One fairly important thing held him back
Just think, Colin Farrell’s career could have been a lot different and it’s all because of Louis Walsh.
Farrell was a guest on Ireland’s Late Late Show on Friday night and revealed that he came very close to joining Boyzone when the band was being formed.
“I’m not slagging the lads,” Farrell said on the show. “You’re talking to a former line dancer as well, and I’m not slagging line dancing either, I’m having a go at myself.”
“Did Louis Walsh see you dancing in a nightclub?” Ryan asked.
“I was on the dance floor showing a bit a leg back in the day, I was on the dance floor of The Pod nightclub. I was giving it socks on the dance floor and I went into the bar next door afterwards and I was told this fella wants to talk to you and it was Louis Walsh.
“He said, ‘I’m getting this band together and it’s gonna be great, and you’d be wonderful.’
“I was wearing a tight rubber t-shirt and leather pants, so I was ready to come on and impress Gay [Byrne, the former host of the Late Late Show].”
Walsh told him to come down to open auditions for the band, but informed Farrell they weren’t really open and were more a formality so the press could get some photos.
“I went up and I got my picture taken with a couple of the boys, with Shane Lynch and Mark Walton, who was one of the original members. I got my picture with the two of them boys, wearing a bandana, full of the joys of life, talking shit didn’t stink and I sang ‘Careless Whisper’.
“Terrible tune coming out of this mouth, murdered it. It was so bad that they asked me, ‘Could you do that a sec… could you do that again?’ And I sang it a second time and I didn’t feel great about myself  afterwards and I went home afterwards… and the phone rang and my mother said Louis Walsh was on the phone for me.
“It was at the bottom of the stairs so I took the phone and he went, ‘Look, eh Colin listen, today eh you know, it’s not really… it’s not going to work, you know.”
So there you have it. So near yet so, so very far.
