Ex-Boyzone star Keith Duffy says he wanted to be ‘a drummer in a rock band'

Sunday World

03-05-2025

'I never wanted to be in a boy band.'
Former Boyzone singer Keith Duffy has said the public reaction to the Boyzone documentary No Matter What was 'phenomenal'.
Duffy was appearing on The Late Late Show alongside his fellow Boyzlife member, former Westlife singer Brian McFadden, to reflect on 10 years of the supergroup.
"It's difficult because it's our story, and it was a difficult one because when you come from tough enough beginnings, and I was never very academic. I didn't like school and I didn't really know where my future lay,' Duffy said.
'I was in a marching band, I was a drummer. I liked playing the drums, I was in a couple of bands as a teenager. I never wanted to be in a boy band, I wanted to be a drummer in a rock band. But you take what you get.
"The opportunities in life that we've been given, we're very appreciative of it, but then when you see it back in front of you in a documentary, it's kind of like everybody didn't know what went on behind closed doors.
"There's a part of you that wants everybody to believe that it was what they thought it was and it's very vulnerable for people to see you in a vulnerable state.
"It's an amazing documentary and it's a great legacy for our children and our grandchildren one day to see, to know what we achieved.'
McFadden said interviews with boy bands are typically done as a group and he 'loved' that each member of Boyzone was interviewed individually for No Matter What.
"They were able to give their own individual experience of what being in a boy band was, and I thought it was great because there was even things some of the boys said that I didn't even know happened, and I know all the boys for 25 years.
"You don't know what goes on mentally for people when they're in a band and the stuff that they go through.'
McFadden said watching the documentary was 'therapeutic' for him as he and the other members of Westlife had gone through similar experiences.
Reflecting on a decade of Boyzlife, he said the collaboration with Duffy was originally supposed to be 'a four-week deal'.
Boyzlife started out as a stage show before becoming a supergroup of McFadden and Duffy performing the hits of both of their former bands.
They have started making new, original music together as Boyzlife, with debut album Strings Attached releasing in 2020, followed by Old School in 2022.
Recalling the origins of the idea for Boyzlife, McFadden said it all started over a couple of pints at Whelan's in Dublin following a solo gig.
"We were just catching up on what was going on and Keith was telling me about this show he had written for himself, which was an autobiographical show where instead of writing a book he would tell his life story on stage.
"I thought that was a brilliant idea, so later on that night we said wouldn't it be great if we did it together? So, we would actually go on stage and interview each other, and tell stories together about our life. That's what Boyzlife was, it was never actually a band name, it was the name of the show we were doing.'
McFadden said from that point on, Boyzlife began 'snowballing' into what it has become today, with the pair on tour playing the hits of both Boyzone and Westlife together and also releasing new music.
"It was supposed to be a four-week deal and 10 years later, we're still here.'