Brian Kennedy has told RTÉ Entertainment that after surviving rectal cancer, a massive heart attack, and quadruple bypass surgery in the last decade, he is relishing every minute of Dancing with the Stars and is "200%" surprised with how well things are going.
The singer-songwriter and professional dance partner James Cutler won the hearts of viewers with their Viennese Waltz to Billy Joel's Piano Man on the opening episode of the new series last Sunday.
Watch: Brian Kennedy and James Cutler's Viennese Waltz from Week One
The morning after the first show, Kennedy's heart surgeon texted him and said: "Brian, congratulations. I just couldn't believe my eyes."
And as the Belfast man sees it, the best is yet to come - on and off the dancefloor.
"It's not lost on me how incredibly lucky I am, battle scars and all, to even be able to stand up straight, never mind dance," the 59-year-old told RTÉ Entertainment.
"I'm almost 60, and my body's like Frankenstein's monster. I've got all these scars and all these things. I was calling it Dancing with the Scars for a while!
"I had to learn to walk again from scratch after the cancer - nine hours' surgery. Same with the quadruple heart bypass - I had to learn to walk again after that, too, because it was so severe on my body.
"I constantly surprise myself. Surviving cancer? Surviving a heart attack? Come on!
"A lot of awful things happened to my body. But actually, in the end, my body's been so good to me.
"My fifties were horrendous, and I can't wait to embrace my sixties and go, 'Aren't I a lucky duck?'"
Kennedy has also embraced his partnership with dancer Cutler, describing him as "basically me, 20 years ago, when I was in my 30s, and I was looking fit and happy and healthy, and I could wear anything".
"It's literally the two of us embracing each other on that dancefloor and making something really beautiful and moving out of it.
"He's very, very, very supportive. He will constantly say to me, 'Brian, you are doing better than you think you are', because I'm pretty self-critical about stuff. I like to get things right. I love rehearsing. And so, so far, so good. He's been a real source of comfort, inspiration - and taking no s*** either!"
Kennedy said his ability to dance has come out of the blue.
"I basically have one move on stage, which is to kind of tap my foot lightly while I play guitar - and occasionally show my arse, that's about it!" he laughed.
"I would liken this kind of dancing to opera singing. It has very, very definite rules, and you cannot make up your own rules.
"I'm used to being in charge, and suddenly I walk into a room and somebody else is in charge and they're going, 'No, do it again. That's not right. Your foot needs to be flat, not up. Don't use your heel! Use the toe!' - all that stuff. It's very, very, very particular moves. And so, I really got into it after a while. It took me a while - it's like learning a new language."
As to far he thinks he can go on Dancing with the Stars, Kennedy said: "One thing I do know about these shows is that it really is about the moment.
"You can rehearse and rehearse and rehearse and do a lacklustre performance in front of people, or you can feel really s*** all week and then suddenly something happens, and it's a really good performance. Or the judges are in a different mood, or they're looking for something particularly that you don't know what they're looking for and all of that.
"I think if I genuinely put the work in and we manage to do a performance on the night that's cohesive and that's confident, then I'm hoping at least that they'll mark me!"
This Sunday, as the first elimination looms, Kennedy and Cutler will perform a Cha-Cha-Cha to Benson Boone's Mr Electric Blue.
"Wait until you see what we have organised," he smiled. "Oh, it's good, it's good!"
Dancing with the Stars, Sundays, RTÉ One and RTÉ Player, 6:30pm
