'Macklemore – he’ll do well out of it': Louis Walsh on The 2 Johnnies
One of Ireland’s most famous music managers talks xFactor, Celebrity Big Brother, and Ed Sheeran
Music supremo Louis Walsh joins the 2 Johnnies on their podcast today, September 28, to talk about his life in their latest episode.
Talking about a career that spans decades, Louis shows no signs of slowing down, listeners willl learn, as he shares details of his early days manging acts from Johnny Logan to Boyzone to Westlife and his time as the xFactor’s “favourite” judge.
In the early days of Boyzone with no funds, Louis tells the lads he had to borrow €10k to make Boyzone’s first record.
He talks about the success of the band - which (allegedly) was definitely down to Louis choosing the songs!.
The Tipperary lads point out that Louis came across as the bad guy in the Boyzone documentary to which he replies: “Fuck it, I don’t want to be the good guy”. Louis also revealed producers offered him €12K to make it.
Louis will also outline the early days of Westlife and their meteoric rise to the top of the pop charts. Westlife played for just two minutes in front of Simon Cowell before he decided he would sign them. Currently on a world tour, Louis also reveals they will be playing in Madison Square Gardens as part of the tour.
With the return of xFactor, Louis says he is “too old” to rejoin the judging panel but has become good friends with Sharon Osbourne, despite initially “not clicking”.
“I talk to her all the time she is not in a good place, (on the loss of Ozzy ) she is devastated, they were the best friends and he was wonderful.'
Moving onto his stint on Celebrity Big Brother, Louis chats about his experience on the show, and reveals something he hasn’t spoken about in public. Finding the it hard to sleep and with rising anxiety led to some health issues.
“I got a lot of money, I thought it was going to be fun it wasn’t fun, I had anxiety problems, I had to get the medic and my doctor thinks I had a minor heart attack in there’”.
With a recent battle with cancer thankfully Louis’ health is much better now and he sounds in great spirits.
Johnny Smacks is curious to know Louis' thoughts on the Ed Sheeran debate, and asks what advice he would give him as a manager.‘
“It will be forgotten about next week, it will be somebody else. Macklemore – he’ll do well out of it. Ed manages himself, he knows it all. That’s the problem. You often have lawyers who do things and the lawyers kind of tell them, but the lawyers don’t know the music game like they think they do….’”
The show is the latest episode on The 2 Johnnies podcast.