Nathan Carter shares the one reason he would take a break from his busy music career

Having been propelled into stardom at a young age, he says maybe in the next year or two he will pursue a different ‘grounding’ opportunity

Nathan Carter has shared the one reason he would take a break from his busy music career.

The Liverpool native is one of Ireland’s most celebrated country stars, enjoying success at home and abroad.

Nathan was practically an overnight success following the release of his chart-topping hit Wagon Wheel when he was 23 years old, and has continued to thrive in the country scene between recording music and touring.

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Both Daniel and Margo O’Donnell have said they’re taking a step back from music next year, and Nathan admits he has at times thought of doing the same.

He told RSVP Country: “I’ve been asked a couple of times to go and build houses in Africa, but I’ve never been able to do it with timing and schedules.

“I want to do it in the next two years. I think it would be very grounding and it would be a reset button for me. It would mean taking some time off from music though.

“Taking some time off would probably make you want to get back into music more. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that. That’s what they say.

“We experienced time off during the pandemic and we were mad to get back at it.”

Nathan was propelled into almost instant stardom at the beginning of his career and says he wouldn’t be able to take on the workload now that he did back then.

“It seems like an absolute blur, to be honest with you. We were going a million miles an hour,” he said.

“I was doing twice the amount of gigs that I do now. I was doing radio and TV shows, I had my own show on RTÉ. I didn’t have time to breathe. When I look back, I don’t know how I did it.

“I don’t know how I didn’t get sick and how I functioned with no sleep. It was all adrenaline and age. Wagon Wheel came out when I was 23 so I thought I was ready for anything. I was in Killarney one night and London the next night.

“It was great fun and I’m so glad it all happened, but I don’t think I would be able to do it now, 12 or 13 years later. I hope things stay the way they are for me.”

The Co Fermanagh-based singer says he didn’t have the chance to take stock and live in the moment because his schedule was so hectic.

He continued: “I don’t think you enjoy it in the moment because I was always worried about the next song and the next gig. There was never time to stand back and enjoy it.

“I’m lucky to be able to sell out venues and live in the moment, I don’t think I was living in the moment back then. I was thinking about what was going to happen next. That’s a lot of pressure for a 23 or 24 year old.

“I always wanted to do more and advance my career. I was lucky enough that gigs and TV shows came along to boost things.

“I got to sing with Mel C on my RTÉ show, if you had told me that when I was 19 I would have said ‘What?’. I sang with Billy Ocean and the lads from Westlife and my folk heroes like Finbar Furey and Mary Black. There was a lot of hard work, but there was also luck.”

Nathan now enjoys gigs a lot more 15 years after finding fame: “I was so young when I started and my mind was going a million miles an hour about what was happening tomorrow. I wasn’t focused on living in the present.”

Nathan is now a household name across Ireland the UK – can he recall the moment when he realised he was famous?

He recalled: “I was in Inverness recently and I was walking to Tesco to get lunch. Two women walked past me and one of them said ‘I think that’s Nathan Carter’.

“I could hear them and see them, they were only about three metres away. The second woman replied and said, ‘He wishes’.”

He added with a laugh: “I’ve obviously aged or put on a bit of weight!”

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