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Music

11th May 2020

War of words escalates between Johnny Logan and Dickie Rock

Carl Kinsella

Johnny Logan

It seems like isolation is getting to Johnny Logan and Dickie Rock.

A war of words between Irish singers Johnny Logan and Dickie Rock has escalated after the pair made aggressive comments about one another in the media.

In an interview with Irish Times journalist Róisín Ingle published over the weekend, the two-time Eurovision winner Logan launched into a tirade about Rock at the mention of his name, saying: “What would Dickie Rock know about being a musician?” My life was a lot different from Dickie’s. Dickie’s idea of an international tour was to have a gig in England.

“He bought a pub in Spain so he could gig there. That’s the reality of it. We know Dickie in Ireland but go out of here and say ‘Dickie Rock’ and people will think you are talking about some kind of stone you’d find in a museum.”

Rock lives in Spain for eight months of the year, according to a report in the Herald, but he denies owning a pub there.

“I love Dickie but he’s a legend in his own head, he lives in a fantasy world,” Logan went on to say.

“You know, I’ve sang for Pope John Paul, for the Queen of England, for Prince Charles, for Lady Diana – when she was alive – for the government of Ireland, for every head of state in Europe. I toured with the Royal Symphony Orchestra. I’ve done the London Palladium, about 20 times, Top of the Pops about 14 times. Get Dickie to match one of those, you know?”

Logan finished the interview by saying he hoped to keep all his hair and “outlive Dickie Rock”, who is 17 years his senior.

Rock, who himself competed in the Eurovision Song Contest and finished fourth, has since hit back at the younger man, telling The Sun: “Give Johnny a hug? I’d give him a fucking box. I’m 82. Even now I’d give him a box.”

The former Miami Showband frontman said: “I can’t understand it because I always got on very well with Johnny Logan. There have been no incidents. I praised him to the world and I praised him to everybody. Johnny seems to be blowing off his own achievements an awful lot. Johnny must be very insecure. His career is mostly abroad and he is very successful at it.”

Rock also compared his resumé with Logan’s, saying he’d sang at Carnegie Hall, as well as for Michael Smurfit when he became honorary consul to Monaco, referring to Smurfit as “Irish royalty”.

We’re already looking forward to round two.