That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - Danny O'Donoghue (from The Script)

Episode Date: June 30, 2026

The Script frontman, Danny O'Donoghue, joins Gaby for a chat about all things joy. Danny has been very open about some of the tough times he's gone through - and now, he's happily married, and beaming about it! They talk about fame, love, the struggle of the music industry and balancing home life with tour life, and the brand new album (which is coming out in August). He talks about what it means to be human, why we should all be walking in nature and getting off screens - and what inspired the songs on the new album, which are themed around the nostalgia for a time before phones and screens and AI.Gaby loves walking - and so does Danny - and they talk about listening to the natural sounds of the world, how good walking is for their mental health - and feeling gratitude. (Danny also reveals a bit of an exclusive about some video content they have made which will be coming out with this new album!) You can pre-save and pre-order The Script's new album now - and remember to follow and subscribe to our YouTube channel too pretty please!

Tell me about the sausage sandwich that delayed you from starting this chat. So it was a beautiful sausage sandwich. Yeah, it was worth waiting for. Worth keeping everybody waiting for. What do you put in your sausage shot? Apart from the sausage. Butter, sausage. Pretty easy.

That's pretty much it. Oh, you don't go. No, salted butter. No, no ketchup. I normally have a cup of tea. And this is the most disgusting part of the interview is sometimes I might dip it. You dunk. Sometimes I might dunk.

Dunk to funk. Can I do it? tell you something really bizarre. So you're talking about butter and sausage. Yep. The late great Terry Wogan, who I worked with for 12 years and another Irish gentleman, he used to take a bite of his sausage.

Yeah. And then put some butter on the end and then bite again. Oh, that's a man after my own heart right there. That's a man off of my own cholesterol-filled heart. Oh, Donnie, it's so lovely to see you because you look properly happy. You have that wedding ring on. I do, yeah. Look at the smile on your face.

Yeah, they call it it the man cuff, handcuffed, mancuff. Now, I absolutely, I love being married. I love being married. It's the best thing it could have ever happened to me. Oh, how wonderful to hear that. Yeah, yeah. And I was just going to say it's more about all of those possibilities because with two people, when you don't know

if you're going to spend the rest of your life with each other, there's a lot of questions. And as a man, you know, I've had people cheered on me and all these things in the past. there was always questions of like, should I keep a plan B just in case this doesn't work out? So in your mind, you have all of these open doors of like what the possibility if somebody hurts me again, what am I going to do, where can I go? And once you commit and you say this is, this is going to be just me and you for the rest of our life, all of those doors shut and all of

that noise stops. And you can actually plan your life like you're not so scatterbrain. There's a direction, there's a place where we want to go, there's somebody who's there, a real team member that is like she's part of you, you're part of her and we just want the best for each other and I just think that's, it's such a beautiful thing to finally find somebody in my life that is there

for just me, you know, doesn't care about the fame, she's not famous, she doesn't want any of it so yeah, so it's beautiful. I'd highly recommend it to everybody, I really would, yeah. I'm so delighted I really am so pleased because you've gone through some really tough, tough, heartbreaking

difficult times. I mean, you're and you're very honest, I'm just love to say there's some tick-tacks being taken in the corner we could hear that was so funny you've gone through some really tough dreadful times and you're very open and honest about it and how it's affected you but I mean it really

heartbreaking times and to see you talking about such happiness after the heartbreak is really special yeah that's life isn't it you know life is about endurance it's almost like some big long endurance test how much can you

can life throw at you and then how much can you get back off the ground again I mean even in a career sense you know forget about love and relationships just in a career everybody sees like oh you've been successful for such a long time well every album we come out

it peaks we sell and then you go back down to the bottom of the pile again and you have to try and fight to then get back up to the top again write the songs 80 songs Does it feel a fight? Yeah It's a fight because the industry is, you know, there's not that many bands around anymore.

So there's not that many TV shows to play on there too. So every time it feels like a fight. And if you take that, that's just your job. And then you've got your own life. And then there's people coming in, your life, making your life really tough and hard and difficult. And then on top of that, you've got, you know, deaths that happen. My mum passed away. My dad passed away.

My best mate passed away. And all of these could be huge signs where you let it. let life steam roll over you. And that's the last time because there's a bit of an addict in everybody, particularly in me, that is waiting for the worst type of news so I can go out on a bender, you know. But when you... Not anymore now. Not anymore.

Yeah, not anymore. And that's the beautiful side of life is that no matter how hard it seems at the time, give it time. And, you know, it'll come out. I'm, you know, hopefully coming out of this now, this dark, the dark patch after Mark passed away. I got married now and I'm really... You know, you don't get rid of the grief

but you start to look forward and there's hopefulness in looking at the future and planning for the future so yeah, but I'm just... I'm really genuinely every morning I'm just happy to be alive. Oh, I'm so delighted to hear it.

And it's about living in the moment and... Yeah, for real. Grief comes back and can hit you in the face when you least expect it. Yeah. And you've got a triple whammy of that pain but yet the way you talk about

now and each day and waking up each day. It's just, I mean, all of us can, everyone's just smiling at you. You know, it's just such a... It's wonderful that you're like that now, Don't know, I'm so pleased for you. I really am. So this new album? Yeah, I know.

How good? But it's script. It's you through and through. It's like it's you from before celebrating life, but also telling us about you. Does that make sense? Totally. I feel like before I was living, I was kind of like in the moment of trying to navigate life and being famous for the first time, being on TV,

and it's all, it can come at you a thousand miles an hour. But having the time now and the wisdom, the knowledge to look back on the career and my life and be able to really write about it now because I can look back and, you know, situations change and lost loves look a bit different and those kind of helpless moments now feel a bit more hopeful. And I think this album was kind of written

I'll tell you this story. So we were in LA and I was with some friends writing because on the last album I was without Mark my kind of writing partner for Now we're nowhere near as good but he would have been my

Lenin to McCartney if you know what I'm saying So we finished each other's sentences and everything that comes along with that So we all wrote together with these two other guys called Steve Kipner and Andrew Frampton

so we wrote a lot of those first two albums all together in this room up in L.A. So the last album, Satellites, I kind of, it was almost like speed dating where I was like working with a writer or a producer and I'm kind of looking for who's going to be the next collaborator. And I don't think I found it. I think it was just the sound of the album sounds like someone who's trying to work their way through something. So this album was like, let's just get the whole team back together again. Let's have me, Steve, Andrew, another guy called Jimbo, who we wrote Hall of Fame and Superheroes with. and we got all of the heavy hit makers in one room

and they all know Mark years as well so there was like the specter of Mark with all of our experiences together so it really felt like the same energy that we had on those first albums even when I was playing with Mark's guitar oh that's so beautiful yeah it was magical you know there's still a lot of songs

left in that guitar you know I'm a big believer in you know different songs can give you different emotions and different songs and stuff and yeah it was really magical so I was I was in L.A. I was sitting on them. I was sorry, I was at the corner about to cross the road. And there was this tiny little delivery robot. Have you seen these things over there? Yes, they frightened me. Terrified. Anyway, there was a homeless guy and the robot was trying to get over his legs. But the homeless guy's fighting with the robot. And I was like, this is bizarre.

It's a movie. Two Teslas go by and then a Waymo, a driverless car. And I just thought, the future used to be this really faraway looking thing. And it's not, I'm actually in the future now. And I was like, what is it to be human these days? You know, what is it? And we, I ended up saying to my friend, I was like, so like, what the hell are we doing if we're not human beings being human? And he was like, boom, there's, that's a great idea, right?

So we were like, right, what if we had a user's guide to being human to try and remember, for those of us that do remember life without computers, life without social media, and AI and stuff? But we remember those times when you, you know, your mom's like, go out and play all day. or you told somebody I'll meet you at Saturday at 3 o'clock at a certain place and you had to be there.

You know what I mean? There's no showing up or texting before and after. So we just felt it'd be a really great idea for an album to remind people, to remind people who are of our age, what it used to be like, but also somebody who's 15 to really tell them that this isn't real life.

You know, being on social media, it isn't real life. Get out into the forest, go forest bathing. Forget about the sunbathing, go into a farce, go. Did you go forest bathing? Yeah. Yeah, I mean,

this is one of my favorite things to do with my wife is to go walking in nature. And it's the closest I feel to euphoria. You know, it used to be, because I lived in the foot of the mountains in Dublin, when I went into the city, I used to get that feeling. But now I live in the city. It just started to edge away from me.

Every year, a little 5% has been taken off until I go out into the forest. I go out into nature. And that's when I start to feel like this is what I'm meant to do. Do you know that? I mean, I bang on about walking all the time, but it's so good for your mental health

and also, I don't know if you do it without headphones, but listening to what's going on around you, the crackles, the sounds of the birds, the trees in the wind, all of those things. It can get you right in your soul, can't it? You know why the birds are a massive and a really important thing to listen to is from years and years of programming

to hear birds chirping meant there was no danger. No danger. And it's a beautiful thing when you go in there, your mind knows this inherently that if you're hearing the sound of birds, that's why, you know, if you go into a massage or anything, they'll have like birds chirping and beautiful kind of, it sounds like a rainforest in nature because that's one of the most calming things to the soul. But yeah, I'm a big believer. I try to walk every morning. I get up. Good man.

Well, I get up. I put the phone aside. I go walking. A lot of times I walk to church. I haven't been to church in, as in daily. I was going daily for two years. go to church, sit down, practice gratitude, talk about how, I don't even know what I'm doing there. You don't need to know what you're doing. It just helped you when you were there. Well, just sitting there and offering gratitude and offering energy up to other people.

You kind of get out of your own head and then you just sit there and just think of how amazing it is to be alive. That's enough for me. How amazing it is to take a breath? How lucky are we? Yeah, really lucky. Because you could have been a rock. you could have been in a piece of space,

you could have been nothing. And in the realms of infinity, you know, we're not here that long. So I get bogged down with all the, with all the crazy nonsense and the political back and forth and all the stuff, you know? Have I just found my alter ego? This is, this is, honestly,

I, every single day, I think we're so lucky to be alive. Yeah. Because we, I don't know, and it's really tough for a lot of people and you've gone through some really tough times, but actually waking up every single day, no matter what you've been through, just going, yes,

and being positive about the day as opposed to, oh, no, I've got to do so. It's a smile. Yeah, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you think negatively and you keep ruminating around the same things again and again, you're just going to go around that hamster wheel. And it takes something like nature to knock you out of it.

Or having somebody good in your life like a partner, like a true partner, not someone who's going to, you know, gaslight you and this, that and the other and who has it in for you, pretends they love you, but has it in for you. We've all been in those relationships. But when you find the right person, I feel, yeah, that's when you kind of really... You start to think about kids. You start to think about life. But you seem happy in yourself, not just with your wife.

It just for me now, the last time I saw you, you weren't as happy. And understandably. But right now, it's like you're happy in you, which is just the most wonderful thing. I appreciate that. Thank you. It's work as well, you know. I do therapy. Feeling strong enough to be able to tell somebody that you feel weak is like this conundrum with men. that they don't want to, they think any sign of weakness means

I'm not going to be attractive to the female or I'm not going to, my friends will, you know, yeah, or anything like that. So, you know, I spent a lot of time doing combat sports. I've been boxing for about five years now. Did Muay Thai for about, you know, two years before that. And I found that it was like men, unlike women, I think women are brilliant at being able to show their emotions

and sit down and talk and just get it all out. Whereas men, we kind of need to do. something with another man. So you'll find activities like men will go like, we're going golfing together. But while they're out golfing, maybe then they'll talk. Then they'll discuss something or let it go. But alcohol as well has been a huge burden almost. People think it's a help. I'll go out, have a few beers and then they'll open up. But I think unless you're processing emotions, grief, heart, even all the pure joy, all of those things, I think you need to have the filter, the sober filter to be able to process it all and let it all come at you.

And you don't drink now? No, no, no. I haven't drank two years. Two years ago, Christmas. Yeah, thank you. It started off being a dry January and then I just felt great at the end of the January. First two weeks is nightmares, you know what I mean? Because I gave up coffee, like caffeine and cigarettes and alcohol all in the one day.

That's a song in itself. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. gave it all up in the one day. And then I just felt I was a better person. I was more balanced. I wasn't so up and down because the thing is, like, I'm a great drinker and I'm very competitive.

So if we're drinking, I'm the best at it. But also, it's the next day, if we're being depressed, I'm also the best of that too. I'm the, you know, WBC champion in depression, you know? So I just felt so much more at ease with myself and to be able to be there for my partner as well, to not have them worry about you. to not, you know, just to always be available emotionally and physically.

Oh, Danny, this is just fantastic. Yeah. The difference between last time I saw you and now is, this is incredible. Thank you. I actually feel very emotional. Dave, I can see you the same. Thanks. Producer Dave and I are going to stop crying. Oh, come on.

Okay, so this is reasons to be joyful. What we're just talking about going outside and brings you joy in your wife. And obviously, family aside. Yeah, of course. What is it that brings you such joy? It can be a thing, it can be... Creativity. Okay.

Being able to create, not necessarily music, but being creative with just taking an idea from my head and seeing it through to its completion. And it can be just painting the wall. It could be maybe just having a conversation, that may be a difficult conversation with my wife or something, but being able to see things true to their completion. I know that's not necessarily being creative,

but it's seeing something through and not letting it go halfway through. I think it's almost like a mini metaphor for life because so often I had done things and then kind of in the middle of it, you know, chicken out of it or not seeing it true to its full potential. So, and that for me comes with songs,

finishing a song, finishing a painting, finishing... And that brings you most joy. Yeah, is the completion of it. You know, I'm level four, but I only found out through therapy that I'm dyslexic. So I was like, this is insane. I'm only finding out now. I'm a songwriter. I use words, you know, I was terrible in school. And I was able to reframe how I'd kind of viewed myself because I would always get terrified of

if there's a situation where I had to come in and maybe like, oh, we're doing a skit today where you've got to learn some lines. I would say yeah I'll do it but then halfway through into doing it I would completely almost get angry at what it was but it was my own self going you're probably not going to learn this as fast as you want to so let's just get angry at it and just you know it was a coping mechanism

coping mechanism so being able to complete things to me is like these days is huge finish a book, finish a conversation finish a thought so let's talk about let's actually talk about the album then I want to get the engagement exact title right. Now, this for me, my favourite was living our life without me.

Yeah. I love that song. Yeah. I know it's not the single that you bring out, but there's some, so I listened to the whole album. Oh, that's amazing that you did. No, no, no, absolutely, I listened to the whole album. But that song just, oh my word. Yeah, it's a killer, isn't it? It really is. Yeah. Yeah, it's a killer of a song. I played it to my daughters as well, and they were just, oh, all of us. Yeah. What a song. Yeah, thank you. It's a class that as the Manor Can't Be Moved Part 2.

It's, you know when Adele brought out the hello, like see it from the other side, it's almost like it's the answer to that. It's like you've gone past and you've gone through everything that you needed to do. Are you still waiting on the corner for that person? And if you are metaphorically, because obviously I never sat on that corner and got all those things, but you do in your head.

But the song was, if you're still emotionally sitting on that, corner, how would you feel if while you're still sitting on that corner you expect her to turn around and she's there, she's not only she there, her husband's there and her children are there.

It's a TV show, you know. This is a really weird thing today, but I've listened to it as I said a few times. And I just, it's a TV show, I think you need to write apologies. This isn't meant as a joke. You need to write the script of the TV show. I'm actually being serious. Yeah, I...

It's a TV show. show waiting to happen. You're not the first person who said that, yeah. That song in particular, because we are called the script because of that. Because we write mini movies. Yes, I know. But that is a Netflix or an Apple TV.

Please will you write it? 100%. Okay, good. Sorted. I'm not going to say on the show, well, of course I am now, but we've done something very, very similar to four of the songs on this album. So we've shot these little things

called micro dramas. Micro dramas? Yeah, and we put our songs to them. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, well, it was a bloody good guess if you didn't. Is that out there that you've done that? I didn't know. No. No, not at all. I'm so pleased. Yeah, it's somewhere where personally I feel like I want to start moving my energy into

is to visually bring these songs alive. Sorry, I really do. This has made me very excited. Look, I'm very over-exam. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's great. Danny, can we just talk about your... I've read, and I just want to hear from you about you and Oasis and them coming back together

and what it meant for you? Yeah, yeah. I think it meant a lot to a lot of people of my elk who kind of grew up, obviously, with Oasis and Wonderwall was like one of the first songs for me that I remember, you know, slow dancing and the disco too and, you know, getting drunk with my mates and all this stuff.

But I just remember seeing when Oasis got back together and obviously famously they had the TIF for many years and didn't talk. But I don't know if they understood the significance of them forgiving each other and coming back out on stage again, you know, holding hands and the unity of it. It was super emotional for a lot of people. Grown men who I know are probably going through a lot of the similar things that they went through.

You know, you have Argy Bargy with a mate. You don't talk to them. And years have gone by. And you should have, you know, you should have called, but you didn't. And maybe it was an unanswered text. or unsent texts and stuff. And I could imagine that that telegraphed to a lot of their fan base

and a lot of people who were quite stubborn to give up that maybe there's a chance. So I've seen that and then I wrote this song called The Crowd Was Singing Wonderwall. And the lyrics are, The Crowd was singing Wonderwall and everything looked beautiful and suddenly we're back in 93 before the fights, before the tears,

before the haven't talked in years. Well, if they can work it out, then why can't we? and it was a total homage to them for doing that and also that song too so yeah I just I was deeply moved by that whole them getting back together the concert and seeing that as a moment because there's a lot of people out there

who I think could do it for giving some people you know and also can we talk about being in a band as you said earlier on that there were so few bands out there now and I find that really sad. When you said that, it sort of oh, it really made me, it sort of punched me in the stomach. Yeah. Because there are so, for me,

you know, obviously all the, my career in TV, the amount of boy bands, and girl bands as well, but bands and who've been put together, maybe they've all met at school, you know, there's all sorts of different bands. And to me that, when you said that, I thought you're right.

Yeah, it's quite a frightening thing in the industry is that there's, I think there's only been four bands or something in the last 10 years that have got to the top spot and stayed there, you know, and I find it incredible that there isn't these bands around. And like we're out, I'm going to date ourselves, but we're nearly out 20 years. So we're like 18 years. And all of the bands that have come and gone since then. And bands are way more talented, way better than us, have kind of come and gone. And they just haven't lasted the test of time for whatever reason,

various different reasons. Some of them is drugs. Some of them is, the industry didn't want them, maybe they just had one album in them. And it's, yeah, to even just get to this point for us is like, you know, it's unbelievable to be here, to be still here. You know, we had so many bands coming out the year that we came out, but that none of them are around anymore, you know? That's really sad. Yeah, but it's great to see bands like Oasis.

Like I said, yeah, no, sorry, we're riding this till the wheels come off, you know. But yeah, to see bands like Oasis kind of not just coming back as a nostalgia thing but like people are really want that again you know, people really want to relive those the glory years I suppose in a way but just the energy of having four people on stage playing its live music

is the complete opposite to AI and how conformed and how you know buttoned up today feels whereas people just want to take this you know take the suit off get into a t-shirt get into a field drink some beer and sing some songs, you know. Yeah.

Sing alone. Danny, everyone! Thank you.