Pat Shortt has revealed he turned down bucket loads of cash from huge companies for the rights of Jumbo Breakfast Roll over the last 16 years.
The comedian and actor was offered huge cash sums from various companies who wanted to buy the rights of his catchy hit tune – but turned them all down because he didn’t want the song to be “bashed about”.
He told The Star: “Not millions but if you were to add it up over the years, yes it probably wouldn’t be far off it. People wanted it like van companies, who were targeting the building trade, building companies, garages… then when all the motorway garages came online, the different companies approached me about doing a special and using the song for a commercial.
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“I refused them all. I just said I had no interest. It wasn’t as if I was getting a lump of money in each one, but I just didn’t want the song to be out there and bashed about…. It’s a fun song, it’s a comedy song, it’s a novelty song but at the same time you have to have a little bit of integrity around it.”
The track was released in 2006 and sat at the top of the Irish charts for six weeks after former 2FM DJ Ruth Scott pushed for Pat to record a version of it with Sony.
He recalled: “It was viral before viral was known. It was Ruth Scott who really drove it. I went on the Late Late Show, and I was promoting the show in Vicar Street and I remember I was doing the character and the song was in the show. I hadn’t recorded it, but Ruth Scott played it on the airwaves the next day saying this is the funniest thing she’d ever seen. I don’t know whether others picked up on it, but she was the first and she was playing it until it was recorded.
“Sony rang me then who I was signed to for videos and they were saying they were getting calls about it so are you ready to pop up this week and record it. So we did, we got it out as quick as one could back in those days.
“It was coming up to Christmas and we also had to get space to print the CDs. We had to go to Germany in the end, we couldn’t get anywhere in Ireland…. It was so busy. That is where they printed it (the CDS). Then we got it back and sold it.
“It went to number one immediately and it stayed there for weeks. I think the number of overall sales was the biggest ever. It was phenomenal sales,” he said.
The Tipperary star has decided now – 16 years later – it was the right time to cash in on the success of the Jumbo Breakfast Roll as he teams up with Sean Murray of Hosted Kitchens for a new project.
The Dublin based company, which was founded by Sean in 2020, works with restaurants to help them maximise profits by providing a home delivery service.
In the case of the Jumbo Breakfast, the team have found 61 collaborators around the country who will prepare rolls and baps for delivery on Deliveroo.
The 54-year-old said: “When the guys approached me about this, I thought this is a perfect fit. It absolutely fits 100 per cent like a glove and they’re very serious about the business.
“If someone was to say I’m selling out now, well it is 16 years later,” he said laughing.
“I didn’t for years until the right thing came along and now it is 16 years later. There were loads of opportunities. I wouldn’t mention the names of the company but some of the massive brands, they all wanted to do certain things like not just the breakfast roll, they wanted me to rewrite the song for a chicken fillet roll.”
Speaking about Hosted Kitchens, Pat said: “Sean Murray got in touch with me about a year ago from Hosted Kitchens. I suppose it is a thing that is very big in America at the moment.
“I had heard the lads being interviewed on (Newstalk’s) Bobby Kerr… and I had a bar and a restaurant down in Cork for years so that side of the business I was aware of because I had been through it and I loved it. It was a side of me I really enjoyed.
“So one of the biggest emerging markets at the moment is the breakfast for delivery, mainly driven by McDonalds. So they came up with the idea of a Pat Shortt breakfast because of the Breakfast Roll but there’s varying sort of strands to it as well but that’s the catchy one because of the song, which I think was the biggest selling single in Ireland.
“They thought I’d be interested in becoming an ambassador with the brand and get into business with them that way and I knew their work from the Bobby Kerr interview. They’re all very serious guys and they know what they are doing so I thought sure why not, it’ll be a bit of fun to get involved with them and we have had nothing but a laugh since we started,” he added.
To have Pat Shortt’s Jumbo Breakfast delivered straight to your door, simply search for it on Deliveroo.
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