Star of Dublin's Aslan Billy McGuinness has offered to take Eurovision winner Linda Martin out for dinner and “bury the hatchet” .
The pair had a blazing stand-up row on The Late Late Show nearly eight years ago during a segment on selecting a song to represent Ireland.
The guitarist was mentoring singer Laura O’Neill while Linda was on a panel of judges with Louis Walsh.
But now the Dancing With The Stars hopeful says he would love to take the Eurovision winner out for dinner and “having a chat” with her.
He said: “We move in different circles. I never met her before that show, and I never met her after it.
“Of course it is well buried and people keep bringing it up.
“But when it was announced for Dancing With The Stars, everyone on social media was going, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if Linda Martin was a judge’. I’ve no problem with that.
“I’ve no problem with going out with Linda, taking her for dinner and having a chat. I’ve no problem with that.
“I was more getting at RTE for allowing Louis Walsh to be on the panel when he had managed one of the acts and he was involved in one of the other acts. I thought that was very unfair. They could have got Niamh Kavanagh or Johnny Logan on the panel.”
But Billy said that he “still stands by what I did”.
But yesterday Linda wasn’t amused by Billy’s offer, telling us: “No, no listen, I’ve nothing to say, just forget about it.”
At 61 Billy is the oldest contestant in this year’s glitzy RTE One show and he points out he’s paired with the youngest professional dancer, Hannah Kelly, who is aged 19.
But he said it feels like the partnership is a “match made in heaven”.
He added: “I don’t know if that was done on purpose or not, but it is great because she’s bringing in the energy to me that I’m missing a bit.
“We’re both Dubs, Hannah is from Tallaght, her family originally from Pearse Street, I’m originally from Ballymun so we have the same sense of humour.”
Billy said he “feared” getting abuse from Aslan fans for doing the show.
He added: “I was in fear when it was announced on the Aslan social media.
“I expected to get slated – what’s that clown doing on Dancing With The Stars? Who does he think he is?’
“I was expecting a lot of backlash from social media but the opposite happened.”
- Dancing With The Stars airs on RTE One at 6.30pm tomorrow.
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