The Script are one of the UK’s biggest bands, yet singer Danny O’Donoghue says he was star struck in the presence of one of Wales’ living legends, as he confesses to Dave Owens
THERE’S one subject that gets Danny O’Donoghue talking and that’s Tom Jones.
The frontman of Irish pop stars The Script was a judge alongside the Welsh legend when The Voice first hit out TV screens last year.
The pair hit it off and Danny says he’s looking forward to re-igniting the chemistry that lit up the show first time round with judges Sir Tom, Jessie J and Will.i.am when the show returns to our TV screens soon.
“It’s a weird thing because it sounds like a car crash when you say you’re going to put those four artists together on a panel,” he jokes.
“It sounds like a skit from the Simpsons or something. But I thought we worked brilliantly together.”
The judge who made the biggest impression on him, however, was Ponty superstar Sir Tom – who not only wowed Danny with his incredible showbiz tales but also his drinking prowess.
“I know lot of people use the word legend around him but he’s more than that,” says O’Donoghue.
“I was lucky to spend a lot of time with him.
“People can go to a show for one night and see him, but I got to hang out with him for eight weeks, which was great because you get the insight, you get to see he’s like when the camera’s off – and he’s just a gentleman, a really nice guy.
“He’s always been on the forefront of my musical taste. He’s always made brilliant albums and come back storming with whatever he does.
“And then he goes on a show that many people thought he might have been a little too old for and then he goes on to win the show.”
Unsurprisingly it seems, the Irishman and the Welshman, spent quite some time in the pub.
“It sounds like a start of a good joke doesn’t it,” laughs says O’Donoghue.
“Of course we had a few beers. It’s the initiation with Sir Tom, isn’t it? I don’t think you get to talk to him properly if you haven’t been anointed so to speak.
“The very first night we all actually met, we all went out for dinner together, and lo and behold who were the last two at the bar, it was me and Tom.
“Will and Jessie had gone home and we were at the bar drinking and drinking, and he was telling me these incredible stories about Elvis and all the amazing times he’s had and things that he’d done.
“I wish Elvis was still around so I could verify the stories with him, because some of them are just amazing. “
The Irish star says he’d love to model himself on the Welsh legend.
“He comes from a day and age where you could be just be nice and calm and cool. Nowadays everyone is looking at the stars on the television and thinking I need to be more extravagant, or I need to be more extrovert than Lady Gaga,” says O’Donoghue.
“But all Tom needed was his voice, that was it.
“What I learnt from him was how to conduct yourself in the industry.
“The legacy that he’s left behind is what I’d love to achieve as well.
“Me and you are talking about him, but he is just a man, although we both acknowledge there is something special about him.
“He will go down in history as an absolute legend.
“How he conducts himself is a lesson to us. He has no airs or graces.
“The bigger the star the nicer they are and he epitomises that.”
A lot has been said about the future of The Voice – which lost a huge chunk of its audience share by the end of its run, but Danny reckons the show more than proved its worth.
“I loved the first series. The experience itself was incredible,” he said.
“I’d never been on TV doing anything like this before, so just to do that was a big thing for me. But the response we got was immense.
“It was the biggest launch for an entertainment show in the history of British television, which I think is phenomenal.
“And the first four weeks we were getting 14 million watching, which was incredible. The BBC are so proud of it, I’m so proud of it.
“I just loved last year and the buzz about it. It shook up the establishment that was already there which was needed.”
The singer will return to the land of his Voice mate when he and The Script play Cardiff Motorpoint Arena later this month.
This week the band release a tearjerking new track from their latest album #3.
If You Could See Me Now is a song The Script never thought they would be able to write.
Addressing the death of guitarist Mark Sheehan’s parents and of Danny’s father, with alternative verses delivered by both singers, the song was written in a couple of hours one night, over bottles of Scotch whisky and through rivers of tears.
“I’ll remember that night for the rest of my life,” says O’Donoghue. “Emotionally, we achieved exactly what we got in to music for, what we’re all still in it for. Not the number one singles or the fame, but to capture an emotion in three and a half minutes that we know will mean an awful lot to other people.
“As a band, writing that song was the bravest thing we’ve ever done. It’s us imagining what our parents would say were they still here. We like to think they would be proud of us and our achievements, but they’d probably be telling us off for drinking and smoking and swearing too much. And you know what, they’d be right.”
The Script play Cardiff Motorpoint Arena on Tuesday, March 19. Tickets, which cost £34, are available from the box office - 029 2022 4488 or alternatively via Live Nation
Source: WalesOnline / Edited: DannyODonoghue.Net
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