Westlife says Ed Sheeran helped them reunite.
The band – which comprises of Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan and Nicky Byrne – are back with a new album and they have quipped that the pop superstar, who penned a number of tracks for their album ‘Spectrum’, was the "only" man who "could get Westlife out of bed".
Nicky said: "When the opportunity came up last year to reunite … who gets a second bite at the cherry, you know? We never knew if the tour would just be a nostalgia one-off – you know, you say hello to the fans, and then goodbye. We thought, ‘We’d love to give it more than that, and try to make a new album’, and that’s when Ed Sheeran, to be fair, stepped up. I think if there’s probably only one man that could get Westlife out of bed, it was Ed Sheeran. He was writing these songs. He said to Steve at the time – Steve Mac – he said, ‘I remember growing up listening to ‘Flying without Wings’, and learning how to play guitar and stuff like that to ‘Flying without Wings.’"
And Kian feels like Westlife has a "whole new lease of life" now.
He added to Smooth Radio: "I think since the reunion, it kind of feels like Westlife is taking a whole new lease of life – from the tour that we’ve just finished, to now announcing that we’re going to play Wembley Stadium for the first time in our careers. It’s 20 years of being a band, and then, you know, releasing what we feel is the strongest album we’ve ever made. We just kind of feel like we’re living the dream for the second time around – if not better and bigger this time around. It’s just been kind of an incredible year for us, and hopefully the next year will be just as incredible, and this place will be sold out on August 22, and we’ll have the biggest part of our lives."
Westlife: Ed Sheeran helped us reunite
