Four Late Late Show Country Special talking points, from John C Reilly to Priscilla Presley
The Late Late Show Country Music Special 2025
No night of Irish country music would be complete without Daniel O’Donnell, and the Donegal singer was keen to reassure fans about his upcoming break from touring.
Over the summer, the 63-year-old announced that he will take a break from touring following "health challenges."
Writing in the penultimate edition of , 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.”
“I’m not winding down, I‘m taking a wee break at the end of the year from touring,” he told Patrick Kielty on Friday night. “But that’s just a wee sabbatical, just a wee bit of time off.”
O’Donnell will continue his touring commitments until December.
Actor and singer John C Reilly joined the show ahead of his Dublin show, , in November.
Reilly spoke about his personal connection to music, and how he listened to Irish music in his family home in Chicago.
“The Clancy Brothers were the main ones we listened to a lot,” he revealed, adding that musicals were also a major influence on him.
“I grew up doing musicals too, as a kid. So music was just always this part of my life – in a way, I learned to become an actor by doing musicals.”
He also reflected with fellow guest O’Donnell on the universal appeal of country music.
“If you listen to the Bluegrass, as you mentioned there, it's very akin to the traditional Irish music,” O’Donnell said.
"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.”
Reilly agreed: “It 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.”
Welcoming the legendary Sandy Kelly in to the Late Late Show Country Music Hall of Fame! 🌟🎶👏#latelate pic.twitter.com/tR9YP8S653
— The Late Late Show (@RTELateLateShow) October 3, 2025
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.
“It's such an honour to be recognised by everybody. I didn't expect it,” she said. “I 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.”
She also acknowledged the role Johnny Cash had to play in her success in the industry after they performed together in 1989. She also referenced the jokes that surface online about how often she mentions the country legend.
“He 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, ‘if I took a drink every time Sandy Kelly mentions Johnny Cash, I'd be drunk all the time’.”
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.
She spoke candidly about the pressures of being married to such a high-profile star at a young age.
“It was a very different life, living with the king of rock and roll,” she said before explaining why she felt the need to divorce him.
“I 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 – I was only 16, 17, 18. I was losing friendships. I had no one really to talk to and to be among other women.”
She reflected on the tragic death of her daughter two years ago.
“When you saw her happy, you’d 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.”
Presley said she has written her new book as a way to reclaim her own story.
“I'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.”
