The 44-year-old Michael Patrick “Paddy” Kelly is a man with three lives: a child star in the legendary music group “Kelly Family”, then a monk in a silent monastery, six years later a solo artist on stage. A musician and seeker about spirituality and stillness.
SRF: When you were 15 you wrote your first world hit “An Angel”. What is your relationship with angels?
Michael Patrick Kelly: I had a dream where I saw an angel flying around freely. I liked that, I would have liked to be able to do that too. This longing has spoken from the heart of many people. But I’ve never had angelic apparitions – I’m not that holy after all.
You lost your mother when you were five years old. In the video for the song “Mothers Day” from your current album “BOATS”, you go back to the cemetery and place flowers on all the graves around your mother’s. Why?
As a child I carried only a few humble field flowers when I went to her grave. When I saw that there were large bouquets of flowers on the other graves, I simply stole them all and laid them on my mother’s grave. Because of my guilty conscience, I returned almost 40 years later and returned the stolen flowers to the other deceased.
We had everything that many dream of. Still, there was a great emptiness.
At the end of 2004 you withdrew from the public eye and lived for six years as a monk in a Catholic silent monastery in Burgundy, France. How did that happen?
I had a huge success in my early 20s together with my family: we filled stadiums, lived in a castle and had everything that many dream of. Still, there was a great emptiness. This led me to seek more, to embark on a spiritual journey.
Before the time in the monastery, I was always running away from or towards something. But I was never really myself. With the silence in the monastery I listened to myself for the first time, recognized myself. At some point this calm came – and that’s addictive.
Silence is a source of inspiration for me.
Who did you recognize?
Before, I was like an orphan. I didn’t know where I came from, where I was going, why I exist. If I understand myself as a work – and I’m a songwriter – then I can only understand myself if I ask my inventor, my creator: «Hey, what were you thinking when you wrote me»? That’s how it was for me with God.
Does silence have a melody too?
Silence is a source of inspiration for me. I take at least half an hour of quiet time every day now. I basically go offline with the world and chat online with the Lord. I took that with me from my monastery days to the present day.
Legend:
The “Kelly Family” in 1979 with their legendary bus. At the end of 2022, the cult band will be on tour again and will also be stopping in Switzerland with their 60-year-old double-decker on December 17th.
KEYSTONE/Str
Today I no longer live in a monastery cell, but I have one inside me. Today I also find God in show business or at the gas station. We live in God like fish in water. They don’t realize it, they just swim around. This “he is always there” is my happiness today.
Going offline and logging into God can’t hurt.
What finally made you leave the convent?
I was intermittently ill for a while, then chronically exhausted. For the older monks this was a sign. They said to me: «Go get a girl, get back into music and go with God. – Take a wife, return to music and walk with God.” At first it was difficult for me to leave the monastery. I’m some Irish pighead who wants to sink with the ship.
In retrospect, I am grateful for the decision of these wise monks who sent me out into the world again. For a whole life in the monastery one has to be called. But going offline every once in a while and logging into God can’t hurt.
The conversation is an excerpt from the program “Sternstunden Religion” on May 29, 2022. The questions were asked by Ahmad Milad Karimi.