Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody says it took him a year to cry after father’s death

By Hannah Roberts, PA Entertainment Reporter

Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody has said it took him “a full year” before he cried following the death of his father Jack in December 2019.

The Northern Irish musician, 48, details his experience with grief in his new book, The Forest Is The Path, which is also the title of his band’s eighth studio album, released in 2024.

“Part of it is about the making of the album, some of it’s about the themes of the album, but I think that most of it is about the four days after my dad passed away,” he told ITV’s Lorraine.

Recalling an anecdote included in the book, he said: “He’d just passed away and we had to go, me and my mate went and got the death certificate and all the things.

“And we got back to the nursing home, and other extended family had started to arrive, and a guy stopped me in the car park and said, ‘Oh, your dad, when we play in the nursing home, your dad always requests Chasing Cars.’

“And I didn’t know that, and it was such a lovely thing to hear. But then he asked me how he was and I just said, ‘He’s fine’, because I couldn’t say the words out loud at that point, but yeah, it was lovely to hear that he was requesting Snow Patrol songs.”

He added: “I’d be absolutely delighted that it would help (somebody) in some small way. But, you know, I was just trying to figure out how I was getting through because it was a full year before I cried.

“I just went completely numb. I didn’t really understand what was happening. I’m a pretty emotional person, so for me, it was very strange.”

Snow Patrol was formed in 1994 in Dundee, when Lightbody was at university in the Scottish city.

The band’s 2024 album came a year after Lightbody announced that drummer Jonny Quinn and bassist Paul Wilson had decided to quit the band.

The alternative rock group is known for hits including Chasing Cars, Run and Signal Fire, and they are billed to perform at Glastonbury Festival this year.