Danny O'Donoghue

I wanted people to feel the same pain I was feeling on the inside.

So I went and tried to take all of that energy and put that into songs.

which I'd been doing my whole life, you know, even when I was, let's say, in a kid in school, if anything wasn't going my way, I'd go into a room, I'd never fight back, as you can tell now, but I'd never fight back.

I'd go into a room and I would try and sing higher and louder than I ever had before.

And that for me was, I didn't know I was doing it at the time, but I was taking negative energy and I was origami-ing it into something good.

So it was like, music to me was like, it's always been there for me.

So I really, you know...

threw myself into after every breakup or death or anything music was the thing that always steered me in the right way and it could be like trying to find the right word to sum up the situation could be one word but as soon as it's down it's out and you know some songs i'm still writing some songs are still unfinished there's just too much to say so it ends up coming out and boxing and fists and stuff you know but then all of that's tied up yeah and with with him

Well, the both of us, because he was, I mean, I boxed him and stuff, but he was a man's man.

You know what I mean?

He was a hard shot.

He had a really tough upbringing.

But also, to see him being able to write about his dad, because his dad passed away when he was 13 or 14, and then his mom, and he was able to articulate that and put that in a song.

Because I, you know, it's funny, I thought I was in, I'm like, I'm in the band with one of the best lyricists of all time.

And I know people say, what a big head you've got.

But I loved his lyrics.

I loved the way he was able to turn a phrase.

Like, when a heart breaks, it don't break even.

That's him.

That's like, they teach that in Berkeley.