Ronan Keating once famously sang, “you say it best, when you say nothing at all,” – and this might be how he’s feeling about former manager Louis Walsh following his recent comments about his career.
The Irish media personality, who managed Keating’s band Boyzone and Westlife, has reignited his long-standing feud with Keating, saying that he’s “never going to have another hit”.
The pair have regularly taken public swipes at one another since the pair bitterly split, with Walsh branding him “talentless and spoiled” in 2012.
Appearing on an episode of RTÉ One’s The Big Interview, Walsh said that while Keating was “great to work with” and “the most ambitious” out of Boyzone, he “hasn’t had a hit” since working with Walsh.
“I did all the work on Boyzone, everybody knows that,” he told host Collette Fitzpatrick. “They were the puppets for Westlife, and I picked all the songs.”
He addeed: “Ronan started believing his own publicity then. He said to me one day in the Four Seasons, ‘I don’t want to be a karaoke artist anymore.’ But that’s what he is!
“I was picking all the songs – he hasn’t had a hit since. He hasn’t! He’s singing all the old songs now, he doesn’t have a record deal. He was great to work with at the start, but then he believed it. He wanted to be George Michael.”
When asked how he felt about Keating now, Walsh said: “It’s over – he’s never going to be a pop star now. He’s never going to have another hit. I’m happy.”
As for whether he’d pick up the phone to him, the music manager said he would. “Of course I would. We had great times together, we had great fun, but it was a bad divorce, and it’s fine – I’m over it. I’d say he’s happy enough in his life, because he’s always gonna be working. He’ll either be a DJ, or he’ll act, or he’ll dance. He can do anything.”
The Independent has contacted Keating for comment.
Walsh created Boyzone in 1993 after setting out to create an Irish version of Take That, with the band climbing the charts with popular songs “No Matter What” and a cover of the Osmonds’ song “Love Me for a Reason”.
The band went on hiatus in 2000, with Keating launching his solo career and continuing to be managed by Walsh. He found success with singles “When You Say Nothing at All”, “Life Is a Rollercoaster” and “The Way You Make Me Feel” before dropping him as a manager in 2003.
While they reunited in 2009 when Walsh was on The X Factor, with Keating helping him select the finalists in his category, in recent years, the pair have hit out at one another.
Speaking in last year’s documentary, Boyzone: No Matter What, Keating said that Walsh “made the wrong choices” when he managed his solo career. “He didn’t know where the f*** I was!
“Louis became a TV personality – he was given that chance because he was the manager of Boyzone. Things started falling into place and you realise, Louis is not a great manager. I gave him multiple opportunities to fix things. I have one shot at my career and he didn’t give a f***, it fell on deaf ears.”
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