Johnny Logan is “devastated” as his beloved older brother Mick Sherrard dies in Manchester hospital

Musician and singer Mick Sherrard died on Wednesday surrounded by his loving children in a Manchester hospital as a result of Covid-related medical complications.

In an emotional interview yesterday with the Sunday worldJohnny (69) – real name Sean Sherrard – said he and Mick (71) were “two sides of the same coin”.

The “What’s Another Year” and “Hold Me Now” singer said: “Since I woke up this morning I’ve been sweating constantly, every 15 or 20 minutes. It [the grief] constantly coming in and out. I pick up a guitar and remember the two of us playing around on guitars. There are lifelong memories between Mick and I.

“It was so much fun being with Mick, although I have to admit that we had a lot of arguments at times. But we loved each other. We were two sides of the same coin.

“I’m devastated. I left him in Manchester on Tuesday, where I had been with him in hospital the day before. The next day I called and the children said: ‘He’s gone, we were with him, we stopped.’ his hand.” So he wasn’t alone, which was my great fear.

“But Mick wasn’t afraid of dying. I think I would be scared. I sang “Will You Go Lassie Go” to him quietly when I was with him in the hospital because I thought it might remind him of Dad. He gave me the thumbs up and we winked at each other.

“When I left I thought I would see him again, although at the same time I knew I might not. But when I left, he had a glass of milk in his hand and could eat a melon. I don’t remember how I used to say goodbye to dying people. So I thought he would be fine for at least another 24 or 48 hours. No one has the same way of saying goodbye to someone. It’s heartbreaking.”

Eurovision icon Johnny, who is still enjoying a hugely successful career in mainland Europe, revealed that Mick, a divorced father of three, suffered a heart attack five years ago and his daughter Chloe saved his life.

“Mick had a heart attack in the car with her and she gave him CPR and kept him alive. He ended up in the hospital for eight months and in a coma,” he says.

However, Mick’s health had recently deteriorated and he was taken to hospital with fluid in his lungs. “They had to stabilize that, but he caught Covid in the hospital and that killed him. “With all the other things wrong with him, his heart gave out and that was the end of it.”

Looking back on their life together, Johnny reveals that it was Mick who got him his first singing role in a band when they lived in Drogheda.

“Mick was a star before me,” says Johnny. “He gave me my first gig. He played in Drogheda in the 70s with a band called Cromwell. He was the singer with them and he was a stunning looking guy. He was really good looking and looked like a rock star.

“He was 16 at the time and I was 14. Then he was asked to be a singer in a showband called The Dawn. He was happy in Cromwell and said, “No, try my brother Sean.” I had never sung with anyone before, but thanks to Mick I got my first gig with The Dawn. And that’s where it all started for me.

“Mick then sang with a band called Bananas and they were some of the best session musicians at the time. He then joined Stepaside when Paul Ashford left.

“And then when I won Eurovision, that was the worst thing that ever happened to him because he started playing with me and we ended up working together all the time and he neglected his own career.

Johnny told how Mick devoted himself to his three children Chloe, 33, and 28-year-old twins Ellen and Nathaniel with his ex-wife Pamela. He also doted on his five-year-old grandson, Henry. “Mick loved her,” he says.

His first marriage was to former singer and Irish PR boss Valerie Roe. “Mick and Valerie were very young when they married and he was as wild as a March hare, but they maintained a great friendship right to the end. I spoke to Valerie yesterday and she is heartbroken, as is her entire family.”