Kelly Jones considered quitting

5 November 2017

Kelly Jones considered quitting music after the death of one of his idols.

Kelly Jones

The Stereophonics frontman was left devastated by the recent passing of Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie, who had brain cancer, and he admitted it made him question his own future, something he's been doing since a terrorist attack at an Eagles of Death Metal concert in Paris in 2015.

The 43-year-old star - who has daughters Bootsy and Misty from a past relationship and Riley, 20 months, with wife Jakki Healey - said: "Without Gord I doubt I'd have come out with most of the songs I've written, especially the earlier ones.

"As a performer he was poetry and anarchy all wrapped up in one, and there aren't many who can pull that off.

"In fact, I was talking about this just the other night with Jakki and remembered the time, in '97, when we played a club gig in Toronto - Gord walked backstage with a selection of his favourite books in a brown paper bag for me to read.

"He'd heard we liked his band and just wanted to say hello and share with me some of the stuff that had a big effect on him. That's the kind of bloke he was.

"After what happened at the Bataclan, especially - I just thought, 'Do I really want to be doing all this - spending my time travelling, being away from home?'

"What is more, Gord's death left me wondering - here was a bloke with a huge musical legacy and so many achievements, yet what was it all for?

"Because, at the end of the day, he had a bunch of kids who've now been left without a dad.

"So I questioned whether it's worth putting myself through all that, on top of dealing with the confusion and noise that bombards us all every day."

But the 'Bartender and the Thief' hitmaker has vowed to focus on the positives and not live in fear in order to be a positive role model for his kids.

He added to the Western Mail's Weekend magazine: "But then I realised I can't control the men with the guns and all the s**t that happens in the world, and I tried to tell myself that, yes, despite all the anxiety and the fear, hope and innocence do still exist.

"As a result I struggle hard to show my girls a much more positive outlook than the one I was raised with.

"Because when I was growing up there weren't that many doors of opportunity open to us and the overall consensus was 'you have to make do with what you've got'.

"Not that my family weren't supportive of what I wanted to do, it's just there were a lot of negatives to overcome in order to get a crack at your dreams.

"And it's still like that for a lot of people - that's why my kids are my number priority and, together, we just sort of keep each other grounded and focused."