"Once you get to approaching 50, know what I mean, you're not the rocker any more, just gettin' off your face ... your career takes a bit of a different direction. I didn't really wanna do the jungle, you know - Bez had won Celebrity Big Brother and I'd always sort of said, aye, 'I'm an artist, we don't do reality TV'," he says, adopting a 'posh' voice. "But ... Snoop Dogg's doing one and Johnny Rotten's gone in the jungle I thought, you know what, the record company wants me to do it, my kids want me to do it, so I did it and then I never looked back."

He's looking back when it comes to the music though - in march the Mondays' original line-up tours Australia, playing the breakthrough 1990 album, Pills 'N' Thrills and Bellyaches in full. Their third album, produced by Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne, propelled the Mondays into the mainstream with singles Step On and Kinky Afro. It's considered one of their most influential albums, featuring one of Ryder's most memorable lyrics, "You’re twistin' my melon man". Ryder, whose lyrics are set to be published by Faber this year, was famously described by Factory Records boss Tony Wilson as "a modern day Yeats".

We take things a lot easier, a lot slower...

The Mondays are firmly in the "legacy" camp but Ryder reckons the TV work has given the band fresh exposure. "Our fanbase now goes from about nine years old to 80," he says.

While the band has always been as well known for their off-stage antics - the prodigious drugs use (and dealing), the stealing, destruction and even selling pirated versions of their own merchandise - their music pioneered the dance rock genre, bridging indie rock and dance, funk and psychedelia; the Mondays' unique sound was the cornerstone of the Manchester scene.

They've reformed a couple of times since they initially split in 2000, but these days, Ryder says, they all genuinely get along (he even fell out with brother and co-founder Paul at one stage) and - "dancer" and Ryder's best mate Bez, perhaps, excepted - are all well behaved.

At the height of their fame, even Ryder senior, Shaun and Paul's dad, Derek, was in on the act; he toured with the group as their road manager.

When I talk to Ryder on the phone, it's not long after Derek’s death in late November.

"The old man loved the road, loved the life," says Ryder. "He loved it even more than I did. F---ing hell, he was still at it not long before he died! I'd stopped having wild nights years ago, but my old pops was still at until about two years ago when he got ill!"

Despite being all well into their 50s the actual performing, Ryder says, is easier these days.

"Back in the day, for what, 12 or more years, it was tour, album, album, tour, album tour - no wonder I was f---ed! Now we're all ... compos mentis and we take things a lot easier, a lot slower and it's just rock'n'roll - no drugs, no sex. But don't tell that to the wife," he japes, a line he regularly trots out.

"It's more enjoyable - I'm not just saying it. The Mondays are better than ever. We really appreciate it. Plus it's different now - we might not sell as many albums, but these days we get paid for doing shows."

Ryder has also been touring with Black Grape, the post-Mondays outfit he formed with Bez and rapper "Kermit" Leveridge, but he's given away the DJing and - mostly - the late nights.

"Oh and I’m a vegan," he says, before amending his status.

"Nah, I'm a pescatarian. But I don't do gluten and all that lot. It really wasn't about animals and all that, and not wanting meat - it was really because of the lifestyle change. I had to change me diet, you know? I find food more interesting now, being a pescatarian and all the vegetables (which he endearingly pronounces veg-a-ta-balls)."

He reckons it's only in the "last three years" that he’s eaten vegies.

"I never ate 'em! Food’'s just brilliant now, I love it more than ever."

He's also enjoying being a dad to his two youngest daughters with wife Joanne, having missed the childhoods of his older kids (he has six kids to four women).

"With my kids that are adults now, I was never there, I didn't see them grow up. I was always working or on tour," he says. "So this time around I'm a lot better; it's really just about them."

When he's not touring, he's with them, "enjoying the moment".

"I appreciate being a parent more now," he says. "Last time, you know, some of the stuff I let them witness or what I said in front of them ... it’s like, f---ing hell. But now I'm a proper grown up."

Happy Mondays play the Enmore Theatre, Sydney, on March 8; The Forum in Melbourne on March 9; and Golden Plains (sold out) on March 10.