Former WESTLIFE star Brian McFadden almost killed himself recently - when he smashed his FERRARI into a brick wall at 305 kilometres (190 miles) per hour.

The Irish singer, who has changed the spelling of his name from BRYAN in an attempt to distance himself from his former pop life, skidded on a wet country road in Port Marnoch, Ireland, after swerving to avoid an animal. He caused $63,000 (GBP35,000) worth of damage to the luxury car.

McFadden says, "I thought, 'I've had it'. I shouted, 'Oh s**t!' then I was pushing an airbag out of my face."

But the star has used the life-threatening incident to help him with material for his solo album - and has already recorded a song called WALKING DISASTER.

01/08/2004 14:24