![\"Patrick](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/4807872_3_articleinlinemobile_G2QiU1tWoAAg2Qb.jpeg\" "\\"Patrick")
Patrick Kielty with Priscilla Presley<\/p>\nNo night of Irish country music would be complete without Daniel O\u2019Donnell, and the Donegal singer was keen to reassure fans about his upcoming break from touring.<\/p>\n
Over the summer, the 63-year-old announced that he will take a break from touring following “health challenges.”<\/p>\n
Writing in the penultimate edition of Daniel, a magazine distributed to his fan club members, he said: “While I’m in very good health, thank God, I have had some issues with allergies and recurring chest infections recently. So I decided it was best to take some time out and focus on my well-being.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m not winding down, I\u2018m taking a wee break at the end of the year from touring,\u201d he told Patrick Kielty on Friday night. \u201cBut that\u2019s just a wee sabbatical, just a wee bit of time off.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
O\u2019Donnell will continue his touring commitments until December.<\/p>\n
Actor and singer John C Reilly joined the show ahead of his Dublin show, Mr Romantic, in November.<\/p>\n
Reilly spoke about his personal connection to music, and how he listened to Irish music in his family home in Chicago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Clancy Brothers were the main ones we listened to a lot,\u201d he revealed, adding that musicals were also a major influence on him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up doing musicals too, as a kid. So music was just always this part of my life \u2013 in a way, I learned to become an actor by doing musicals.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0He also reflected with fellow guest O\u2019Donnell on the universal appeal of country music.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you listen to the Bluegrass, as you mentioned there, it’s very akin to the traditional Irish music,\u201d O\u2019Donnell said.<\/p>\n
“When you look at history and the famine times, when people left here not wanting to go, they had nothing with them, but a song was carried in their heart, and the words brought them home. That’s the connection. It goes back that far, and many would say that it evolved and maybe married and became country music.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reilly agreed: \u201cIt must be in people’s hearts. There’s something about country music and the purity of it, the simplicity of the storytelling that people relate to, regardless of where they came from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Country singer and former Eurovision hopeful Sandy Kelly was shocked when she was announced as the latest Country Music Hall of Fame inductee during the show. Surprised backstage with the news, a speechless Kelly joined the studio to accept the honour.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s such an honour to be recognised by everybody. I didn’t expect it,\u201d she said. \u201cI want to dedicate it to all the people who have followed me over 50 years, and I want to dedicate it to my family and to all of my peers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She also acknowledged the role Johnny Cash had to play in her success in the industry after they performed Woodcarver together in 1989. She also referenced the jokes that surface online about how often she mentions the country legend.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was just a joy. I learned so much from him about humility, about performing, and he was just the genuine article. I have to pinch myself. I read on Facebook a couple of months ago, \u2018if I took a drink every time Sandy Kelly mentions Johnny Cash, I’d be drunk all the time\u2019.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Patrick Kielty with Priscilla Presley<\/p>\n
Actress Priscilla Presley, 80, also joined the show to talk about her new autobiography, her life married to Elvis, and the death of her daughter Lisa Marie.<\/p>\n
She spoke candidly about the pressures of being married to such a high-profile star at a young age.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very different life, living with the king of rock and roll,\u201d she said before explaining why she felt the need to divorce him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to find myself. I was totally lost in who I was, because I was always associated with Elvis. I decided, you know, I have to go find myself. I have to really do what I like to do. Everything Elvis wanted to do, we followed where he’d go. But I was losing out \u2013 I was only 16, 17, 18. I was losing friendships. I had no one really to talk to and to be among other women.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She reflected on the tragic death of her daughter two years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you saw her happy, you\u2019d just get the biggest smile. But there was a burden that she had on her, I think it was from the family. It was in the family, depression.\u201d<\/p>\n
Presley said she has written her new book as a way to reclaim her own story.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve been asked so many times to write a book about my life, and I backed off from it for many years. Then I decided this is time for me to write a book. I’m getting older, and I don’t want anyone else telling about my life.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No night of Irish country music would be complete without Daniel O\u2019Donnell, and the Donegal singer was keen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[18,117,19,17,30168],"class_list":{"0":"post-103074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-the-late-late-show"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}