IF YOU’RE ONE of those people who have a problem with the growing presence of cell phones in our society, don’t talk to Flynn about it. The musician counts himself lucky for having had his within reach after a 35-foot fall off a ladder, in 1999, landed him on the ground, alone, with a broken back.

In fact, Flynn — born Martin Crotty — counts himself pretty lucky, period. After arriving in Boston from Ireland at the age of 18, he quickly found a group of musicians to play with, eventually forming the Cliffs of Dooneen. The band went on to win numerous awards, made it into rotation on MTV, and received frequent national radio play. After the band’s members went their separate ways — Flynn cites disillusionment with the notorious major-label roller coaster — he began laying the groundwork for a solo career. Temporarily sidelined by his accident, Flynn’s now back on track, having released his debut album, On Your Way, last year. Currently nominated for two Boston Music Awards and working on a new album and songs for a Broadway-bound production of Spider-Man, Flynn’s feeling very lucky, indeed.

Q: How’d the music thing start?

A: From the very first time I saw Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard on TV, when I was a kid. I thought they were my uncles, I swear to God. The music bug just hit me like crazy. I got my first guitar when I was about five, as a Christmas present, and I just loved it. And then when I was in school, I had a teacher who used to play guitar, so he took me under his wing and showed me some more songs, and I loved it. And then from there I went to boarding school, and that’s where I saw an electric guitar for the first time, and my heart went du-dum, du-dum, du-dum, and I thought, holy smokes.

Q: Where in Ireland are you from?

A: About 20 miles south of Dublin, a little town called Greystones. So I came over here, and I stayed with my uncle. I just knew my uncle who lived in Boston. So I said, "Hey, I’ll go seek my fortune." Ireland was a very different place back in the middle ’80s. It’s not near the country it is today, financially-wise. I mean, people just didn’t have the money they have now. And the attitude is changing; I was the only one who was really into music — I was starting bands, and I could never get people who were into it as much as I was. They were always falling apart, and I was getting pissed off because I was always pushing, pushing, pushing. So I said, "Let me go see what the Americans are all about." And they got it right. So I’ve been here ever since. My uncle’s a priest, so I came over and lived with him. But he’s not a priest in Boston! Noooo! He’s one of the good ones.

Q: Once you got here, how quickly did you form the Cliffs?

A: Very quickly. I actually answered an ad in the Phoenix. It was the Boston Phoenix, and I saw an ad for this band. A guitarist was wanted, "hungry to succeed," it said. I’ll never forget that: hungry to succeed. I said, "That sounds like me." ’Cause I was starving. Hungry to succeed, and full of fire. I was starvin’, and I was burnin’ up! So I said, "Yeah, I’ll go." And I went, and I got the audition. And Lex [Lianos] was in the band, Lex the drummer. So I played with them for a while, nice guys, but then we ended up getting fired by the bass player, who thought he was losing control of the band. So we went off, and I said to Lex, "C’mon, we’re going to start our own band." And we placed an ad in the Phoenix. That was back in, Jesus, the early ’90s.

Q: And how quickly did it take off?

A: Very fast. Seemed to take off pretty fast. Well, no — I shouldn’t say that; that’s wrong. Looking back on it now it seems fast, but it wasn’t — we were out there busting ass every week and just very dedicated, having fun, having a ball. And it caught on like contagiousness.

Q: And you were on MTV?

A: "Through an Open Window" made it onto rotation on MTV. Very exciting. And we were on pretty much every major radio station in the country. It was great. It was a wonderful feeling.

Q: Why’d the band break up?

A: Well, we kind of went through the major-label wringer, like an awful lot of bands in Boston have. We were on Critique/BMG. And we just kind of got disillusioned. We kind of spawned off for a little while and formed this other band with the same members called Superfly. We played out and we went very hard rock, having fun, like back to AC/DC and all that stuff, raunchy rock ’n’ roll. We had a blast doing that. But then it just got tiring. People wanted to go off; Lex started playing with Alexi Lalas, the soccer player, in his band, and Eric [Murphy] went off to do graphic design. We just all went our separate ways.

Q: Even though you’d been so successful?

A: We had, yeah. But you know, music is very fickle — it’s up and down, up and down, all the time. I had all these songs written too, myself, and was wondering, should I do something with them, and what’ll I do, and then the accident happened, and then it really put my life into perspective.

Q: So talk to me about the accident.

A: That was in 1999. I’m still recovering from it. Don’t ever break your back. So there I am, on this ladder, fixing a window on my house, and the next minute I’m in the air. And I had these overalls on, and I had a phone on me, and I remember falling in the air, and just hitting the ground with a ferocious thud — it was about 35 feet — and I remember sitting up, and then trying to get up, and I completely fell down, and I went, wait a second, there’s something wrong here. I was completely out of breath. I laid back down, and then I sat back up, and as I sat back up, I felt the power go out of my legs. And I immediately laid back down, and I whispered, oh God, please no, don’t do this to me. And I felt the power come back in. Just like that. So I saw my phone behind me, and I log-rolled over to it, grabbed the phone, and dialed 911. The next minute, I’m in Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital and there are 30 people around me, cutting my clothes off me, they’ve got IVs going into me, and they’re sending me into this tube for an MRI. I was freaked. So that’s when they found out that not only did I break my back, but the vertebrae that I broke exploded, and there were fragments of bone flung everywhere, and two pieces of bone were impinging on my spinal cord, so it only had 20 percent of the available room that it should have. So I found out that I needed surgery.

But during that time, it put my whole life into perspective. Because I came so close to never walking again. And I realized, I think I’m going to be one of the lucky ones. It made me stronger. And I think, to be honest with you, the years since my accident have been the best years of my life. I started playing again, and that was therapeutic for me. I had a whole new, I suppose, lease on life. This is my passion. That’s one thing I realized when I was lying in that bed. Life is so short as it is; you’ve got to use the talents that you were made to use. I firmly believe people are put on this earth to do certain things. This is what I have to do. I’d hate to be one of those people that, when I’m 50 years old, I look back and say, maybe I could’ve, should’ve, would’ve. I couldn’t do that.

Q: So when you fell off the ladder, did you lie there thinking, "Whatever happened to the luck of the Irish?"

A: No, I never felt that. I think it’s more an American thing. Growing up in Ireland, you don’t walk around going, "Hey, I’m a lucky bastard!" It never entered my head. It still doesn’t. I’ll tell you, you wouldn’t think Ireland was a lucky place if you were living there, trying to raise a family in the ’70s and ’80s.

Q: What music did you listen to while you were recuperating?

A: First album I got was Stone Temple Pilots’ No. 4. My brother brought that in to me. It was the only album I had for a while. I had a lot of videos. The TV in the hospital — a friend of mine totally took it apart and hooked up a VCR to it and everything.

Q: So you started back in music as soon as you were recovered?

A: Pretty much, yeah. My wife pushed me — Jill was unbelievable. She was just like, "You’ve got so much stuff; go with it." I was starting to record a little bit before this, so I had a good amount of stuff done already, and then this just really sent me over the top. And plus, people had come back who’d heard the music, the songs, when I was in the hospital, and they were saying, "This is unbelievable; what the hell are you doing?" It just really inspired me.

Q: Do you feel like you’re starting from scratch, after having all this success with the Cliffs? Does that feel strange?

A: Not at all. It would’ve been, if the Cliffs had just broken up. But now, after having been through so much ... having been so high, and then being down so low, I lost complete self-confidence for years. I just completely lost my self-confidence, because of the record industry. I had a very young view of it. Maybe naive. So now I have a much more positive outlook on life in general, and I know what to expect and I know what not to expect, and my dreams are not dead. They were always there. And I’m living them right now, every single day. That’s something I’ve come to realize: my dreams aren’t in the future; my dreams are right now. That’s what’s inspiring to me.

Q: How is it different launching a career this time around?

A: I don’t have to go in front of a committee with my ideas, and [get] everybody’s input, and we write as a group. It’s just me. This is me, my ideas, my way.

Q: What’s the deal with Spider-Man?

A: This Broadway producer has obtained the rights to Spider-Man. It’s going to be on Broadway. They just wanted songs about Spider-Man, and I used to love Spider-Man as a kid anyway, so I’ve had so much fun writing these songs. I’ve had a blast, an absolute blast.

Q: So do you think Bono can save the world?

A: Sure, hasn’t he done it already? I don’t know. He’d look good in a cape, though. I have no idea, but I admire what he’s doing. I have no problem with it.

Q: Do you have a grand plan? Do you know where you want to be in a year, two years, five years?

A: Yeah, I mean, I’m not going to lie: I’d love to play the FleetCenter. I absolutely would. I make no bones about that. But my big goal, my big plan, I suppose, is to maintain the comfort level that I have right now with myself and my friends. To touch as many people as I can with my music. That gives me the biggest thrill.

Q: How do you think your music is different because of your accident?

A: My music is pure, not contrived, it’s not trying to fit in. I’ll just get an idea and I’ll go with it, and I don’t give a shit how it comes out. I can write whatever. My next album’s going to be a Riverdance album. Tibetan monk chants. Because I’m in the mood.

Flynn plays Harpers Ferry, in Boston, on March 29. Call (617) 254-9743. He plays the Paradise, in Boston, on Friday, April 12, at 10:50 p.m. Call (617) 562-8800. Tamara Wieder can be reached at twieder[a]phx.com