The couple of years before I was declared bankrupt were the roughest. The bank letters, the pressure, the stress was awful. You're in this twilight zone of not knowing where your life is going, and yet you're in Westlife. Everything was great with the band. I was earning money, and it looked good.
It's amazing how lucky Westlife were and what we achieved. It's very rare to have seven number ones in a row. Ridiculous in fact.
Why me? Why did this happen? How could I be in Westlife and then have nothing to show for it financially at the end of it? But it's like, why not me? That's just life. It's tough. There's a lot more problems in the world. There are a lot of people who would wish to God they had my problem instead of having a sick child.
When your child is looking up at you, and you are putting them to bed at night, and they are just lying there, you have to remind yourself that's what it's all about.
When I had money, I felt pressure, whether it was to invest it or do good with it, and I couldn't let it fizzle out. It was like I needed to prove to myself that I could look after it, only I did the opposite, but you have to take a chance in life.
I put all my eggs in one basket and invested in property. I didn't do anything internationally - it was all in Ireland.
I didn't want to be a solo Westlife - covers and ballads - and the reason I signed with Capitol Records was because they wanted me to write songs myself. It was pretty scary, but they put me in a studio in Nashville with some new songwriters, and the results were pretty good.
Capitol Records were very keen for me to write and see how I got on; I think that is what defined my sound. The first session I had was with two young up-and-coming writers, Nick Atkinson and Tom Wilding, and I went into a session a bit nervous because I hadn't written that many songs before.
The adrenaline of performing on stage to a crowd - there's nothing like it.
You're only as good as your last album.
I'd like to keep singing - whether that's small or big. To stop singing for a living would break my heart.
'Everything To Me' is about everything that's important. It's about my wife, my kids, it's about life, about being happy. It's about life in general, you know, about not knowing what's going to be around the corner, but you've got to enjoy it and enjoy the things you have. My wife, my kids, my health, and stuff like that.
I didn't really like 'You Raise Me Up' at the time we recorded it; now it's my favourite Westlife song.
You know One Direction do a lot of up tempo songs, but when they did that Ed Sheeran song 'Little Things,' that was probably their biggest song off their last album, so it shows you that a ballad never goes out of fashion.
Westlife earnt millions. We were on the 'Irish Times' Rich List. And then... I'm not!
Everybody, every tradesman that worked for Shafin or built my house got fully paid, well paid. Everybody got paid. I would like that to be said if I could because I haven't said it before, and it's important. People kind of think we left all these plumbers or electricians without getting paid.
It's a big deal to bring your family on the road, you know? I'd love to do it sometime, but you have to work out schools and all that.
I don't think about success to be famous, because I've done that at the highest level, but it's all about my children.
I love Ireland. I'll always be 100pc Irish. I get really excited when I go to Sligo; it's my home.
I have three children to take care; I have a wife. My job is to take care of them, and I can say it's a pretty cool job to have.
