Ronan Keating couldn’t write music for two years after horrific family tragedy. One moment in Australia changed that

Exclusive: After Ronan Keating’s brother Ciarán was killed in a car crash in 2023, the musician tried again and again to put his grief into song.

Throughout his decades-long career, that had always been how he processed his emotions – but this time “there were no melodies and there were no songs”.

“I tried to pick up the guitar numerous times and write a song to say goodbye, because that’s kind of how I deal with that,” Keating, 49, said in an interview with nine.com.au.

“Unfortunately, I’ve been through it a few times, and so that has been the process: pick up the guitar and start writing. I tried and tried, and I couldn’t. I literally got to the first line, and I gave up.”

That was until a chance moment in Sydney last November, when Keating heard his wife Storm Keating humming a melody.

It was that small moment that finally broke a two-year block and began the process of his next album, slated for release next year.

“I grabbed the guitar, and I just started circling around this melody and these chords, and started humming something,” Keating said.

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“Before we knew it, we were four hours in, the two of us, and we had written this song where the floodgates opened and the album began. Yeah, that’s the first song that allowed the process of the album, and it was very special.”

The Life Is a Rollercoaster singer met Storm on the Australian version of The X-Factor in 2010, on which she was a producer and he was a judge.

The couple have two children, son Cooper, 8, and daughter Coco, 5. He also shares Jack, 26, Missy, 24, and Ali, 20, with ex-wife Yvonne Connolly.

While they also maintain homes in the UK, Ireland and Dubai, Sydney is the family’s Australian base.

“Through her family and her bond and connection with Australia, I’ve felt a grounding when I’m there,” Keating said.

“It’s a very wholesome environment, and I want to bring the kids up as much as I can there, the younger kids, and the older kids have spent a lot of time there too over the years, and they love it.”

This deep connection to Australia continues on stage.

“I feel when I come to Sydney, or Melbourne, or Adelaide, or Perth, or any of the big Australian towns where I perform, I feel like it’s a home crowd,” he said.

“It feels like I could be in Ireland, you know? It has that same feeling for me.”

Aussies will get to enjoy that hometown vibe when the former Boyzone member brings his Just Getting Started world tour Down Under next year.

So many decades into his career, the name may sound ironic – but it has a special meaning.

“I’m 50 years old next March, and I think it’s a coming-of-age thing and feeling more comfortable in your own skin,” Keating explained.

“I think I’m hungrier and more excited than I’ve ever been about music and about performing.”

Keating had changed management teams this year and felt like he was very much in the driver’s seat of his career.

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“I very much feel like I’ve taken control of where I am and what I’m doing and my career, and that’s exciting for me,” he said.

“And I know that might sound crazy to people after 33 years, but when you’re in a boyband in the ’90s, you don’t really have control, or at 16 years of age, I’m happy just to be there and just to be getting away with it and doing it and living the dream.

“I think I’m in a great place in my career, the most excited I’ve ever been about my music, about the shows. Man, I’m doing a world tour! I’m going to places I’ve never even been to, and I’ve done this for 33 years, so it’s very exciting.”

Tickets for Keating’s Just Getting Started tour are on sale now.