Boyzone have revealed that Colin Farrell got down to the last 10 hopefuls to be in the pop group.
Like the five eventual members – Ronan Keating, Shane Lynch, Keith Duffy, Stephen Gately and Mikey Graham – the now Hollywood star tried out to be in the boy band and he got close to be selected by Louis Walsh to be part of the final lineup.
But Colin’s loss was Mikey’s gain as he got a second chance at being part of the act.
In an interview on UK TV show ‘Lorraine’, Mikey recalled: "Colin was in the last 10. As was I. Both me and Colin and two other chaps didn’t get into the band the first time around. I’m sure Colin was broken-hearted about that!"
Boyzone have just released their final album ‘Thank You & Goodnight’ this month to celebrate their 25th anniversary and they will embark on their last ever tour in 2019.
Lead singer Ronan is so pleased that he and the guys – minus Stephen who tragically died in October 2009 at the age of 33 – made the decision to get back together to mark the anniversary as they can say goodbye to their fans properly.
He said: "It’s been 25 brilliant years. It’s a nice thing to be able to do as a band to kind of write the final chapter ourselves and go out the way we want to go out. The album’s out now and we feel our best piece of work. The tour sold really well, which kicks off in January."
‘Dumbo’ star Colin has previously opened up on his audition for Boyzone and unlike most people who responded to an advertisement that appeared in many Irish newspapers in 1993 asking for singers to try out for the group the hunk was personally approached by former ‘X Factor’ judge Louis.
He said: "So I was on a dance floor in Dublin and I was 17, in leather trousers and a rubber T-shirt – I’ll spare no embarrassing details – when Louis Walsh came up to me and said, ‘I’m forming a band, they’re going to be huge, do you want to be in it?’ I said, ‘Yeah’, so I went to an audition the next day and there were 150 lads outside the door with various spray-tans, tight T-shirts… I went in and sang ‘Careless Whisper’ twice … they asked me to sing it again because they couldn’t believe how shocking I was!"
Colin eventually got his big acting break in 1998 when he appeared in TV series ‘Ballykissangel’.
Colin Farrell almost got a spot in Boyzone
