Beginning an interview by deliberating an ending is somewhat unusual, but Kevin Rowland has never been a man to play by the rule book.
We’re talking about Love, the new (and perhaps final) Dexys Midnight Runners album, which was recorded in Belfast with David Holmes. Rowland says he was clear when they were making it that it would be the swansong of the band that he has led in various iterations since 1978.
“Me and David got on great; it really worked,” he says. “And while I was over there he went, ‘This is f**king great. I want to do more albums with you. Let’s do more and more.’
“But I’d already decided that this feels like the last one, and I don’t really want to do another one. I mentioned that to the record company as well, and then they wanted me to promote it as the last Dexys album – but that’s when I said no, just in case I change my mind.”
He laughs, a glint in his eye.
“So never say never, but I haven’t got any inspiration and I haven’t got any desire to do another one at the moment, I must confess. But in three or four years, who knows? It might feel different.”
Anyone who has read Rowland’s excellent memoir Bless Me Father, which was published last year, will be aware what a complex character he is. A maverick both inside and outside the music industry, he had an often turbulent childhood in Wolverhampton and London, the son of Irish parents from Crossmolina, Co Mayo. (Yes, he confirms with a smile, he did celebrate their All-Ireland triumph.)
There were teenage forays into petty crime, his hard-fought success in the music business with Dexys and, later, a debilitating cocaine addiction and bankruptcy before a glorious comeback in the 2010s.
It’s a story for the ages, told without self-pity and in full acknowledgment of his flaws. I tell him it would make a great biopic, which he finds particularly amusing. “Who would play me?” he says, slightly horrified at the thought. “God knows.”
Dexys Midnight Runners was the first music I ever heard on headphones. They were the first band I ever saw live, and I was obsessed with them
David Holmes
Love is the first album since Don’t Stand Me Down, from 1985, to feature the full Dexys Midnight Runners band name. A conversation Rowland had with a younger neighbour, who didn’t realise that Dexys and Dexys Midnight Runners were the same band, inspired the reversal.
“I always like the idea of getting through to younger people,” Rowland says. “So it just seemed like a no-brainer.”
In many ways Love is a companion piece to Rowland’s memoir. The book provides context for certain songs about his proud Irish heritage (My Life in England), for example, while one of the most touching tracks is Once a Man, Twice a Child, written about his fractious relationship with his overly critical father, which he documents in painful detail in the memoir.
It was ultimately mended before his dad’s death, at the age of 102, when he had “turned into this sweet person, like a little child”, Rowland says. “And I never, ever could have imagined that, because he was such a tough bastard.”
As its title suggests, this is an album of love songs with a twist. Rowland is a grandfather – in fact a great-grandfather now – and the sweet, sprightly soul song You’re Alright (“You’re the most lovely people, and I’m so proud of you/Please know that I love you deeply, and I always will do”) was written for his daughter AJ, whom he didn’t meet until her teenage years, and his extended offspring.
Another song, Old Love, laments the passing of time with lines such as, “I hate getting old, it happened so fast, where did it go?/They don’t see me, they just see my age.”
Dolly Parton laid to rest in private Nashville funeral
We speak a few days before Rowland’s 73rd birthday, and he accepts congratulations with a grimace. “There’s not much to recommend [getting older], do you know what I mean?” he says. “You might have a bit of wisdom on a good day, but, you know, the body starts to deteriorate, and that’s not fun.”
Rowland has battled health issues in recent years, including problems with his kidneys. He became gravely ill while in Thailand in 2024, and made peace with the fact that he may not pull through. These days he is doing better; his kidney function is now at 50 per cent, up from the 20 per cent that almost led to him going on dialysis. “But five years ago they were 97 per cent or something.” He shrugs. “So it’s slow, but it’s going the right way.”
Perhaps it has been that newfound lease of life that led Rowland to try something relatively radical by making a connection with Holmes. It’s not the most obvious pairing, but the Belfast musician, composer and producer is an avowed Dexys fanboy.
“Dexys Midnight Runners was the first music I ever heard on headphones,” Holmes says. “They were the first band I ever saw live, and I was obsessed with them. And the fact that I have now played a part in what could be their final album is beyond.”
Rowland admits to being nervous about the partnership, as he had only met Holmes in passing over the years. “I didn’t know him, really,” he says. “And I thought, ‘What’s he going to do? Is he going to want to turn it into a remix or something?’”
He chuckles, noting there was some push and pull between them right from the beginning.
“I said, ‘David, the only way this is going to work is if we do it together. It has to be together.’ And I think he was a bit nervous as well; he said, ‘If you micromanage everything, it’s going to be difficult.’ And I just said, ‘Well, I’m not prepared to hand it over to anybody.’”
He shrugs. “But those conversations helped us get to where we’re going. He’s quite out-there. I had to get used to his way of working, but I’m really happy with it.”
This may well be the final Dexys album, but Rowland doesn’t mention whether that extends to another solo record, too. His last solo album, My Beauty, from 1999, featured his superb interpretations of songs that had seen him through his darkest hours, such as This Guy’s in Love with You, You’ll Never Walk Alone and The Greatest Love of All.
The press attention at the time was largely focused on the cover art, however, which depicted Rowland in make-up, a dress and stockings. (He admitted that he “battened down the hatches” after its unfair critical mauling, although the album has since been reappraised and was re-released in 2020 to UK chart success.)
The dapper Rowland has always placed huge importance on image and clothes, since the very first incarnation of Dexys Midnight Runners; but considering the way gender-bending artists and imagery is celebrated now, does he feel he was simply ahead of his time?
Irish rapper Reggie: ‘Dundalk’s on top of the world right now. The centre of the universe’
“I’ve never thought that, really,” he says, shaking his head. “I don’t think I was ahead of my time in 1978 when we formed Dexys, and with the original flamboyant look of the band; I think the timing was right.
“I think the only thing is I wish I’d stuck to my guns more, rather than be influenced by people who didn’t understand what I was doing, who didn’t get it.” He shrugs. “That’s how it goes sometimes.”
These days he is a vegan tai-chi practitioner, still in an addiction-recovery programme. It may be poles apart from what his younger self might have envisaged, but he is grateful to have come this far.
After a lifetime of questioning who he is artistically, is he any closer to figuring himself out?
“I suppose so,” he says, “but it’s always changing. Everybody is. I do feel more at peace with it all. I’ve made a lot of statements about who I am and how I feel at a certain time, and I’ve done what I’ve wanted to do, largely.
“But, quite often, it’s something different to what it was two years ago. And I have to work on peace of mind daily, but it’s all good.”
If Love really is the final Dexys album, it’s a bookend to a remarkable career. Does he think about legacy much these days? Rowland tilts his head for a moment, thinking deeply.
“I don’t know if I can put that into words,” he says. “But I’ll tell you what I do think: it’s been a hell of a journey from Searching for the Young Soul Rebels to here, to Love.
“I think it’s a good body of work now, and I wouldn’t have said that before. And this new album, Love, is a pretty good way to end it, really. Because what else is there?”
Love is released by Heavenly Recordings on Friday, September 4th. Dexys Midnight Runners play 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin, on Wednesday, November 4th; Ulster Hall, Belfast, on Thursday, November 5th; and Black Box, Galway, on Friday, November 6th