The Kelly Family is going on a big tour next year. In an interview, the band reveals their plans and remembers the 1990s.
The Kelly Family has been back on stage since 2017. They are “more than happy” about their comeback, as family members Kathy (58), John (54), Patricia (52), Jimmy (50) and Joey Kelly (48) tell in an interview with the news agency spot on news. The Kelly Family has big plans for the coming period: The family is going on a big Christmas tour next year, and the new album “Christmas Party” will be released. But fans can still look forward to the EP “One More Happy Christmas” in 2021, which has been available since the end of November. In a 2022 RTLzwei documentary, the family also looks back on their careers and visits, among other things, their double-decker bus and houseboat.
“I know that our lives were extraordinary, but also absolutely crazy. I can’t believe that we all survived,” said Kathy Kelly in an interview. Sister Patricia reveals why Stefan Raab (55) once did not get on her houseboat and why the time was “a piece of ideal world” for her back then.
They recently announced that they would go on a grand tour again in 2022. What can your fans look forward to?
Joey Kelly: We will celebrate a Kelly Family Christmas Party for the first time as the Kelly Family – but right, with a lot, a lot of Christmas hits that everyone in the world knows, but of course also with the big Kelly Family hits and completely new ones Songs from us. But it will be a pure Christmas show. We haven’t had that in 40 years. The whole thing will be a big stage show, with stage decorations, lights and great effects, that will be absolutely amazing. I am very excited about it. That means a lot, a lot, a lot of work, we’ve been on it for six months, we’ve never worked so hard for a new tour. It will be great, it will be a family celebration, it will be very emotional, it will be very, very nice and I’m really looking forward to it!
Patricia Kelly: We don’t want to give too much away, but one thing is certain: It will be a huge party. The program is designed so that we can really celebrate after the pandemic. “Christmas In Our Hearts” – hearts full of joy so that we can celebrate together again without a care. For me personally, however, there should never be a lack of emotional moments when tears come to you. This is Christmas for me. It will be a festival of love.
You will be traveling with your family double-decker bus. Do you take special safety precautions for this?
Joey Kelly: The bus was in the workshop for three months before it was approved by the TÜV and received a current TÜV sticker. It is in top condition and can be locked from the inside when we sleep in it.
Angelo Kelly announced his departure from the band in 2020. How will it be to go on tour without him? Will you miss him?
Kathy Kelly: The “Kelly Family on Tour” next year will consist of Kathy, Patricia, Jimmy, Joey, John and Paul. Angelo, who travels with his own family himself, is taking a Kelly Family Live break. But it will be part of our big Kelly Family documentary that will take us to historically important places in our family history around the world over the next few months.
The mentioned documentary comes on TV at RTLzwei. In it you travel on an emotional trip to places all over Europe and visit your houseboat, among other things. Which memories did you particularly touch?
Patricia Kelly: I’m really looking forward to this Kelly Family documentary, but I also have a lot of respect for it. A lot of emotional stuff comes up from the past and you don’t even know how to deal with it. I only associate positive things with the boat; I spent one of the most beautiful times of my life there. We lived there for seven years and I had my own little cabin, the walls of which were covered with beautiful teak wood. Somehow the world was all right for me back then. I loved it when the rain pounded on the roof of the cabin and I could open my little round window to hear the raindrops splash on the water of the Rhine. It was an ideal world after many difficult years, but unfortunately only until my papa suffered his stroke.
I also associate the boat with a great time in Amsterdam and Cologne, where our boat was moored. Lots of encounters. Amsterdam was our bohemian-hippie time, carefree and free. Later in Cologne harbor our big breakthrough with the first number one. That was of course super exciting, a time of new beginnings and memories that I will never forget.
But of course I also associate the boat with the beginning of the stressful period of the 90s. Our success came like overnight and we had to leave our boat for safety reasons. Some fans tried to swim over to us and it was just too dangerous. For all. Our security could no longer guarantee that we are safe. The young and cheeky Stefan Raab came up with a motorboat and a camera and tried to get on the boat. But our giant Irish Wolfhound Colin barked so loud that Stefan preferred to turn around …
Kathy Kelly: My memories are very, very strong, emotional and heavy. I realize that our life was extraordinary, but also absolutely crazy. I can’t believe we all survived. We must have had an army of angels watching over us. People were very good to us everywhere we went. That gave me confidence in people like nothing else.
If you go through the world with an open heart, people will give that back to you too. It is incredible to be able to visit all these cities in Europe and relive our shared memories. Each and every one of us has different memories. It is very interesting to hear the other memories from my brothers and sisters. And on top of that, I have a lot of fun!
Looking back, how happy are you that you made your comeback in 2017?
Joey Kelly: I’m still speechless because I didn’t expect the first comeback concert in May 2017 to be followed by another 100 concerts with a total of 1.5 million viewers and two million records sold by February 23, 2020. It was absolutely amazing, especially that our fans were so loyal to us. The comeback was a lot of fun.
Patricia Kelly: I’m more than happy and can’t find the right words for it. In any case, big, big gratitude. I have prayed for this for years, and I was convinced that one day we would get together again. I fought for it where others might have given up. My heart has always firmly believed that we would make it all over again. Today, more than ever, when the pandemic means a massive change, especially for our industry, I am grateful, also for my siblings, that we were able to secure our livelihoods. It doesn’t get any easier for us artists, because we don’t make our living with CDs, but with our live concerts. The past two years have shown how difficult it is.
In this respect, the comeback has helped our family a lot and we have to thank the German audience very much. It was and is still good with us today, and if you will, we owe everything to Germany. We are grateful that they still love us, support us and attend our concerts. In the end, it wasn’t our comeback, but that of the audience. You wanted it and kept asking for it. You can’t force people to come to a concert. Either they come or they don’t. The German audience was the beginning of the big comeback in Europe and we owe everything to them.