Post by LaLaFilan on Sept 25, 2007 15:19:55 GMT 8
By VICTORIA NEWTON
BRIAN McFADDEN has spoken for the first time since quitting Westlife – and revealed: “Being in the band was destroying me.”
The singer walked out of the biggest boy band to hit Britain in March this year, stunning the showbiz world and leaving millions of fans devastated.
Brian — who has changed his name’s spelling from “Bryan” as part of an image change — was Westlife’s frontman and unofficial leader.
With them had notched up a staggering 11 No1 singles and four No1 albums.
But here, exclusively, the 24-year-old singer reveals why he was so unhappy in the group and says he has no regrets about giving it all up.
Looking tanned and fit having shed an amazing 3st on the Atkins diet, Brian says: “I had to get out of the band, it was destroying me. It was nothing to do with the rest of the lads or anything like that.
“I just couldn’t cope with the schedules and being away from home all the time.
“I had to sit down and think about the rest of my life — and it actually only took me two days to make the decision. It all ended a lot quicker than I thought.
“For the last two years in Westlife I was really p***ed off. I’d sit with my mates scowling and not saying a word.
“My friends told me I’d changed, that I wasn’t fun any more.
“The day I left Westlife was the day I changed — and I’m so happy now.”
Brian, who lives in Ireland with wife Kerry and daughters Molly, three, and 18-month-old Rosie, announced he was quitting the band just days before they took on a world tour.
The remaining band members, Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, Nicky Byrne and Shane Filan, put on a united front at a hastily-arranged Press conference and vowed to carry on.
Despite walking out on his friends, Brian insists they are all still very close and that he sees them all the time.
He says: “I actually did want to do the last Westlife tour. But when I sat down and told the lads I wanted to leave at the end of it, we all discussed it and decided it would be better for me to go straight away.
“They thought it wouldn’t have felt right going on stage knowing that I was leaving in six months’ time.
“It was very emotional and very scary but I remember sitting in that Press conference not knowing what to say. My mind went blank.
“But I know it was the best thing I ever did — because now I love my life.”
Brian is about to release his first solo material. His single, Real To Me, is out on September 6 and is a tirade against the record industry.
He explains: “It’s about what I hated in the music industry, having to lick the a***s of record company execs you can’t stand.
“It’s about never being home, living in hotels, hanging around in airports.
“Now I never have to play it safe again.
“With Westlife it was all about choosing a safe song and being very middle-of-the-road. It wasn’t really about the music.
“It’s a bit like watching Friends on telly — it’s comforting, you know what to expect, there’s nothing challenging about the music.
“It was completely formulaic, it was the same every time.
“Now I’m just writing songs that I want to write and I enjoy singing them.
“If people don’t like it and I get dropped from my record label I won’t go home hanging my head in shame. I’ve had so much success with Westlife that it doesn’t matter.
“When I look at the discs and awards Westlife have got I don’t really think it’s something I’ve been part of — I tend to think, ‘It’s the machine that created that.’
"I don’t care if everyone hates the music I’m doing now. I feel like I’ve had my success with Westlife and it would be impossible to achieve that level of success again.”
As we talk on the balcony of a posh penthouse hotel suite, the Brian McFadden sitting with me is a totally different one from the drunken, slobbering man he had become in Westlife.
He is tanned, fit and extremely slim and the old sparkle is back in his eyes.
More than anything, you get the sense he feels liberated — free to be himself.
His incredible weight loss is thanks largely to the Atkins diet, and cutting down on booze.
He says: “I’ve tried diets so many times in the past six years, eating salads and stuff like that. But my problem is I love food.
“With Atkins I get up in the morning and have a fry-up, then a steak, kebabs, KFC and I can drink as much vodka and diet cola as I want. All this and I lose weight. How easy is that?”
Brian adds: “I haven’t been going to the gym or anything like that. But I did stop drinking for three months.
“I’m not saying I was an alcoholic but I realised I was drinking far too much and I didn’t want it to start taking a hold of me.
“Giving up booze was actually very easy and I started enjoying going to parties without being slaughtered and enjoying people’s company, too. And it’s great not to have a hangover next day.
“I’ve started drinking again recently but more moderately. And I’ve stopped guzzling Red Bull — I used to drink loads of it. Vodka and Red Bull was the Westlife drink.
“But all that sugar just keeps you awake and makes you get fat. Now my drink of choice is vodka and Diet Coke.
“I do feel better and I know I look better. I didn’t really notice I was losing weight until after a few weeks when friends all noticed.”
Brian is nervous about his solo material and hates being compared to Robbie Williams, who left Take That and went on to be a huge star.
But the similarities are striking. He has written his solo album with Guy Chambers, who also co-wrote Robbie’s biggest hits.
Brian says: “Now when I write songs I love it because I can write what I want. There’s loads of songs about Kerry on the album and she loves them. She’s just happy I’m loving music again and doing what I want to do.”
thesun.co.uk