Taken from 'TV Hits', November 1999
**********
Westlife share their innermost thoughts just for you…
When you look at yourself in the mirror, are you happy with what you see?
<Shane> Some days I can
say 'I look alright' and others I think I look like I've eaten 500 burgers!
This industry makes you
more conscious about the way you look, and you're always trying to make
yourself look better!
<Kian> You have to be
more conscious. Some days I'd love to get out of bed and not do anything,
but now I have to spend
a bit of time on myself - do my hair and stuff!
<Nicky> Sometimes I wake
up and think 'Oh look at the state of you' and sometimes
I'm quite happy with what
I see…
<Mark> I'm not so bad when I look in the mirror, but I hate photos of myself
<Bryan> I'm never happy,
but I don't care anymore. I just get on with it. I do my best,
then I just don't think
about it again…
<Mark> I think everyone
has their days when they don't think they're too bad, and others when
they're just like 'euuugghh'.
What has been the scariest moment of your life so far?
<Kian> I fell off a balcony
when I was 14. I knocked myself out and dislocated my shoulder.
I also nearly lost a finger;
my bone popped out and my finger was hanging off. I was 12 at
the time and it was pretty
scary,I can tell ya!
<Shane> Well I'm not
really into all those fun rides and stuff, but I went on this
bungy jump thing when we
were in Denmark. You were strapped in, but I nearly fainted 'cos we went
up so high!
I hated it!
<Nicky> When my cousin
was killed in a car crash - he was the same age as myself.
He was in a coma when we
were at home doing a gig for Childline,
then a week later we were
away with the band when he died.
<Mark> When I was about
10, there was this nun on the television who said that the world was going
to end the following Wednesday.
That day I was in school and there was this big storm
and everyone was really
scared it was going to come true. There was this one girl who was a bit
weird and
she was so terrified that
she had to go home!
Who's the most sensitive member of the band?
<Nicky> We all are, at times…
<Bryan> I think we all
have sensitive patches, but there's not one
who's more sensitive than
the others.
<Nicky> We know each
other like we know ourselves, so we can pick it
up if someone's feeling
down or a bit sensitive or whatever.
<Shane> If we're having
a slagging match then it’s me and Nicky, we can be very sensitive.
Mark's pretty sensitive
too, he's quite quiet as well.
<Kian> Every one of us
hates getting abuse though! The thing is, if we do give each other abuse
'cos we're tired or something,
it's forgotten about ten minutes later!
What makes you sad?
<Shane> Being away from
home. I miss my mum a lot. I know my mum really misses me
and if she's sad, it makes
me really sad…
<Kian> Well the last
time I cried was when I broke up with my last girlfriend.
We'd been going out for
four months and we finished 'cos I was away so much with the band.
I mean, it was about a
year ago, but it did make me sad!
Do you ever feel lonely?
<Mark> Every now and
again you can be sitting on your own in a hotel room and you just think
'Oh I'd love to be at home'.
Those are the times when you really miss your family and friends.
<Bryan> We're real mammy's
boys. We're all big-time close to our families,
and so it gets very lonely.
You can take my word for it…
Would you give your career up fpr love?
<Shane and Kian> No way!
<Shane> If I met a girl
and she loved me, she'd have to understand my career.
It shouldn’t come to the
stage where you'd have to give it up.
<Kian> If you're in love
with someone, she should be able to compromise.
I’d never go out with someone
who put those barriers up anyway.
<Mark> If I loved someone
that much, I'd like to think they were
the type of person who
wouldn't ask me to give anything up.
<Nicky> I think love
is all about you being 100% happy,
and the person you love
should love everything about you.
But if it means giving
up your career, then it's not proper love.
<Bryan> I probably would
give it all up for love. The way I see it is that
life is all about being
happy, and if being in love with a person and spending
the rest of your life with
them makes you more happy than having a career,
then you should go for
it. But at the moment this is making us all really happy.
It's the best thing in
our lives being in this band, but who knows, maybe one day…
Can you honestly say you haven't changed in the last year?
<Kian> Of course we have.
We're more image-conscious, for a start.
Now we buy Gucci, when
before it was Levi's heh-heh!
<Shane> Personality-wise,
we're more conscious of how we present ourselves.
We've become very mature
and our outlook on life has changed - we're very ambitious.
And we're far more focussed.
<Kian> But we haven't become big-headed - not a hope!
Are you afraid of failure?
<Nicky> For me it was
before the first single was released, as we were getting all this
coverage before we'd released
anything and I was so afraid of it not happening.
Now I just think, well
we've had No.1s, this is my life,
this is my job, so let’s
just get on with it.
Now I just want to get
better,
to look better in the next
photograph and so on…
<Bryan> I still fear
it though because of what we've done so far,
there's so much expectation.
<Mark> But even if the
band ended tomorrow I don't think we'd be failures anyway
'cos we've achieved so
much already. It's been an amazing experience…
<Nicky>…we've seen countries we never even existed!
<Kian> But we're like
'What will happen if the single flops,
what do we do then?' That
really scares me 'cos
I don't want to do anything
else.
<Shane> We want to last
as long as Boyzone and Backstreet - and longer!
You don't know what could
happen though, and it's a scary thought…
What do you think about when you're on your own?
<Kian> A girlfriend!
When I was growing up I always had a girlfriend.
Now I get lonely a lot.
I need a girl!
<Shane> I think about
a girlfriend all the time, heh-heh! I want love,
the whole works - definitely.
I think about home when I'm on my own,
but it really upsets me,
so I try not to.
Would you say you follow your head or your heart?
<Shane> A bit of both.
If it's about a girl I'll go through everything.
Like, if I was with a girl
and her ex-boyfriend was there it would freak me out.
Even if he was in the same
town it'd drive me mad. Girls, I'm so jealous!
<Kian> It depends what
the situation is. If it's business,
my head, and if it's romance,
my heart! At the end of the day,
if I have to make a decision
I'll follow my heart.
<Nicky> I always follow
my heart, even if it's my heart telling my brain
that we’ve got a day off,
so we want to go home.
Or if it's when you meet
a girl who you like.
<Bryan> I never ever
go with my head, it's always my heart.
I'm an initial impulse
person, whether it's singing, shopping or whatever!
<Mark> But I think if
it's a snap decision it's your head influencing your
heart anyway (the boys
don't agree, and a huge debate ensues for yonks!)
Did you always believe that you'd make it?
<Shane> We haven't made
it yet! Boyzone, Backstreet Boys and Take That made it -
we've still got a long
way to go. When you can walk into a shop and see your three
No1 albums next to your
greatest hits - that's when you know you've made it.
<Nicky> I've always wanted
it. I remember this time when my mam went to a fortune teller
and she said that my mum
would see her son at Wembley. And because I
played football that's
what they thought it would be.
But hopefully it'll be
with the band…
<Bryan> I never thought
I would. I always knew I'd do something different and I wanted to sing,
but I was about 15 stone
when I was younger. I really had a weight problem,
and because of that I never
thought I'd be in a band. But in the space of
12 months that had all
changed. So it just goes to show that if people don't have
enough courage or don’t
think they're good enough -
well they can be wrong,
'cos if we can do it, anyone can!
What do you dream about?
<Kian> Being the biggest boy band that ever lived, heh-heh!
<Shane> Playing the likes of Wembley, and doing an arena tour.
<Bryan> Worldwide success - to leave the this earth and to have made a mark.
<Mark> I don't know why,
but I always tend to dream of really bad things happening,
maybe I'm too negative!
Which of your mistakes would you advise your children against?
<Shane> I think you have
to learn from your own mistakes and let them decide whether they
were mistakes or not.
<Mark> As I said before,
I'd tell them not to make the mistake of thinking that you can't do something.
People may laugh at someone
from Ireland saying they want to be as big as Michael Jackson,
but anything is possible…
<Nicky> I wouldn't let
them leave school before they'd done their exams like I did when
I left to go and play football.
<Kian> Kids need to be
guided and not ruined. That's how I was brought up and that's how
I'd bring up my children!
