IMELDA May will always remember the words of her father when she was teenager with a broken heart.

The Irish rockabilly singer had just split up with her boyfriend and when she told dad Tony his response was somewhat unusual.

He said: “Is your heart broken?

Excellent. Now you can sing the blues!”

Imelda told Weekend: “Cruel isn’t he? My father’s not a normal man and I love him all the more for it.”

But he was right. Stepping on stage at Dublin’s Bruxelles club was a turning point for the then 16-year-old that night.

Imelda said: “In all honesty I did take what my dad said on board. I remember I put my heart and soul into it that night.”

Advice from her mum Madge was less cruel, but just as memorable.

She told her ‘a song is just a story set to music and your job is to get the story across’.

“I’ve always remembered that,”

added Imelda, who was mastering new album Tribal as she spoke to Weekend.

Imelda has shared a stage with Eric Clapton, Chuck Berry, Bono, Van Morrison, Lionel Richie and Meatloaf.

But her parents have been her biggest inspiration.

Tony was a dance teacher who turned his hand to painting and decorating to provide for the family while Madge was a seamstress.

“They weren’t musicians, but loved music and played it all the time,” said Imelda, who knocked Bruce Springsteen off the top of the Irish album charts in 2009.

“They’re great parents and very supportive and inspiring.

“We were always told to work hard, do your best and get on with it but also that you can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it. The advice was brilliant and they’ve never told me to get a ‘real job’.”

Imelda was the youngest of five and that was where her musical education began.

She added: “It was a twobedroom house.

There were five children and two parents so there were seven of us in the one house and one record player.

“I was brought up listening to everybody’s records. I think my favourite when I was small was Shirley Temple.

My parents played Glenn Miller, Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby and Dean Martin and my dad loved brass bands. My brothers and sisters loved everything from The Carpenters to Bowie and Meatloaf.

“My brother closest to me was into rockabilly and I heard Elvis, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent and Carl Perkins. I went mad for it.”

So her siblings began to sneak her in to the Bruxelles club underage.

“I just completely got lost in this new world and I fell madly in love with it,” said Imelda, whose first taste of performing was tap dancing at her church hall.

“I remember the first time I was asked to sing with my brother-inlaw’s band. I nearly collapsed.

“Then I got into various gigs and heard somebody needed a backing vocalist and got into a little van and went all over Ireland singing with a rock band.”

That was where it all started before she formed her own band in 2003, releasing No Turning Back.

But Imelda is also known for her rockabilly quiff and head-turning wardrobe and her parents deserve a nod for that as well.

The 39-year-old said she got some of her ideas from Tony and Madge’s old fashion books and photos of them when they were younger.

“I just love all the old 1950s stuff,” the mum-of-one added.

“I think it’s cool. I hope to get more eccentric as I get older.

“I’m not going to tame it down and I’m sure I’m going to embarrass my daughter many times over with my mad leopard print outfits. I’m always covered up but I do like a bit of colour and a bit of wildness.”

Imelda’s songs have also featured on films like Wild Target with Bill Nighy and Emily Blunt and Gangster Squad with Sean Penn and Ryan Gosling She is also currently writing songs for Frank Darabont’s forthcoming TV series, Mob City.

So who would she like to work with next?

Imelda said: “I’ve always said that I’d love to do a Bond film which my manager thinks is hilarious because I’ve been saying that since I was playing in tiny pubs.

“But my first port of call would be Tarantino.

I’d love to do something with him.”

Imelda May is on at the Parr Hall on Wednesday. Visit pyramid parr hall.com or call 442345 for tickets.

The album Tribal is due to be released in June.