Within hours of the news becoming public, Danny was linked with his Voice act, Bo Bruce. He insists there is no truth to the story. 

‘That was hurtful to me, hurtful to my ex and hurtful to everyone involved,’ he says. 

He has since written a song about the painful break-up which will be released as a single later this year. 

He says he was compelled to write the song. ‘It wasn’t a choice, it just happened. I don’t sit down with the decision to just write, I just had to get it out. 

‘It is an ongoing thing and it still evolves. The song is the way I felt at that time. It’s probably a song I’ll write another verse for in a year’s time because it is still pretty fresh. Songs are emotional and you write about what you feel and are attached to. And obviously it is a testament to how much she meant to me that it found its way out into art. And that’s the way it is. You never think of the consequences when you are being creative, you just deal with them after.’ 

He confesses he may be fostering serious regrets over the split. 

‘I am at the sixth stage right now. You have to listen to the song to know what that is. The sixth is when you admit you may have f****d up a little.’ 

This surge in public interest in them is not the first encounter Danny, Mark and drummer Glen Power have had with celebrity- obsessed individuals. 

One fan forged a backstage pass and lied her way onto the stage to get close to her idols at a London gig last year. ‘She printed up her own security jacket and got a press pass printed up. She got them laminated and everything and was really convincing. She was standing on the stage watching but her mistake was she jumped into a lift with us, and the only people allowed in were the band and our security guard. 

‘I wasn’t that mad to be honest, I was fairly impressed because she did an amazing job.’ 

The band are hoping their third album repeats the success of their first two which both topped the charts. But Danny is not one to rest on his laurels and has turned his hand to photography. He has also directed a video for a proposed single Broken Arrow. 

‘I love photography, I’ve been majorly into it for the past few years,’ he says. ‘On St Patrick’s Day myself and another photographer shot 24 hours in Dublin. We got to some really cool places. I got up on top of Liberty Hall as well as Bono’s penthouse in the Clarence and then the window in the balcony in the Olympia. It’s something I’m really passionate about.’ 

It seems Danny isn’t short of scripts should the whole band thing not work out… 

The Script: Glen Power, Danny O’Donoghue and Mark Sheehan 

Friends: Danny O’Donoghue with Bo Bruce, his act on The Voice to whom he was linked romantically 

Heart breaker: Script lead singer Danny split from Lithuanian model Irma Mali, who is based in Dublin, after a four-year relationship.

Sourece: Daily Mirror