Vernon Kay was overcome with emotion during his BBC Radio 2 programme on Wednesday (July 29) as he interviewed Danny O'Donoghue of The Script. The Bolton-born presenter struggled to hold back tears when the singer spoke about the death of his bandmate Mark Sheehan.
The Script Star Opens Up About Bandmate's Death
Danny, 45, appeared on Kay's show for the 'Tracks of My Years' segment, where artists select songs that shaped their lives. He chose 'If You Could See Me Now' from The Script's third album '#3' and reflected on Sheehan, who died in April 2023 at age 46 after a short illness.
He shared: 'Mark, God rest his soul. His father passed when he was 13 and he's from a very rough area in Dublin as well. He had a quite a tough upbringing but to see somebody like that in the studio being able to articulate what that meant to him for his father to leave was insane. It's one of the best moments I've ever had in the studio... I was in the band with one of the best lyricists of all time.'
Vernon Kay Struggles to Contain Emotions
Danny added that although Sheehan's lyrics are taught at Berkeley, neither of them graduated from school, and he has dyslexia. 'It's like he wrote that about his dad, and now I'm singing that about him on stage. It's like there's generations of pain and truth and hurt.'
Kay, 52, asked Danny if they had 'an open forum conversation about how much you loved him.' Danny replied: 'Yeah. It wasn't as long as you would have liked it to be, because it was quite a short period of time between me finding out and him passing, but we did.'
The presenter then became visibly emotional, his voice cracking as he wiped his eyes and said: 'It's got me that… Give me a minute.' Danny gave him a supportive tap on the knee and said 'Oh, dude.'
Vernon Explains His Reaction
After the pre-recorded interview, Kay explained his emotional response to listeners: 'The reason I broke down is because I've got great mates, do you know? I've got fab mates, and I can't imagine going through what Danny went through with Mark.'
