Nicky Byrne has opened up about Westlife's split - but not the one that most people know of.
The singer appeared on Gary Barlow's podcast this week and chatted about his career, looking back on some Westlife moments.
He said that the band were considering calling it a day after Brian McFadden quit in 2004, but decided to give it a go as a foursome and ended up releasing one of their biggest hits, You Raise Me Up.
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They released the incredible song in 2005, and it's their third biggest hit after Uptown Girl and Flying Without Wings, according to Official Charts.
Nicky explained: “We were going to split up before You Raise Me Up. That was the feeling.
“Brian had left in 2004, we had done a year without him. Then Simon Cowell had this idea of us doing a Rat Pack album.
"It sounded phenomenal but it didn’t sell like a Westlife pop album and our tour suffered a bit.
“We looked at Take That and Boyzone and lengthwise we had done more years than them. It’s time to go.”
They took a break for a few months, with Nicky exploring other career paths, but he said things changed for them after You Raise me Up was brought to the table.
On his Nicky Byrne HQ podcast, he said that manager Louis Walsh got them to record the song.
He said: “We thought well that’s a gospel song. But our producer Steve Mac turned it into a pop song."
“It hit No1 in Ireland and the UK. It turned everything around for us."
"Like a footballer, the record company resigned us for three years and two new albums. We were going to split up before You Raise Me Up, but it prolonged our career.”
He shared his gratitude for Louis, and joked that he always felt like the manager liked him the least out of all his bandmates.
“I owe everything to Louis but back then I felt I was Louis’ sixth favourite member even though there was only five of us in the band.
“I remember we used to do these huge concerts in the Point Depot.
“We’d run off stage afterwards and into our cars. Louis would be waiting at the stage door to high five us.
“Louis would say to me ‘Great show! Wasn’t Shane (Filan) amazing. He was so good’…. Back then I just wanted a slap on the back.”
The group announced their 'The Greatest Hits Tour' or 'The Farewell Tour' on 18th October 2011, and announced their split a day later.
They then reunited in 2018.
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