Boyzone In 1993, music manager
Louis Walsh, who had managed
Johnny Logan, held auditions in Dublin to find a new boyband to rival British group
Take That. Lynch was the founding member and didn't audition. Before even recording any material, he and five other successful auditionees made their infamous appearance on
RTÉ's
The Late Late Show with Gay Byrne. Although their performance was criticised by the Irish press, the band became one of the most successful pop bands in Ireland. Lynch quickly gained a reputation as the bad boy of the group due to his
body piercings,
tattoos and violent outbursts which clashed with the band's
clean-cut image. In 1999, he attended the
MTV Europe Music Awards with the band, wearing a
FUBU tracksuit to differentiate himself from Boyzone's consistent, tailored
suits, and announced to the shocked audience "In the press recently, there's been a whole load of fucking shite about Boyzone in the year 2000 about breaking up, [but] we are not breaking up." Later that night, he was involved in a physical brawl with American
rapper Puff Daddy. Two years later, at a live concert for
Childline, Lynch turned to the camera and yelled: "Tabloid newspapers, you can kiss me fucking arse!" In 2007, Boyzone reunited, completed a 29-date reunion tour, and released their comeback single on 29 September 2008,
Love You Anyway, which was followed by a Greatest Hits album entitled
Back Again... No Matter What released on 13 October 2008.
Acting In 2004, during his break from Boyzone, Lynch played
Eli Knox the chairman of
Harchester United in the
Sky One football
drama,
Dream Team. He has also appeared in
pantomime, and starred in
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the
Wycombe Swan in
High Wycombe, during the 2004
Christmas season. In 2006, he starred in
Cinderella at the
Tameside Hippodrome. In 2012, he starred as Abanazar at The Stag Theatre in Sevenoaks and in 2015 Captain Hook in Peter Pan there. In 2016 he starred as Abanazer in the Blue Genie production of Aladdin at The Whitley Bay Playhouse.
Motorsport A keen
motor racing enthusiast, Lynch raced a Marcos, TVR and then Mosler from 2002 to 2006 for the Eclipse Motorsport team in the
British GT Championship, and came within a few laps of winning the 2003 British GT Championship at the last race of the season at
Brands Hatch when he crashed into a spinning backmarker he was lapping. In 2005, he was involved with the 'Christians in Motorsport' team and competed in the British GT Championship
Silverstone round. Lynch addressed a crowd of race fans at the team marquee about how his faith helps him in racing and in life generally. Lynch has also been involved in
drifting, competing in the
British Drift Championship for performance parts manufacturer & race team Team Japspeed. In 2008, he was involved in an accident with team-mate
Danny Eyles while competing in the
European Drift Championship round at
Silverstone and, although he was not injured, both
Nissan Skyline cars were written off. For the 2016 season of the British Drift Championship, Lynch and Team Japspeed debuted a brand new
VH45 V8 powered
Nissan 370Z, achieving a second-place finish on debut at
Lydden Hill.
Reality television Lynch has taken part in several reality television series. He was in the second series of the
Channel 4 reality television show,
The Games 2004, and received a
gold medal. Lynch was also in the second series of
ITVs Love Island, but left after the fifth week. In 2007, he competed in the second series of Sky One's
Cirque De Celebrite. He had a main role in the season 2 (2017) of
Supercar Megabuild. In January 2018 Shane was a housemate in series 21 of
Celebrity Big Brother and finished in third place. In January 2013, Lynch fronted an informative channel 5 programme in the UK about
dyslexia. During this, he undertook his own dyslexia assessment. He was confirmed to have the learning disability. On 7 June 2013, Lynch featured on a celebrity special edition of
The Jeremy Kyle Show to talk about his life after being in Boyzone. In August 2013, he came fifth participating in
Celebrity Masterchef. Lynch was one of the seven celebrities that participated in
Pilgrimage: The Road Through Portugal, a
BBC Two series about a two weeks pilgrimage to
Fátima,
Portugal. He left before the final day, claiming that it was for religious reasons. He later clarified that he had a candle phobia: "One of the things is you would never get me into that Fatima place with 100,000 candles, that is like death to me."
Other work In 2000, Lynch teamed up with bandmate
Keith Duffy and released a
novelty version of the
Milli Vanilli song "
Girl You Know It's True" as Keith 'N' Shane. They re-wrote the verses in which the original was critical of today's music, but the
chorus was kept the same. It was a top 40 hit in the UK, peaking at No. 36 in December 2000. He also featured in the Celebrity Special Championship of
Robot Wars in 2000. In 2001, Lynch formed a
rap rock band with
Phats & Small's singer Ben Ofoedu called REDhill. In early 2005, Lynch released the song "
Don't Go" which was originally a 1988 hit for the band
Hothouse Flowers. The same year, he was announced as one of the judges on
RTÉ's
The All Ireland Talent Show, a reality contest which is modelled on ''
Britain's Got Talent''. In 2010, he announced his decision to quit. In 2008, Lynch published his autobiography
The Chancer, which focused on his early years, pop reign, his marriage to
Easther Bennett, and newly found Christianity. In May 2011, Lynch became involved with the launch of a new energy vodka called "Ver2Vodka". In April 2014, Lynch opened a chain of 1920s prohibition inspired barbershops, known as The Elk & Clipper. There are three outlets in Northern Ireland. In 2019, Lynch joined former REDHILL and Cruise Control bandmate
Ben Ofoedu for a new supergroup called
Boyz on Block with former
Five member
Abz Love and former
Another Level member
Dane Bowers. The group released their debut single on 20 November 2020, a cover of
East 17's "
Stay Another Day" featuring former East 17 member and songwriter
Tony Mortimer. Their second single was a cover of
K-Ci & JoJo's "
All My Life", released on 15 February 2021. They had an album scheduled for released in 2021. On 31 December 2025, Lynch performed with Keating on the latter's
BBC One New Year's Eve programme, ''Ronan Keating and Friends: A New Year's Eve Party''. ==Personal life==