Dubliner Dermot Kennedy misses home while touring but will never Facetime his mammy

The Dubliner took part in last night's Late Late Show 60th birthday special performing with the RTE Concert Orchestra.

The 30-year-old Dubliner gushed: “Oh, it’s massive, yeah… To be able to do it here, it is special.

“I find it very hard to settle [while touring] because I am a home bird but then I have this sort of desire to constantly be on the move.

“I think the music is part of that. You know you want to be on the move, playing to people in different parts of the world…I do have this comfort when I am constantly on the move you know because I feel like I am working towards something, so as much as I love being home, I get quite restless as well. I find it difficult, I got to say.

“But it’s always extreme, I am either doing nothing or I am doing everything. One hundred per cent, yeah.”

Kennedy recently toured Australia and is just happy to be back doing what he loves after the Covid 19 pandemic.

“I guess, but it’s all stunted right because you are playing gigs that are two years late and stuff. We are just back from Australia…

“It was brilliant. We were there for like 10 days, but you just really do pack it full of stuff, yeah. But the crowds are great because it reminds me of home a little bit you know to be honest because people don’t take themselves too seriously.

“Like, it’s the sort of thing, where if you were in Sydney, say I bumped into somebody in the street that was going to the gig we would just walk together for a few minutes just chatting. People are just sound.”

He continued: “You see it around the music industry, everyone is sort of announcing a hundred tours and we were lucky we got a good few shows in last year you know in the US and UK and we took a little break after that. You know it has been nice to not necessarily be part of the rush as well, you know.”

The likeable star admitted that phoning his mum is still a crucial saying: “Constantly. Ah yeah, yeah, yeah, you have to. Yeah, definitely. Everybody, just family group chat you know what I mean and see who picks up…”

But when asked by the Late Late Show host if he uses Facetime, he blurted out: “Oh, I can’t. Not in a million years. Oh, if somebody video Facetimes me it is not getting picked up… I just don’t. I get very awkward…I think I have done it like twice in my life maybe.

“No, I just don’t take part. Even if I am doing interviews or something while I am on tour and they are kind of like video on, audio on, on Zoom or whatever… I just, I can’t.

“Don’t get me wrong it’s not this aggressive humility, it’s just I don’t, I can’t do it yeah.”

Earlier this year Dermot Kennedy met Roy Keane backstage at his gig in Manchester and humbly explained: “So yeah, he was there, and he was sitting beside my mam and dad. And him [Keane] and his family come along, and it was this sort of thing where we had heard he was coming and then about 10minutes before that, I was like, I don't get nervous, but I was. I was very nervous about this… I don’t know, it carries so much more than any musician I have ever met…

“I think it's like it's an attitude, right? And you can carry it into anything you do. I think it'd be so foolish if I were to sort of see what he had as a player and be like ‘ah well I can’t apply that to music because it is different’. You know, it’s the same. You know, you are trying to do something to a certain standard. You are trying to have certain principles within the way you do things and I just thought he was top class. And I don't exist anymore in football, or at least not to the same extent.

“And that’s why I liked him as a player growing up, because I remember watching matches with my dad, and he was always just like... He was a such a fan of him. And so, I was like, okay that's the type of player I like. And that's how he came backstage after the gig and stuff. And he didn't want to because he thought I was kind of doing my thing and I needed down time or whatever. But we sort of dragged him back.”

Dermot recalled winning an old Roy Keane jersey: “My mum and dad won it at a raffle in Citywest years ago… one of the old sorts of Vodafone United ones and it was signed on the back of it.

“I looked at it the other day and the signature is like faded slightly,” he laughed.

Amazingly the singer once auditioned to be on ToyShow. “I was pushing the boat out though. I’d say I was 14 or 15 years old [laughing].

“No that was a fun day. I remember playing. I used to be paranoid at stuff like that. I remember the first time a camera was on me, I think… So, I was in one of the studios and I just couldn't believe I thought cameras were so high tech, right? It was a fair challenge for me.”

Little did he know then that years later he would be asked back on to surprise Michael Moloney in a clip that has since gone viral around the world. “Oh, it was class, yeah, yeah!

“Yeah, no he found a new gear as well… No, it’s nice, yeah because same, literally the Facetime thing – I was kind of like I am going to get awkward if I look at him. No, it was really, really nice. He is a really nice guy and I have spoken to him a good few times since.”