'Wolverhampton still means a lot to me after all these years and I love performing there': Kevin Rowland talks about his musical journey, his roots in the Black Country, personal struggles and a frank new book two decades in the making

When you mention the name Kevin Rowland to people, the common responses will be around the band Dexys Midnight Runners and the songs 'Come on Eileen', 'Geno' and 'Jackie Wilson said', big hits in the early 1980s.

While this is one part of his life, it doesn't tell the whole and complex story of the 71-year-old, who was born in Wednesfield to Irish parents, spent the first 11 years of his life living in Blakenhall before departing to London and became a massive star with Dexys before a serious fall into addiction and bankruptcy in the 1990s.

All of this, from his life at the bottom living in a bedsit and on the dole to his triumphant rise back to the top, is told in extraordinary detail and with searing honesty in his new book "Bless Me Father: A life story", a memoir which he said was his way of reflecting on his life with the benefit of hindsight and wisdom and which had started 20 years ago.

That story and much more will be told at the Robin in Bilston on July 23 when Kevin takes to the stage to discuss the book and give his own deeply personal account of his life, with the event being led by Robert Lloyd, the lead singer of Birmingham post-punk/alternative rock band, The Nightingales, and also featuring an audience Q&A.

The story of Kevin Rowland's life began on August 17, 1953 in Wednesfield, with Kevin saying that his early days went between Ireland and Blakenhall and while he left the city at the age of 11, he always maintained a link to the city through his support of Wolverhampton Wanderers.

He said: "Wolverhampton means a lot to me as I was born in Wednesfield and after a couple of years in Ireland, I lived in Blakenhall until I was 11 and we moved to London, but I always continued to support the Wolves.

"I think, for better or for worse, you have your football team and I kind of wished I'd supported a London team when I moved to London, but I stayed with the Wolves and the recent good times have been all that good because we haven't had much success over the years.

"When I was a young kid, they were really successful and were like the Liverpool of their day, and I had intended to support a London team and see what the other kids were doing, as I had a broad Wolverhampton accent at the time and I got the mickey taken out of me a lot in school.

"That meant I had to learn to speak Cockney pretty quickly, which I did as I'm always good at adapting to accents, but that made me think that I'm not going to support their football teams, I'm going to stick with the Wolves."

He said the book had been a personal journey for himself and more than a little bit nerve-wracking, but has left him feeling proud that it had been done.

He said: "I'm really happy to have the book finished as it look a long time, because I started it 20 years ago and it wasn't like I had a publishing deal two years ago and decided to write some kind of book, it was on my own terms.

"I wasn't writing it all the time, I was doing it on and off, picking it up and putting it down until I eventually felt it was ready, then I took it to a publishers because I didn't want anybody telling me what my story is and so I didn't really see any reason to edit my life story.

"It was really painful writing it, some of it, and there were days that I just couldn't do it, but I went right in depth, warts and all, as I just felt I needed to do that and I'm glad I've done that. 

"It's a little bit nerve-wracking, but it's coming out and I know that some journalists have already read it and have given it a personal response, so that's good.

"I never wrote it as having a message or thinking about what the audience could take from it as I'm not that clever. I just write music that sounds good to me and I wrote a book that read good to me and took some input from the publishers and ended up with a book I'm happy with."

The musical journey for Kevin had started with Lucy & the Lovers, a band influenced by Roxy Music, but which turned out to be short-lived, while his next project, the punk rock act the Killjoys, were slightly more successful, releasing the single "Johnny Won't Get To Heaven" in 1977.

The genesis of Dexys Midnight Runners came when Kevin, alongside Killjoys guitarist Kevin Archer, formed the new soul-influenced group, with many of the group's songs were inspired by Rowland's Irish ancestry and were recognisable through Rowland's unique vocal style. 

He said he had loved all types of music as a youngster, as long as it was good, and said his experiences with the different bands had shaped his own ideas for a band.

He said: "I love all music as long as it's good, but I was always very into soul music, so after being in punk bands that were going nowhere, I head the idea of forming a soul band which was contemporary, but influenced by soul and that's what we did in 1978.

"I felt at the time that soul music had the potential to be kind of radical and done in a different way, so we tried to take it and do it our own way and not just ape what other bands were doing."

After a first initial success in 1980 with 'Geno' reaching number one in the UK singles charts, the band's popularity exploded in 1982 with 'Come on Eileen' also reaching number one in June that year, with the famous dungarees, scarves and leather waistcoats look, but as Kevin

At the end of the 1980s, Kevin said he wanted to explore different songwriting, and Dexys Midnight Runners began recording more introspective and mournful music, for which the new material was unsuccessful and saw Dexys Midnight Runners dropped by their label and disbanded.

One thing you get with Kevin is honesty and a candid look at his life, which he said started with Irish parents in Wolverhampton and London, through to difficult teenage years, going in and out of juvenile court, getting into music and the attendant successes, failures and difficulties which came from it.

He is also very frank about his cocaine addiction and mental health issues and his recovery from those issues, saying that he thought that success would solve all his problems, but found it wasn't the case at all.

He said: "I've written at length about it in the book, but I can say that when I first got success, I was really happy about it and then I basically turned it into a pressure and I felt out of my depth and full of fear and anxiety.

"I started trying to control everything around me, including the people I was working with, and I wasn't really equipped for it, which I think was the bottom line.

"I kind of thought that being famous or being on Top of the Pops would solve all my problems, but it didn't and it kind of intensified them and I had no way of dealing with them and never spoke to anyone about what was going on in my mind.

"I did try in the past, but just couldn't do it. There was one time when we were in a van which broke down in the early days of Dexys, so we were huddled together trying to keep warm and started talking about things which were really personal, so it was a moment where I could have opened up, but I just couldn't do it."

"There's a lot of talk these days about mental health and saying what's going on for you, but I never did and went into my head and sort of stayed there, so it was a difficult time and I've come through it and I'm a different person."

That change, which started to come after Kevin said he got clean from cocaine and alcohol at the age of 40, helped him to get back into a state where he could begin to play music again, with a subsequent reforming of Dexys in 2003 and a triumphant show at the Civic Hall in Wolverhampton.

Since then, the band has released three albums, including 2023's 'The Feminine Divine', which reached number six in the UK album charts, had a massively well-received set at Glastonbury in 2024 and played at the closing ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Kevin said that while there would be people who only knew one or two songs from the band, there were far more who knew the band for its full catalogue of work, although he was always grateful for 'Come on Eileen'.

He said: "There are those who don't know Dexys very well and only know Eileen, but there are quite a few who know a lot more than that and who bought our album in 2023.

"I'm always really pleased that people still love Eileen though and I'm grateful for the money from it, although when we were asked for which song we'd like to have featured from Glastonbury by the BBC, I asked for 'That's what she's like', as I think it's the best song I wrote in the 1980s and it get the most applause when we play it live.

"I don't spend a lot of time thinking about playing Glastonbury, although I probably should, but I'm just grateful that it means a lot to people still.

"I'm more about the new stuff and while we play the older stuff, if I didn't have new material, I wouldn't be doing it as I don't want to be a revival show with all the old stuff as it's not what I'm into.

"We're recording a new album which, God willing, will be done by the end of the year, and we'll do shows where we'll do a lot of new songs as that 's what drives me and I just wouldn't be able to do it if I was just doing the old stuff."

Kevin said that being creative is what kept him going, whether that was through clothing, music or the presentation of the stage show, such as the striking green suit and straw hat he wore at the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony.

It also showed back in the 1980s when the band performed 'Jackie Wilson said' on Top of the Pops and had a 20ft picture of then-darts world champion Jocky Wilson up behind them.

There had been apocryphal rumours that Kevin had been upset with the picture being up, but he said it had actually been his idea, saying that it had been a pet name and they thought it was a great joke.

He said: "It was my idea and I think people were wondering what was going on, although I would say that there were 10 of us in the band and do you really think that we would have not noticed a 20ft picture of a darts player on the back of the stage.

"His name was a pet name for the song and when we got to Top of the Pops that morning, I just asked if we could have a picture of Jocky Wilson up, although the producers said that people might think it was a mistake.

"I said that it would only be those who didn't get the joke, but he went ahead and did it and I was surprised, but it was there."

After nearly 50 years in the music industry, Kevin Rowland said that there was still more to come, with the aforementioned new album coming out in 2026, and said that he wanted to keep going as long as he had the passion for it.

He said: "While I am still passionate about it and I've got something to say, I will keep writing and keep performing.

"As long as I have ideas and passion and can get excited about things, then I may as well carry on. I'm healthy enough and feel good and I want to keep having my say."

Bless Me Father: A life story is out on Thursday and available at all bookshops and online.

Dexys' Kevin Rowland - A Life Story In Conversation takes place at the Robin on Wednesday, July 23 at 6.45pm, with tickets available at the Halls website.