The Script's Danny O'Donoghue opens up about finding sobriety after bandmate Mark's death

Virgin Radio

21 Aug 2024, 10:02

Danny O’Donoghue has opened up about how finding sobriety helped him cope in the wake of his The Script bandmate and best friend Mark Sheehan’s death.

Sheehan, who was the band’s lead guitarist, passed away in April 2023 after a brief illness.

Speaking with Ryan Tubridy on his Virgin Radio mid-mornings show, O’Donoghue opened up about how after his friend’s death the band took a break, and over that time he examined his own life, began therapy, and gave up drinking.

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“I’d never in my life looked at ‘How am I doing?’,” the lead singer told Ryan. “I was always like, ‘How do I look to the rest of the world?’ which is a very different thing to ‘How do I look to me?’”

He continued: “This year has been a revelation for me. I got therapy every week… it’s really important being in the public eye and doing that. But also I never realised what drink was doing to me.

“It was clouding everything, every single judgement, every single thing that I’ve ever tried to deal with as a human being went through the filter of – a very distorted filter – of alcohol,” he explained.

Opening up later about how his sobriety is helping him deal with the effect of Mark’s death on the band, O’Donoghue added: “There’s so much at stake right now. 

“Like, we could be the band that lets something like what happened be the end of us, and be the end of him and his legacy and all that. Or we can rally. My family, Glenn’s family, even Mark’s family, they all still benefit from what we’re doing moving forward.

“We’ve made that a big, big, big thing for us. It’s not like we’re taking over The Script, Mark is still an honorary member of The Script. We’re evolving, and also trying to do our best to keep this whole thing on the road.”

The Script released their seventh album, Satellites, on Friday 16th August. Their first album without their former lead guitarist, the band have dedicated the album and many of its songs to Sheehan.

O’Donoghue told Ryan that working on new music was a "cathartic" experience for the band, and key to them working through their grief over their bandmate's death. It was never a given that the music they created would be released, however.

“I knew I needed something to aim at… to put some kind of marker in the sand for us to get together, to kind of get through this,” the singer explained. “And if it was something that we would release, then great. But if not, we could have been sitting on something that was like a great project, but it really galvanised us. It brought us together as people, and also took our mind off the gravity of the situation.”

Satellites by The Script is out now.

Listen to The Ryan Tubridy Show on Virgin Radio UK, weekdays from 10am-1pm.