Danny O'Donoghue explains why The Script didn't split after Mark Sheehan died

What did you miss?

The Script’s Danny O’Donoghue has said it was a tough decision to go on with the band after the death of Mark Sheehan but that he could hear his late bandmate urging: "Finish what we both started."

Guitar player Sheehan died in April last year after a brief illness, at the age of 46. O’Donoghue and drummer Glen Power continued with the band and it was later announced that musicians Ben Sargeant and Ben Weaver would be joining them.

Speaking on The One Show, O’Donoghue said he'd gone down a “dark hole” and turned to alcohol after the death of Sheehan, his friend since childhood as well as his bandmate. But he said he and Power agreed that Sheehan would have wanted them to push forwards with The Script.

What, how and why?

O’Donoghue was asked by host Alex Jones if it had been a hard decision to continue with The Script, and he replied: “Yeah, such devastating news like that, when that happens you have to reevaluate your whole life and myself and Glen just sat around thinking well, what would Mark do?

"And I know he would push us on, he was always like the driving force of the band, very charismatic guy… We were lost without him in those first few months. The decision we made was, we didn’t want to replace him in the band, we wanted to start a new chapter. So what we wanted to do was, instead of it being the three piece we went with a four piece."

He continued: "We engaged with our fans, we engaged with everybody just to see if this was the right thing to do. Our gut instinct was, that music has helped me through literally every dark moment in my life and I was hearing Mark in my ear, being like: 'Finish what we both started'."

Danny O'Donoghue went 'down dark hole' after bandmate's death

The singer, 43, was friends with Sheehan since childhood and they formed The Script in 2001. O'Donoghue has previously been open about drinking as he struggled with his grief.

He said on The One Show: "I went down a dark hole most of last year, not really realising how to kind of deal with grief. I guess I did what most guys my age do, go down the pub and tried to sort it out with alcohol.

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"I think it was Christmas time I got back to Dublin and I was fully set on not drinking. But by the time the plane had landed I was drunk... I kind of ruined Christmas for myself by being drunk because I went back to Dublin and it was a really triggering place to be because, you are looking at the corner where you guys had hung out and stuff.

"I got back on the 27th December. I just said, 'Enough is enough, I need to face and stare down grief stone cold sober.'"

O'Donoghue gave up cigarettes, alcohol and caffeine and started to work out a few times a week.

"I made a lot of changes in my life to process it," he said. "Because I firmly believe that if you kick it down the road it’s going to be there for you, it’s like a car crash for you."

The One Show airs every weeknight on BBC One at 7pm.