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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Danny Rigg

Wayne Rooney's cousin has a surprising talent

With a world-famous Wayne Rooney as his cousin, you might expect this Liverpool lad to follow his family into football.

But Ryan Rooney, 19, is carving out his own path on Liverpool's music scene, and is even set to headline a show at the city's O2 Academy this June.

He told the ECHO: "With me being from such a sporty family, and in school as well with all the other kids playing football, music was my own unique, little thing, and I took pride in it.

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"I still go and watch Everton every weekend, and get disappointed by them most weeks.

"I do love my football a lot, but if you put the choice in front of me - pay upfront for Everton every week, or sing to thousands of people like Ed Sheeran - I'd pick music every day of the week, and twice on Sundays."

His mum Louise said: "It's the one thing I can't tell Ryan he can't do properly because I don't know what I'm doing with it.

"His passion was their from an early age. He wanted to play guitar. He was hell-bent on it."

Ryan, as a seven-year-old, idolised The Beatles, adored their song Rocky Raccoon, and was determined to play guitar and be the next John Lennon.

He recalled one experience as child, playing with his toys on the floor of his nan's house while The Beatles movie Help! played on the TV.

Ryan's nan returned from checking roast spuds in the oven to see Ryan "mesmerised" by the film.

The teenager said: "For as long as I can remember, I've just loved John Lennon and Paul McCartney and The Beatles, and I've loved the music."

Ryan Rooney singing into a microphone as a child (Ryan Rooney)

Now Ryan is scheduled to play a gig at the O2 Academy on June 18, 2022, having already headlined concerts at Jacaranda on Slater Street and the Arts Club on Seel Street last year.

He was gigging "religiously" every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday before Christmas.

For ten minutes when the audience sings his lyrics or cheers his name to the tune of The White Stripe's Seven Nation Army, Ryan gets to feel famous like I dreamt as a child.

Ryan said: "I'm smiling now thinking of it. It's a mad feeling. It's just so many different emotions like joy, excitement, happiness, bit of nerves.

"From my recent headliners, when people are singing my songs back to me - obviously I'm only young, I don't have kids yet - but that's the best feeling I think anyone could experience."

Ryan Rooney in a recording studio. He has several songs on Spotify (Ryan Rooney)

Behind the confidence is a perfectionist who stresses when his throat is sore before a show, and describes the first song he wrote at 15 as "a bit soppy, loads of rhyming", saying: "You could tell it was written by a child."

Ryan was on the verge of giving up this time last year, telling his friend on Facetime: "I'm going to have to just jib it, I'm not going to be able to do this."

He told the ECHO: "I didn't feel like I was different from the rest. I felt like I was just your average other, you know.

"I thought, 'Well, if there's one or two famous musicians in Liverpool, there won't be a third. I just felt quite down about it and quite in my own head, beating myself up and being quite hard on myself.

Ryan Rooney, cousin of football legend Wayne Rooney (Ryan Rooney)

"It wasn't a nice place to be in because we were sort of still in lockdown, I hadn't been out with my mates, I hadn't been gigging. I was just putting videos on Instagram."

The post he uploaded that particular night, after the facetime with his friend, exploded, partly thanks to shares to the stories of Wayne and Coleen Rooney.

Ryan gained 1,000 followers in a day, among them impersonator Darren Farley, and people who would never speak to him when they were in school together.

He said: "It gave me sense of belief that I can do it, and as I started gigging, all these people who were on the circuit were all helping me and no one was trying to step on anyone's toes.

"It's a good environment to be in. There are so many of us wanting each other to do well.

"As well as all that, the gigging of a weekend - I'm getting paid to do something that I love. And I get free alcohol as well.

"That keeps me going. I don't necessarily want to be rich and famous off it, I just want to be able to maintain a living because I'll never have to work again in my life because it's something I love doing.

"That tunnel vision and that belief in myself, and my friends and family who believe in me, that keeps me going because I want to make them proud.

"I want them to be like, 'Yeah, that's my mate, that's my nephew, that's my son'."

Louise, who is thrilled she can ask Alexa to play Sweet Soul by Ryan Rooney, added: "I'm proud of you no matter what."

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