Shaun Ryder: I'd be dead if I hadn't blown my chance in Hollywood

19 January 2024, 16:26 | Updated: 19 January 2024, 17:34

Shaun Ryder at Penn Fest 2019. Picture: GettyJim Dyson/Getty Images

By Jenny Mensah

The Madchester legend talked to Chris Moyles about how his addictions caused him to ruin his chances at the big time.

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Shaun Ryder believes that he'd be dead if he'd become a successful Hollywood star.

The Happy Mondays frontman is known for having a colourful past full of excess with drugs and alcohol and he explained why not doing well in Tinseltown probably saved his life.

"Listen. It's a good job I blew Hollywood, right and I don't mean it like that," he joked on The Chris Moyles Show. "It's a good job I messed up. My first movie for Hollywood was with [Ralph Fiennes] and Uma Thurman, Eddie Izzard, Sean Connery. That was my first launch and I blew it."

Referring to the 1998 film, The Avengers, he added: "I blew it because I was off me nut, said some silly things and Eddie Izzard went to Hollywood and Shaun went back to Salford... But if I'd have not blown it, I'd have been dead!"

Shaun Ryder on DIY and ruining his Hollywood career

The Black Grape frontman may still be alive and well, but he's recently talked about his busy schedule for 2024 and his fears that his body may not hold out.

"We’re getting old like the Rolling Stones. But Mick Jagger’s got 20 years on me." he told the Daily Star. "Jagger’s not got a false hip, the other on the way out and a crack in his spine, has he?

“And a thyroid problem, and alopecia? And smelly feet!”

Shaun Ryder has previously opened up about his health issues on The Chris Moyles show, declaring back in 2022: "I am Uncle Fester! It all fell out!"

Asked by Chris about the new look, the Step On legend said: "I've got no eyelashes, no eyebrows, no pubic hair, no leg hair, no armpit hair, everything gone.

"At first they thought it's going to be the testosterone or it's going to be the thyroid. Well it isn't, because in the thyroid it comes out in clumps, right. Now mine's an alopecia thing and it's just gone. And another thing is, it's not stress related."