Louis Walsh reignites feud with Ronan Keating 17 years after brutal firing: ‘His career is dead’
Ronan Keating’s former manager Louis Walsh has reignited a bitter feud between the pair, bizarrely claiming the Irish singer’s “pop career is dead”.
Appearing on The Big Interview, Walsh, 74, claimed Keating, 49, would never have another hit single.
Ronan Keating fired Louis Walsh as his manager in 2009, but it’s clear not all has been forgiven or forgotten. Getty
Former X Factor judge Walsh managed the pop band Boyzone that launched Keating’s career.
Keating’s success continued as Walsh managed his early solo career through the release of his most memorable hits Life Is A Rollercoaster and When You Say Nothing At All.
Keating and Walsh’s relationship fractured over declining popularity, disputes over Keating’s musical direction and persistent claims from Walsh that Keating “started believing his own publicity” over him.
They officially parted ways in 2009 when Keating fired Walsh as his manager citing creative differences.
“I did all the work on Boyzone, everybody knows that,” Walsh brought up old wounds on The Big Interview.
“They were the puppets for Westlife, and I picked all the songs.”
“Ronan started believing his own publicity then,” Walsh continued. “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.”
Despite Keating’s return to Boyzone, now a four-piece following the death of band member Stephen Gately to an undiagnosed heart defect in 2009, Walsh insisted the singer’s career was done.
Keating was part of Boyzone alongside the late Stephen Gately, Shane Lynch, Mikey Graham and Keith Duffy since 1993. Getty
“It’s over – he’s never going to be a pop star now,” he said. “He’s never going to have another hit. I’m happy.
“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.”
