You may have read in some newspapers, or heard on the radio, this week that I'm going to leave Westlife for a solo career. It was going to be the end of Westlife.
Let me reassure all the Westlife fans out there that there is absolutely no truth whatsover in that story. I have no idea where it came from. I mean, look how silly it would be. At the moment I'm in the middle of recording Westlife's new album. We've only done one world tour, there's still another three, four, five or six to do. Things have never been better in the Westlife camp. We're selling millions of albums. Our third album is going really well. Next year we'll release a greatest hits album. The year after that we'll have another new album. And hopefully many more to come. Far from splitting up, our aim is to be the longest lasting boyband on the planet. Hopefully that dream will come true.
The first I heard about the story of us splitting up was when our tour manager rang me to congratulate me on the big solo deal. He was having a good laugh at the story. We see those kind of stories about Westlife all the time. Only recently I read in a British newspaper that Westlife had given up on America. It said that we had been over there this year and failed to score any success. So we've decided not to bother with America anymore. Another pack of lies. If the person who wrote that story had checked with us, we could have told him the facts. We haven't been in America this year. We've been touring the UK, Ireland, Europe and Asia. In fact we're going off to South America in a couple of weeks.
So, to put the record straight: I'm not going solo. Westlife isn't breaking up. We haven't given up on America. I've had one of the busiest weeks of my life. The work has started on our new family home outside Sligo. There was great excitement watching the foundations and the first bricks going up. I mucked in and did some observing, although I have to admit that I did more observing than mucking in. This is going to be a new home for all the family. My Mam and Dad always talked about building a new house some day. My success in Westlife is that it gave me the opportunity to do it for them. It will be a few years before I build my own home. I don't need one at the moment because I'm always away.
It's been business as usual on the recording front in Westlife this week. I've teamed up with Bryan to write some new songs and everything is going really well. It looks like its going to be our best album yet. We're looking forward to hearing the finished product but there's lots more work to do.