The Script's Danny O'Donoghue on Making First Album Without Mark Sheehan and the Epic Story Behind 'Breakeven' (Exclusive)

• The Script’s latest album, Satelliteswill be released on Friday, August 16
• Danny O’Donoghue opens up about the death of his longtime bandmate Mark Sheehan and how it led to a journey with sobriety
• Frontman recalls the story of writing the hit song “Breakeven”

More than a year after the death of The Script’s Mark Sheehan, the Irish band are back with new music — and they’re wearing their hearts on their sleeves.

Sheehan, who was a founding member of the band alongside Danny O’Donoghue and Glen Power, died in April 2023 aged 46 after a short illness.

In the months after Sheehan’s death, O’Donoghue, 43, turned to drinking and smoking as a coping mechanism. Then, “27. December”, chose sobriety and has maintained it ever since.

“I’m going through a really, really tough time,” O’Donoghue tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I think I’m dealing with it the best way I can.”

Unsure if the band could continue making music, O’Donoghue says The Script decided to give it a shot and wrote about what they were feeling – which led to the birth Satellites.

Read below about O’Donoghue’s experience with sobriety, the inspiration behind the album, and the fun story behind their hit song “Breakeven.” Spoiler: it has something to do with it Love actually.

Danny O’Donoghue in London in May 2024.

Neil P. Mockford/Getty Images

Danny O’Donoghue’s script was “derailed” after the death of co-star Mark Sheehan

Where has the inspiration behind disappeared Satellites comes from?

We lost our guitarist last year, Mark. So we were left with nowhere, actually. When something like that happens, it can really shake you up. So we tried to write, and then it just started to get a little better, a little easier with each song. We started to become more ourselves again, [trying to] to break through some emotions we were going through.

At what point did the album begin to be put together?

That’s when I came up with the lyrics to “Gone,” which deals directly with Mark’s death. The lyrics are: “Like a shooting star across the sky, you’re gone in a second. Why do stars that shine twice as bright burn only half as long?”

I just thought it was a nice way to remember someone and celebrate their life instead of mourning their loss. In Ireland we try to do that anyway. We try and, as much as you can, smile through the tears instead of letting them grab you, surround you and pull you down. It was the inspiration to do something for us because we were in a mess. And then what it did was it actually encouraged everyone to have something to aim for.

What is the overall message Satellites?

We are not going through this alone. That’s what we feel is really important. Having been through all that we’ve been through is a bit of a movement for us now. The crazy part for me is that I’ve known The Script family base longer than some of my friends in life. We’ve been a band for 17 years, so people have known and invested in us longer than one of our in-ear guys I met last year.

Is there one song on the album that you think will be particularly cathartic to perform?

There’s a song called “Home is Where the Hurt Is.” I can’t even listen to it without getting goosebumps because it reminds me of my past and there are so many emotions built into that one song. Otherwise, if I have that feeling like, ‘Oh, I don’t know if I want to do it, maybe it’s too much,’ that’s the song that pops. It’s a song that once you sing it for the first time, everyone in the audience gets into it. I haven’t had that opinion about a song since “The First Time”.

How did Sheehan’s death open your eyes to the conversation about mental health?

Guys are so… talking about how the fuck they feel. All I’m doing here is just trying to show people, look, if you let it out, it’s a lot better. If you let it out, great things can happen. People think if you let it out, bad things will happen. Nothing but good has happened to me in my life.

My whole career has been that I’m really, really screwed, broken, I’ll write it down, and then that piece of paper goes out into the rest of the world and everyone’s like, “Oh s—, did you see what this guy wrote? Oh, well, I want to go see this guy now” because of what he read at that moment. If I hadn’t done that, it would never have happened. The rest would be inside.

Danny O’Donoghue, Mark Sheehan and Glen Power.

Mike Marsland/Mike Marsland/WireImage

What inspired you to open up about your journey with sobriety?

The script is just opened. Music speaks the truth. I chose to be very open and honest about it because I have to be. I just lost my best partner of 30 years. Everyone knows I’m in pain. Here I have the opportunity to tell people through my experience what I did to make it work.

And what I mean by that is you can’t… I was talking about grief and I said, your friends might think the best thing for you is like, “Oh, let’s try to change your mind. Let’s take him out, have a few drinks, forget it on that person or this, that.” In fact, the worst thing you can do is go and drink alcohol, because what you’re inevitably doing is solving those problems down the road. And it’s damn hard, man. I’m back after spending most of Christmas just drinking, trying to forget things. I came back on December 27th and I just said, “That’s it.” So I gave up alcohol, cigarettes, even caffeine. You can imagine all that in one day. I started going to church every day and then I exercise three times a week.

I don’t know what it does, but it’s absolutely amazing, the turnaround. Even though I’m going through a really, really tough time, I think I’m dealing with it the best way I can.

In May you introduced two new band members: Ben Sargeant and Ben Weaver. How was it having two new people around?

Well, that’s always a lot of fun, because if you change any ingredient in the cake, it’s different. And we’re lucky, Ben Weaver has always been a session musician or part of our stage crew, but having him involved in the writing this time around made it feel more like we were all in it together. We just want to hear what everyone has to say. Everyone is more willing, because we understand that life is short, man.

And then we have this new guitarist, Ben Weaver, who has just been a revelation. We were in a hole thinking, how the hell are we going to perform these songs? How are we even going to try to create more? He just inserted himself. It’s a totally different energy and stuff than what Mark was, but still cool. He’s still mean in his own right.

Before we go, I have to ask about “Breakeven.” Looking back at the moment that song was created, did you imagine it would become the heartbreaking anthem it is today?

No, I honestly didn’t. Being broke musicians, we were on our first album and writing to save our lives. Then we wrote to eat. I broke up with the girl I was dating at the time, and most of that album was about trying to get her back. I was just trying to deal with the feelings of trying to win someone back.

I watched Love actuallyand there was a part in the movie where he knocks on the door and says, “The greatest thing about me is always you and that’s it.” And I thought, “What am I supposed to do when the best part of me has always been you? Oh, s—.” And I went and wrote it. I just wrote down the lyrics and I had that chorus, and Mark already had the idea for “Breakeven.” He had this amazing song, “When a heart breaks it doesn’t break even.”

We went to our friend’s house and wrote the rest of the song there. And it was like it came together very quickly. I got goosebumps listening to that, and then I got the same feeling with “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved”, to be honest. Those two were the last two songs to make the album, which is crazy.

At the time, I didn’t know how many famous people would sing that song. It ended with a lecture at Berklee [College of Music] like the perfect pop song, which is funny because I’m dyslexic and also failed music at school. So for my words to be taught to people, I’m like, I hope they wrote them well, because I didn’t. I still misspell it to this day.

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Source: HIS Education