‘I go to mass everyday’ – The Script’s Danny on how he copes after pal’s death

DANNY O’Donoghue has opened up on his struggle after his best pal and bandmate Mark Sheehan’s shock death, admitting: “I spent the majority of last year questioning everything.”

The Script frontman has told how he has turned to religion to help keep him on the straight and narrow — revealing he goes to mass every day and has stayed away from alcohol for over six months.

The Script co-founder Mark died last year at the age of 46 following a brief illness.

The death shocked the world of music, with Danny and drummer Glen Power unsure as to whether to continue on with the band.

In a candid interview today, Danny opened up about the difficulty of trying to cope with the heartbreak of losing his friend.

The devastated Dubliner said: “I’m still coming to terms with it, you know. I have good days and I have bad days.

“Anybody who’s lost somebody I guess knows that you never really get rid of the grief, it’s there and you just tend to try to grow around it.

“Gone too soon. Way too soon. And I think after he passed away, like everybody else, you’ve got every reason in the world to just go off the rails. So I spent the majority of all last year questioning everything.

“Questioning is there a God, is there not? What am I doing in life? Can we continue on as The Script? All those questions that you ask yourself in those moments.”

Danny said he struggled to write music for months after the tragedy, but finally broke his block when penning a song about his friend.

He told RTE’s Brendan O’Connor Show: “I couldn’t write. I spent my whole life as a co-writer. We wrote all our hits together.

“It is still very tough to take and hard to deal with. The thing that, I guess, keeps us going is that I know for a fact he’s like, ‘Just finish what we started’.”

Danny described Mark as “the leader of the band” and admitted he still questions whether they should continue The Script.

However, they are currently working on a new album and will go on tour later this year.

Danny confessed he turned to booze amid his grief.

But he announced he has now given up drinking “for now” and turned to religion.

‘It’s wrong’

Asked about Irish men’s tendency to turn to alcohol to deal with grief, Danny said: “It’s wrong. I had an issue at Christmas time where I was saying I’m going to have a sober Christmas, I’m coming home and I’m gonna have a great Christmas, clear-headed.

“I didn’t realise the power of what Dublin was, so I was on the plane on the way and the anxiety started building and I f***ing ended up getting a drink.

“I landed in Dublin and I was p***ed and I remained p***ed for the rest of Christmas and it was not a good place to be, mentally.

“I got back on the 27th of December. I cut my Christmas early and went back to London.

“And I just said that’s it, I’m done. I’m finished drinking. I’m finished smoking. Caffeine. Anything like stimulants that can lead me towards a bad area, get it out of my life.”

Finding God

Speaking about his turn to religion, the Script frontman said: “Martial arts was a huge one. I started working out three times a week. Started boxing again and sparring on Sundays.

“I also then started going back to church and I’m in church every day. Catholic mass, I go every day.

“I set the alarm, get up in the morning, I don’t look at the phone, and go to church to practice gratitude for the life I’ve been able to live so far, and offer up prayers.

“I go to the gym to work out. I go to the studio to make music. But where am I going to get, spiritually, what I need now?”

He added: “I’m not the biggest believer in all of it. I used to go to church, I was an alter boy years ago, and just the structure of it and what it does and the practice of it.

“I haven’t touched a drink in six months. I feel better than I’ve ever felt, considering the circumstances, and I don’t know what it is that’s there — but I know there’s something there. So, for me, I love it and I go every day. I don’t miss a day.”