Ronan Keating has recalled one of the toughest moments of his life, telling his Boyzone bandmates that their beloved friend Stephen Gately had died.
The singer, 47, spoke to Miriam O’Callaghan on RTE Radio One about the ‘devastating’ phone calls he had to make to break the news of Stephen’s tragic death to Mikey Graham, Keith Duffy, and Shane Lynch.
Stephen sadly passed away in October 2009 from an undetected heart condition and the band’s upcoming docuseries ‘Boyzone: No Matter What’ will be in his honour.
The three-part series will see Ronan and former bandmates tell the story of the rise of the boyband in 1993, the tabloid intrusion that forced Stephen Gately to come out, and their huge comeback in 2007.
Speaking on the RTÉ show, Sundays With Miriam, Ronan said he is still struggling to come to terms with the loss of Stephen, who he affectionately calls ‘Steo’.
He recalled being the first member of the band to be told the awful news and having the responsibility of calling the other members of Boyzone.
Ronan said: ‘ It was 2009, I was in Chicago. I was about to run the Chicago Marathon and it was the night before and I was having a bowl of pasta with the rest of the runners with the charity and Gerald Kean [the solicitor] called me.
‘I’ll never forget it. Every single moment. It’s absolutely devastating. The hardest part was hearing the boys – because I had to call the boys – It was the hardest part. The screams down the phone. It stayed with me for life. It’s horrific. And then the days that followed, it was an out of body experience. It’s hard to put it into words.’
The night before Stephen’s funeral Ronan, Mikey, Keith, and Shane, stayed in the church with Stephen overnight, with Ronan describing the experience as ‘magical’
He said: ‘We got four sleeping bags and we lay on the floor next to the coffin. It was the last night of the five, [the last night] we were a five piece.
‘It was actually not what you expect, we sat up all night, we didn’t sleep a wink. We laughed and we cried. Talked to Steo, he answered us. It was incredible. It was sort of magical. It was a magical thing to have that last moment together.’
However, while the band reunited to make the documentary, Ronan ruled out any possibility of a Boyzone reunion or a final tour, saying: ‘I think it’s enough. We’ve done the comeback, we’ve done the shows, I think this is the final chapter of our story. I think enough is enough. I think we’re done.’
Boyzone: No Matter What will drop on Sunday, February 2, on Sky Documentaries and NOW.
