Keith Duffy has claimed Boyzone were offered a massive tour before Ronan Keating vetoed the idea.
The boy band – completed by Michael Graham and Shane Lynch – will reunite for two nights at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium in London on June 5 and June 6, their first live shows since a five-night run at the London Palladium in 2019.
Keith says he would love to do more shows with his “brothers”, but Ronan has made it clear he doesn’t think it would be “healthy” as he juggles other work and family life.
Keith told The Sun: “Our historical promoters and agents offered us big 40-date tours, which I was more than happy to step up and do, but it wasn’t me, I wasn’t in control, I wasn’t the decision maker.
“Everybody has to agree to doing a tour like that, it takes a lot of time and effort and everybody needs to be dedicated to it and I was 100 per cent prepared to do a Boyzone tour.
“I thought that’s what the right thing was to do but Ronan didn’t want to do it, Ronan wanted to just do a couple of stadium shows and leave it there.
“So, listen, I understand he’s got his own career, we’re not together, he’s got an awful lot going on, he’s doing The Voice Australia, The Voice Germany, he’s living between Dubai and Australia, so it’s just not right for him at this time in his life.”
Away from Boyzone, Keith tours with Boyzlife, his duo with former Westlife member Brian McFadden, and he has relished having a say in what they do.
Keith said: “I’m a co-manager of the brand and we decide what we do, where we go, how long we go for, what we record, we write together, we record together and I just have a great understanding of what we’re trying to achieve.
“With Boyzone, I never had any control at all, I never had any control of us breaking up, staying together, taking a break, going into the studio, I wasn’t in control of anything in Boyzone and that really upset me and frustrated me at the end, so that’s why the Boyzlife thing gives me so much satisfaction and still with Boyzone, I don’t have any control.”
Keith says doing Boyzlife gigs means he’s “confident” about stepping out onto a stadium stage.
He said: “I’m ready to go. It’s been a long time since I’ve performed with Boyzone, I think the last time was 2019.
“So I’m really excited about getting back on stage with the boys. It’s going to be very exciting but I’m just glad that I’m as busy as I am with Boyzlife because it just makes me feel more confident about the jump on stage in front of 60,000 people or however many there is.”
He also claimed that, in the past, some members of Boyzone were “put down and insulted” and told to stand at the back of the stage while others handled the main vocals.
Keith said: “Boyzone, historically, were always known as the voice of Ronan Keating and Stephen Gately. It was always a split vocal between the two lads and when we lost Stephen, you know, Ronan kind of took a lot of those vocals on.
“I think maybe at the time possibly, you know, somebody else should have maybe kind of lifted the load a little bit with Ronan, but we’d never been encouraged, we’d never been backed, we’d never been pushed to the front, you know, if anything we were put down and insulted.
“Your confidence dies when you’re being constantly put down and put to the back and when you’re standing on stage in front of 10,000, 20,000, 50,000 people you don’t want to be self-conscious, you want to be very, very confident and positive and secure in your situation and that’s where I am now.”
This time around, Keith wants to take the “pressure off” Ronan.
He continued: “So, now it’s time for me to step up, you know, stand centre stage to take some of the pressure off Ronan and get up and do what I’m now confident to do.”