I love Ireland. I'll always be 100pc Irish. I get really excited when I go to Sligo; it's my home.

After Westlife, I was in a scared place, you know; you've three children, and I worry about providing for them, and I had no guarantees going forward about the future.

I don't think about success to be famous, because I've done that at the highest level, but it's all about my children.

I will definitely start in small venues, as I want to find my feet as a performer; the first shows that Westlife did was ten dates at Wembley, which was just crazy. We didn't have a clue what we were doing because it was so big.

My mum and dad ran a family cafe in Sligo for 35 years and worked long hours. We grew up in a very hard-working family and had a lovely atmosphere, as we lived above the restaurant. It definitely made me want to work hard, whatever I chose to do. As the baby of seven kids, I was definitely a bit spoilt.

For Westlife, the music will never stop as long as our fans are around inspiring us to keep on making beautiful music together.

You've got to go down the road you naturally go down, and for me it was pop, folk country, just feel-good music. I suppose most of my songs are very up-tempo.