Cranberries star Dolores is happy to forego stardom

Cranberries star Dolores O’Riordan has told she managed to keep her fame hidden from her oldest son until he was eight years old.

She revealed she never wants to go back to the super stardom of her 20s as she found the relentless schedule left her with no time to enjoy life.

In a frank interview with Ray D’Arcy, she revealed how her 16-year-old son Taylor was in the dark about his mother’s celebrity for the first half of his life when they were living in the family’s stud farm in Limerick.

She said: “When my kids were tiny I didn’t want them to know I was famous. For me fame seemed so false and superficial.”

She said he only found out his mother was a rock star after the family moved to Dublin in 2004.

She never wants to return to the worldwide stardom she enjoyed in her 20s as she didn’t have a good quality of life.

“I always write [songs] but I will never globe trot and it will never be my life the way it was. I’ve been there and done it.

“I was 21 and I had the world by the arse. Now I am 42 and I am the mother of four children and I am doing different things.

“It [was] all I had to sacrifice all of my life. I had no life, it was my life and I ended up having a nervous breakdown and got depressed when I was 24 or 25.

“I was just overworking and had no friends and no life. I am a happier person now.”

The new coach on The Voice admitted she had never watched the RTÉ series.

She also revealed she never got to enjoy her famous pad in Dingle during her 20s. “It was this big mad rock star pad down there, but that was a very short-lived experience. It was out in the middle of nowhere. I thought I would fly in because I was hugely famous.”

But stars are basically are on tour all on the time, she said.

“It’s the rat race and you are running. Anyone who is Top 10 are working their butt off. They are getting up at 6am and working until 2am. That is their life.”

She said: “I thought ‘Life is short. Why sit on the sidelines?’ It is a stable thing.

“I feel I have learned to enjoy my life and found something to do that keeps me contented and pays the bills, and everybody is happy. It is a good laugh and Kian is a riot.”