There he first met Downey and they played in a short-lived band called the Black Eagles. Lynott was born in 1949 to Dublin mother Philomena Lynott and Guyanese father Cecil Parris and raised in Crumlin by his grandparents. I’d love to see what he would’ve achieved if he’d lived.” Lynott's early years “When you go to move on, nobody lets you. You’re caught up in your own trap,” says Fitzpatrick. Everyone wanted the man in the skinny trousers. Sadly that was also Lynott’s downfall and in 1986 he died prematurely aged just 36 after complications from years of drug use.
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They were the bad boys of the music industry with a frontman who lived and breathed the image of the rocker. They mixed heavy rock with tender stories of identity and Irish mythology - all illustrated with the iconic album artwork by Jim Fitzpatrick. Phil Lynott, guitarist and singer with Thin Lizzyįrom their early years with Bell and later Gary Moore, through the glory days of the Brian Robertson and Gorham line-up, Lizzy scaled heights unimaginable for an Irish band up to then. “We’d be doing radio interviews and I’d say: ‘Phil we’re trying to sell an album not working for the tourist board!’ He’d be giving them a history lesson.”
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He was an ambassador for Ireland,” says former Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham. Lizzy were the template for Irish bands like U2 and the Boomtown Rats, and Lynott’s influence would extend to artists as diverse as Bobby Gillespie, Slash, Shaun Ryder, Jon Bon Jovi and Jarvis Cocker. Soon afterwards Lynott formed Thin Lizzy with Brian Downey and Eric Bell and over the course of 12 studio albums and a few line-up changes, the band dragged Ireland kicking and screaming from showbands and ballrooms to twin guitars and thunder and lightning. It was a moment that changed the course of rock history. That’s the story of Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy.īack in 1969 Lynott was the singer with Dublin band Skid Row, when he was sacked while hoarse with tonsillitis.