Country music star Shawn Cuddy celebrates 35 years in the music industry. He shares his journey from his 'pensionable job for life' to becoming a successful musician, the advice he received from Daniel O'Donnell, and his enduring passion for performing.
Shawn Cuddy always wanted to be on stage, but his career began on a very different path. The Laois native began his working life reading metres with the ESB before joining the Midlands Health Board. He then left his “pensionable job for life” to pursue a career in music after chatting to a then rising star, Daniel O’Donnell, one night in Tullamore. After 35 years of touring and recording, the 61-year-old feels privileged to be doing a job he loves.
Here, Shawn shares all about how he met and fell in love with his wife Roberta, his pride in his two children Seán and Aimee, and why he has no plans to slow down as long as people want to see him perform. Congratulations Shawn, you’re celebrating 35 years on the road. I’ve been in the music business for 35 years professionally and before that I went around with my sisters for seven or eight years. I’ve been at it a long time! How does it feel to make a career out of something you love? I’ve always loved music, especially country and Irish music. That was the music we grew up listening to and mammy and daddy would have gone to the dances to see Big Tom, Margo and Larry Cunningham. I always sang in local concerts back home in Laois. If you said to me back then that I was going to make a career out of singing, everyone would have said you were mad. When I finished school and did my exams my original plan was to become a nurse, not a musician. Was that your first job? No, my first job was reading metres for the ESB and then I was lucky enough to get a job with the Midlands Health Board working in a hospice in Mountmellick. I worked under the nuns for two years while still gigging in pubs and doing a one-man show. I was working all the time. My main ambition was to do nursing, but I realised that men couldn’t train in Ireland to be nurses back then, that will show you how naïve we were. You had to go to England, but how could I leave? So I stayed working away. In 1988, I was playing at a cabaret night in Offaly and I heard that there was this new singer performing in Tullamore and his name was Daniel O’Donnell. I packed up my gear and went to see him perform. I spoke to him after his show and he told me to give it a lash and go out and record an album. The rest is history and I’ve been working ever since! Aren’t we very lucky to do what we do and have the talent to do it? We love it and get paid for doing it at the same time. I couldn’t do anything else. During the pandemic, you went back to nursing and caring, isn’t that right? I worked in an Alzheimer’s unit and I really enjoyed it. It was lovely to go back and give my time. I got great satisfaction from that. All my life I worked, so I couldn’t just take a government payment, I had to get out and work. I did three 12-hour shifts a week and it was hard. I never thought I would have been sitting on the frontline, but I was there and I witnessed the pandemic and the effect it had on the families who lost their loved ones. Did your parents always want you to have that Plan B? To be quite honest with you, mammy and daddy were shocked when I said I was going to get into music full-time. I remember when I left the hospital in Mountmellick I was one of the youngest attendants with the health board at the time. I was only 19 with a full-time pensionable job. When I handed in my notice to the matron, she looked at me with a frost face and said, ‘What do your parents think of you leaving a pensionable job to sing in a pub?’ Was that a risk at the time? Oh God, yeah. I had no money saved up, I was earning £64 a week. It was good money at the time, but getting more money was hard. I remember getting insurance on my first car and there was no such thing as direct debit. I got a personal loan from the bank for £5,000 so I could record my music. My family had to guarantee the loan because the bank wouldn’t give me the money. I hired musicians and the best people in music and I laid down my vocals in Harold’s Cross in Dublin. I knew that if I was going to succeed I needed to arrive at the record company with a good product. You turned 60 recently. I turned 60 last year. Daniel O’Donnell rang me the day of my birthday and he said, ‘Welcome to the club’. He asked if I felt any different and I said, ‘Not a bit’. The hair has just got grey, that’s it . Was hitting a milestone birthday a time of reflection for you? I recorded a song called The Older I Get and it’s very popular at the concerts. The 40s, 50s and 60s are big milestones and you realise that the things you thought were important become less so as you get older. Life is all about your family and your close friends. It’s important to be nice to people and not to worry. I used to worry about getting work and keeping my band going. Now, I do the work that comes in and I feel lucky to still be performing at this stage of my career. I hope to stay on stage for another few years. I toured in the UK recently with Philomena Begle
SHAWN CUDDY MUSICIAN COUNTRY MUSIC IRELAND DANIEL O'donnell 35 YEARS CAREER NURSING FAMILY LIVE PERFORMANCES
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