Gary Neville is set to perform at this year’s Kendal Calling music festival in his latest venture outside of football – paying no heed to Roy Keane’s health warning. The Manchester United icon will DJ alongside Tim Burgess, the lead singer of alternative rock band the Charlatans, at the Lake District in August as he refuses to slow down.
Neville is already juggling Sky Sports punditry duties, a handful of podcasts and several businesses. The 48-year-old owns League Two side Salford City, the UA92 University in Manchester and multiple hotels and properties in the Greater Manchester area.
Meanwhile, he recently appeared on the BBC programme Dragon’s Den and has previously admitted to working almost every day of the year. His relentless schedule is of concern to Keane, who urged his former team-mate to take some time off after complaining about a rash that had recently developed on his eye.
“I know what it is. It’s stress 100 per cent, you’re working too hard. Gary, you are working too hard,” Keane said on the Stick to Football podcast.
“Your body is telling you something… you always have something. A cold, a rash… Gary, listen to this. I swear, slow down. You’ve got a wife and children, all the money in the bank. What are you doing?”
Responding to Keane’s comments via LinkedIn, Neville wrote: “Last week was a bit of a whirlwind being on Dragons Den, but in the midst of that there was a clip that came out of Roy Keane on Stick To Football telling me to slow down and what he said has been on my mind for a few days.
“Last year I spoke about the Brian Kidd philosophy I’d learned at United of ‘Make your pace early, you can’t make it up at the end’, my motto being ‘Attack The Day’ and my company being called Relentless.
“People tell you to go for it and people tell you to slow down and take your time and you end up having these conflicting messages in your mind where you’re looking for balance. Because I have great respect for Roy and I don’t think he would have said it if he didn’t genuinely feel it, it did hit home how that balance is important.
“That idea between work ethic, work ethos and hard work being the most important thing for me and it underpinning everything I’ve ever done vs slowing down at times and making sure you look after yourself and your health.”
Neville labelled his recent appearance on Dragons’ Den as “one of the great moments” in his career. “Walking through those lift doors is going to be like walking out at Old Trafford as a 19-year-old,” the former Red Devils defender beamed.
“Those lift doors are more famous than the Wembley tunnel. To follow in the footsteps of legends in the game like the Bannatynes of this world, the Lavanis, is something that I could never have imagined.”
