Eric Bell is an Irish rock legend. Part of the original line-up of Thin Lizzy who helped secure the band their early successes including a Number One single in Irish charts, the guitarist recorded three albums with the band before he was 22 years old. Famously leaving after a show in Belfast, he's documented with painful honesty how it all came crashing down on both 'Tales of Thin Lizzy', and 'Away with the Fairies, two of the standout tracks on new solo album. "I was losing a plot. Everything was great and then slowly, but surely, my personal life started crumbling", he confides. Talking 'Authenticity', the last time he saw Phil Lynott, and his journey from Thin Lizzy rocker to solo bluesman, we caught up with the softly spoken Belfast native. Vagabond of the western world; Eamon O'Neill.
Photo; Press.
Hi Eric, 'Authenticity' is the first album you've released in a number of years; what brought you back into the studio again?
I just wanted to try a few things out. I suppose if you've heard it, every track is sort of different, which is nice. It keeps you interested, trying different things.
'Authenticity' is a great title. I'm guessing that's because it's mostly just you and your guitar; it's quite stripped back, isn't it?
Yeah, that's probably why it's called 'Authenticity'. The word 'authenticity' and 'authentic'; you take away a lot of the frills, and just you're left with a basic sort of thing. That's what I was trying to do.
Where was the album recorded?
It was in a place called Clitheroe, which is near Manchester, and it was called something like Grand Studios, or something like that. It was really good place.
Were you using the guys that you've been playing with this last number of years to do the drums and the bass?
I just went over on my own. How that all started was, I recorded a few albums in the past with the bass player and drummer, and it was always like we all had the right notes and the right beats and all the rest, but it always felt a bit short on the atmospheric. I've got a four track at home and I write songs on it, and it's not a great production that I do or anything, but there's an atmosphere to the tracks, and I couldn't get that with a bass player and drummer. I listened back to the early albums I did with a bass player and drummer, and there's just something that's just not there. So I had the chance to do that album 'Exile' [2015], and I thought; "maybe I'll go over on my own, I won't have a bass player or a drummer. I'll just do it myself". So that's how I work now,
So are you playing the drums as well?
No, we got a guest drummer in. I do a few things, percussion-wise, like congas and things like this, but I left them away in the background. I do play the bass on it as well.
Do you record to a click track, or do you have your drummer in the room?
I never even met the drummer! I went over and did a lot of the tracks, and then, unfortunately, I got a virus, a flu-type thing, and I had to cancel all the recordings, so I think around that time they got a guest drummer in, and he played on a few tracks. They sent me the results just to listen to it, and it seemed pretty good. I wasn't looking for Buddy Rich; just someone that would get the sort of a basic feel of the song.
The album opens with 'Some Girls', which has got a real kind of retro, surfer sound; I'm guessing that's exactly what you were going for?
Yeah, like the sort of a rockabilly thing. It gives you a chance to play the guitar without going to the blues scale, and I like that style of guitar playing.
One thing running through the album is that it retains that free form kind of soloing style that you're known for. 'Honeycomb Nights', for example; is that a nod to 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow in the solo?
That's right, yeah. It was purposeful. There's a lot of stuff that I do play just off the top of my head, but now and again, I do work out things, otherwise, I'd just be all over the shop. I just heard it in the background, you know [sings 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' melody], and I thought; "yeah, that'll fit!"
I just wanted to try a few things out. I suppose if you've heard it, every track is sort of different, which is nice. It keeps you interested, trying different things.
'Authenticity' is a great title. I'm guessing that's because it's mostly just you and your guitar; it's quite stripped back, isn't it?
Yeah, that's probably why it's called 'Authenticity'. The word 'authenticity' and 'authentic'; you take away a lot of the frills, and just you're left with a basic sort of thing. That's what I was trying to do.
Where was the album recorded?
It was in a place called Clitheroe, which is near Manchester, and it was called something like Grand Studios, or something like that. It was really good place.
Were you using the guys that you've been playing with this last number of years to do the drums and the bass?
I just went over on my own. How that all started was, I recorded a few albums in the past with the bass player and drummer, and it was always like we all had the right notes and the right beats and all the rest, but it always felt a bit short on the atmospheric. I've got a four track at home and I write songs on it, and it's not a great production that I do or anything, but there's an atmosphere to the tracks, and I couldn't get that with a bass player and drummer. I listened back to the early albums I did with a bass player and drummer, and there's just something that's just not there. So I had the chance to do that album 'Exile' [2015], and I thought; "maybe I'll go over on my own, I won't have a bass player or a drummer. I'll just do it myself". So that's how I work now,
So are you playing the drums as well?
No, we got a guest drummer in. I do a few things, percussion-wise, like congas and things like this, but I left them away in the background. I do play the bass on it as well.
Do you record to a click track, or do you have your drummer in the room?
I never even met the drummer! I went over and did a lot of the tracks, and then, unfortunately, I got a virus, a flu-type thing, and I had to cancel all the recordings, so I think around that time they got a guest drummer in, and he played on a few tracks. They sent me the results just to listen to it, and it seemed pretty good. I wasn't looking for Buddy Rich; just someone that would get the sort of a basic feel of the song.
The album opens with 'Some Girls', which has got a real kind of retro, surfer sound; I'm guessing that's exactly what you were going for?
Yeah, like the sort of a rockabilly thing. It gives you a chance to play the guitar without going to the blues scale, and I like that style of guitar playing.
One thing running through the album is that it retains that free form kind of soloing style that you're known for. 'Honeycomb Nights', for example; is that a nod to 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow in the solo?
That's right, yeah. It was purposeful. There's a lot of stuff that I do play just off the top of my head, but now and again, I do work out things, otherwise, I'd just be all over the shop. I just heard it in the background, you know [sings 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' melody], and I thought; "yeah, that'll fit!"
Your approach to soloing is so unique. I'm a guitar player and I've performed 'Whiskey in the Jar' in a number of bands, and both the intro solo and the actual guitar solo are unlike anything else.
Well, 'Whiskey in the Jar' was the hardest piece of music I've ever worked on in my life. It was all finished, and myself and Philip [Lynott] played acoustics, Brian [Downey] on the drums, and Phil did a rough vocal, and then they asked me to play the [lead] guitar, and I hadn't a clue what to do. I had no idea. They give me a cassette for me to take home to work out a few guitar things, and at one point I was going to say; "listen, get another instrument. I can't hear anything in this".
Anyway, one night we were driving from Wales to London, a very long drive, and Philip had The Chieftains on on this cassette that he had, and I don't know, I just got this idea. I'd been trying to come up with the guitar part, thinking; "forget about the guitar, that's too cliched. Think of another instrument", and I thought of the Irish pipes, the uilleann pipes; that's where I got the [sings intro solo], and then the rest I was just going over it my head, everywhere I went; supermarkets, taxis, walking down the street [sings intro chords]; what do I hear? It took a very long time.
That main lick is really unusual, and quite difficult to master.
It actually takes me all my all my concentration to play it. I still find it very tricky.
There's a track on 'Authenticity' called 'Tales of Thin Lizzy', and I love that it tells your story. There's a line in it; "that's where I met Phil and Brian", which makes it a very personal.
Yeah, I hear a lot of different stories about Thin Lizzy, obviously, and even Brian Downey, and Terry O'Neill [Thin Lizzy manager] and all these people, when they're being interviewed, one of the things they say is; "where does that name come up, Thin Lizzy? Oh, that was Eric Bell's idea, but Philip decided to put an 'H' in 'Tin' to make it 'Thin'", and it wasn't Philip, it was me, and that's one of the things I have in that song 'Tales of Thin Lizzy'. 'I put an 'H' where there wasn't an 'H', and we called ourselves 'Thin Lizzy'. So, hopefully that sets the record straight, that I thought of the name.
As we speak, it's the 54th anniversary of the release of the debut Thin Lizzy album; do you remember getting a copy of the first album in your hand?
You know, you've heard this a million times, but we were so stoned recording that first album. I mean, a lot of people were smoking dope in those days. No matter where you went; into the studio, or if you were at a gig and you went into the changing room; everybody was smoking dope in those days. It was unbelievable, and whenever we got that first album, in fact, there's a interview with Philip somewhere where he actually says; "I can't remember recording the first album".
There's a track on 'Authenticity' - ''Away With The Fairies' - does that reference that time?
Well, 'Away with the Fairies' is when I was losing a plot. Everything was great, and then slowly, slowly, slowly, but surely, my personal life started crumbling, and where I was living, and the money we were getting, and it was a really, really bad time for me. Whenever we were on Top of the Pops and all that stuff, I should have been on top of the world because I set out to get a three piece band together, and now I am on Top of the Pops with it, but I was as miserable as sin. Philip had a ball, and Brian Downey as well, but I just wanted to disappear. I'd been through a lot of hard stuff with drugs and drink, the usual stuff, and my personal life, and my guitar playing, I didn't really like it anymore, and so on. In a way, that's what that song is about. It's just about that very, very dark time in my life when I was away with the fairies and I was wired up to the moon.
Obviously what you're referring to is what happened when you ended up leaving Thin Lizzy after a gig New Year's Eve in Belfast; was that something that you had to do?
Oh, absolutely. You can just tell sometimes, whenever your life's off-rail and you're trying to get it back together, but it was virtually impossible. I think I was 22 or something like this, and I would have a talk with myself on stage, sometimes, I'd say; "right, after the last number, go into the changing room, have one drink, and go back to the hotel and get some sleep", and that was the idea, but no, once the last song was played, you're back in the changing room, the drugs and the drink come out and whatever, and it's party time again, and I couldn't get off. I couldn't stop. I just hadn't got the willpower to change this. So I had to leave to change it. And at the very end of that song, 'Away with the 'Fairies', the very end line is; 'kick speakers off the stage, threw my guitar, last cry for help, no one there'; and that's the end part of that song, because there was no one there, and it was my last cry for help. Throwing my guitar up in the air and kicking the amps off the stage, it's a bit of a statement, you know? But no one gave a shit, not in those days. They should have put me in a clinic, got a stand-in guitar player, and let me sort myself out for a few weeks. But that didn't happen.
That must have been very difficult. I mean, after that, then you don't even have the band. Do you lose your sense of identity as well?
Absolutely. Completely. I didn't know what to do. I thought about not playing anymore. You know, it's just not worth it. But I like playing. I love playing, so I very, very slowly got back into it again.
Did that affect how you felt at the time about the 'Vagabonds of the Western World' [1972] album?
'Vagabonds', that was still away with the fairies, so to speak. It came to a head when we were recording 'The Hero and the Madman'. I was in this huge studio on my own with a big guitar stack and all the rest of it, and Philip and Brian and the engineer and the producer and the manager were all upstairs looking at me through this window, and I'm down there on my own, and it's about half two in the morning, and I'm like, out of it as usual, and they put on the track 'The Hero and the Madman'. So I've got the cans on, and I'm waiting to do a guitar solo, and I tried it quite a few times, and each time I tried it, I'm thinking; "this song is about you", you know; the guitar hero and a madman. I sort of got a cold sweat at that point; "this is all about me", that's where my head was at that time; very fucked up and paranoid and all the rest, and that solo, of all the guitar playing I've done, that solo is the one that's completely from the heart.
Well, 'Whiskey in the Jar' was the hardest piece of music I've ever worked on in my life. It was all finished, and myself and Philip [Lynott] played acoustics, Brian [Downey] on the drums, and Phil did a rough vocal, and then they asked me to play the [lead] guitar, and I hadn't a clue what to do. I had no idea. They give me a cassette for me to take home to work out a few guitar things, and at one point I was going to say; "listen, get another instrument. I can't hear anything in this".
Anyway, one night we were driving from Wales to London, a very long drive, and Philip had The Chieftains on on this cassette that he had, and I don't know, I just got this idea. I'd been trying to come up with the guitar part, thinking; "forget about the guitar, that's too cliched. Think of another instrument", and I thought of the Irish pipes, the uilleann pipes; that's where I got the [sings intro solo], and then the rest I was just going over it my head, everywhere I went; supermarkets, taxis, walking down the street [sings intro chords]; what do I hear? It took a very long time.
That main lick is really unusual, and quite difficult to master.
It actually takes me all my all my concentration to play it. I still find it very tricky.
There's a track on 'Authenticity' called 'Tales of Thin Lizzy', and I love that it tells your story. There's a line in it; "that's where I met Phil and Brian", which makes it a very personal.
Yeah, I hear a lot of different stories about Thin Lizzy, obviously, and even Brian Downey, and Terry O'Neill [Thin Lizzy manager] and all these people, when they're being interviewed, one of the things they say is; "where does that name come up, Thin Lizzy? Oh, that was Eric Bell's idea, but Philip decided to put an 'H' in 'Tin' to make it 'Thin'", and it wasn't Philip, it was me, and that's one of the things I have in that song 'Tales of Thin Lizzy'. 'I put an 'H' where there wasn't an 'H', and we called ourselves 'Thin Lizzy'. So, hopefully that sets the record straight, that I thought of the name.
As we speak, it's the 54th anniversary of the release of the debut Thin Lizzy album; do you remember getting a copy of the first album in your hand?
You know, you've heard this a million times, but we were so stoned recording that first album. I mean, a lot of people were smoking dope in those days. No matter where you went; into the studio, or if you were at a gig and you went into the changing room; everybody was smoking dope in those days. It was unbelievable, and whenever we got that first album, in fact, there's a interview with Philip somewhere where he actually says; "I can't remember recording the first album".
There's a track on 'Authenticity' - ''Away With The Fairies' - does that reference that time?
Well, 'Away with the Fairies' is when I was losing a plot. Everything was great, and then slowly, slowly, slowly, but surely, my personal life started crumbling, and where I was living, and the money we were getting, and it was a really, really bad time for me. Whenever we were on Top of the Pops and all that stuff, I should have been on top of the world because I set out to get a three piece band together, and now I am on Top of the Pops with it, but I was as miserable as sin. Philip had a ball, and Brian Downey as well, but I just wanted to disappear. I'd been through a lot of hard stuff with drugs and drink, the usual stuff, and my personal life, and my guitar playing, I didn't really like it anymore, and so on. In a way, that's what that song is about. It's just about that very, very dark time in my life when I was away with the fairies and I was wired up to the moon.
Obviously what you're referring to is what happened when you ended up leaving Thin Lizzy after a gig New Year's Eve in Belfast; was that something that you had to do?
Oh, absolutely. You can just tell sometimes, whenever your life's off-rail and you're trying to get it back together, but it was virtually impossible. I think I was 22 or something like this, and I would have a talk with myself on stage, sometimes, I'd say; "right, after the last number, go into the changing room, have one drink, and go back to the hotel and get some sleep", and that was the idea, but no, once the last song was played, you're back in the changing room, the drugs and the drink come out and whatever, and it's party time again, and I couldn't get off. I couldn't stop. I just hadn't got the willpower to change this. So I had to leave to change it. And at the very end of that song, 'Away with the 'Fairies', the very end line is; 'kick speakers off the stage, threw my guitar, last cry for help, no one there'; and that's the end part of that song, because there was no one there, and it was my last cry for help. Throwing my guitar up in the air and kicking the amps off the stage, it's a bit of a statement, you know? But no one gave a shit, not in those days. They should have put me in a clinic, got a stand-in guitar player, and let me sort myself out for a few weeks. But that didn't happen.
That must have been very difficult. I mean, after that, then you don't even have the band. Do you lose your sense of identity as well?
Absolutely. Completely. I didn't know what to do. I thought about not playing anymore. You know, it's just not worth it. But I like playing. I love playing, so I very, very slowly got back into it again.
Did that affect how you felt at the time about the 'Vagabonds of the Western World' [1972] album?
'Vagabonds', that was still away with the fairies, so to speak. It came to a head when we were recording 'The Hero and the Madman'. I was in this huge studio on my own with a big guitar stack and all the rest of it, and Philip and Brian and the engineer and the producer and the manager were all upstairs looking at me through this window, and I'm down there on my own, and it's about half two in the morning, and I'm like, out of it as usual, and they put on the track 'The Hero and the Madman'. So I've got the cans on, and I'm waiting to do a guitar solo, and I tried it quite a few times, and each time I tried it, I'm thinking; "this song is about you", you know; the guitar hero and a madman. I sort of got a cold sweat at that point; "this is all about me", that's where my head was at that time; very fucked up and paranoid and all the rest, and that solo, of all the guitar playing I've done, that solo is the one that's completely from the heart.
1972 was a particularly busy year for you because you had Top of the Pops, 'Whiskey in the Jar', and also the Funky Junction album; how did that come about?
We were playing all the time. Our manager had us out all over the place. I'm very tired, not getting much money, and so on, and one day he got in touch with us, and we all went into the office, and he said; "this guy's walked in, and he wants you to record an album of Deep Purple's hits. It's worth a little bit of money, and we need to pay the phone bill for the office" and this and the other; "are you up for doing it?" And we said yeah, so we each got a copy of Deep Purple's hits and we learned all the parts, and then we had to get two guys over from Dublin to play Hammond organ, and a guy that sang like the singer out of Deep Purple, Ian Gillan, and we recorded that album. It was a few minutes short, so I ended up doing a Hendrix version of 'Danny Boy', and then there was another instrumental on it, and that was it. We released it, and nobody knew who Funky Junction was at that point in time, and then years later, it sort of seemed to resurface, and they put a sticker on it; 'Thin Lizzy's playing this', basically.
I wanted to chat to you a little about your Fender Stratocaster; I'm guessing it features on the new album?
It does. I bought that brand new when I was with Lizzy. It's about 52 years old, and actually, I'm looking at it right now. I've been playing that for 52 years, and I still play it on stage.
Where did you buy it?
I had a white Stratocaster when I when Thin Lizzy first started, which was basically falling apart, and our manager came to see us one night playing, and he said to me after the gig; "Eric, that guitar of yours is embarrassing. We've got to get to a new one", because the pickups weren't working, the tone control, this, that and the other, and we couldn't get a Stratocaster in Ireland. It's hard to believe, but around that time, we would leave for every gig we played half an hour early, so we'd get the Limerick, or we get to Drogheda, or we get to Dundalk, wherever we were going, and would find out where the local music shop was in the town. Me and the manager would go in and say; "have you any Stratocasters?" "No, we've got Telecasters, we've got Gibsons, we've got Gretchs, but no Stratocasters". It was unbelievable. I couldn't get one in Dublin, I couldn't get one in Belfast, and they had to send to England for the one that I got. It came in a big cardboard box; it wasn't even the case! And I got it, and I didn't like it. I said; "I can't play this thing". It felt bizarre, and I tried to swap it with two other guitar players. If they were on the same bill, and I'd say; "I've got a Strat; do you fancy a swap?" "No, not at the moment". So I was left with it, and it took me about three months to get into it. Now I'm so glad I still have it.
What album did you first use it on with Lizzy? Was it on the first album?
Yes, it was. Well, it might have been a little mixture of the white one as well. I don't know where the white one went. I wish it had it, but yeah, I was mostly on the Stratocaster I have now, except it had different pickups.
They're kind of strange pick-ups for a Stratocaster; they're like humbuckers or something?
To this day, I don't know if they're single coil or double; that's being honest. They're DeArmond, that's what they're called. This guy called Derek Nelson who was a guitar maker living just outside Dublin, when I was with Brush Shields, he made a guitar for Brush, and he put the DeArmond pickups in the guitar, and I tried it out, and I liked the tone, so I thought I'd take a chance and get to the pickups in my Strat. I still have them, and I love them because they're not the pickups you get that are really distorted and loads of sustain; they're quite clean'
I wanted to talk about the last time you actually recorded with Phil and Brian, which was on a track called 'For Jimmy' in 1980; how did that come about? Did that kind of reset the past?
Not really. The way I left Thin Lizzy, like, leaving them and doing my theatrics on stage, not only that, but leaving halfway through an Irish tour, leaving them in the shit, at the time, I didn't care. I just wanted to find myself, so they got Gary [Moore] in to finish the tour. We didn't keep in touch, myself or Philip or Brian for a very long time, and I got a phone call one day from the management saying that Philip was going to do a track, a tribute Hendrix, the song 'For Jimmy' [sic], and he said, would I play on it? And I said yeah, and I went down and I met Phil. It's very strange because we recorded that, and I think it was the very first flexi-disk ever that you would get a free copy with one of those magazines that was out in those days, but the thing was, every time I've heard that track, I can't hear my guitar playing. It's like somebody wiped all the guitar off. It's very strange.
So do you think that's a different guitar player on that?
I honestly don't know. No, I don't think there's another guitar player on there, I think it's just they've taken me off, basically, and it's just a basic riff, but I don't think there's any guitar work in it, not that I heard. You can never tell.
What was it like playing with Thin Lizzy again in 1983, when all the old members got up and played with them?
Hammersmith Odeon? That was 'Life Live' or something. That was the last time, and they got all the guitar players. It was fucking deafening! Philip was the last one to turn up, and he came in and he got us all around, and it's sort of a circle, and he said; "right, this is what's going to happen. Whenever we do 'The Rocker', Eric does this little phrase, and I want you all to come in with him and play that phrase", so we all tried it, and at one point I stopped playing, and nobody noticed. It was so loud, just like, this wall of Marshals. Oh, my god, looking back, it mush have been about twenty cabinets of Marshalls, just a big wall behind us. I wasn't into it at all. It was just this incredible noise.
Was that the last time you saw Phil, or did you see him again after that near the end?
Yeah, I saw him maybe once around that period, I was in Shepherd's Bush, and he was in this 7 Eleven shop. There's thousands of black guys in London, so I wasn't sure if it was him or not, but I went over to him, and it turned out it was. We give each other a big hug, and he said; "fuck, you know what?", he says; "everywhere I fucking play, they want 'Whiskey in the fucking Jar! What monster have we created?", and I think that was the last time I saw him.
We were playing all the time. Our manager had us out all over the place. I'm very tired, not getting much money, and so on, and one day he got in touch with us, and we all went into the office, and he said; "this guy's walked in, and he wants you to record an album of Deep Purple's hits. It's worth a little bit of money, and we need to pay the phone bill for the office" and this and the other; "are you up for doing it?" And we said yeah, so we each got a copy of Deep Purple's hits and we learned all the parts, and then we had to get two guys over from Dublin to play Hammond organ, and a guy that sang like the singer out of Deep Purple, Ian Gillan, and we recorded that album. It was a few minutes short, so I ended up doing a Hendrix version of 'Danny Boy', and then there was another instrumental on it, and that was it. We released it, and nobody knew who Funky Junction was at that point in time, and then years later, it sort of seemed to resurface, and they put a sticker on it; 'Thin Lizzy's playing this', basically.
I wanted to chat to you a little about your Fender Stratocaster; I'm guessing it features on the new album?
It does. I bought that brand new when I was with Lizzy. It's about 52 years old, and actually, I'm looking at it right now. I've been playing that for 52 years, and I still play it on stage.
Where did you buy it?
I had a white Stratocaster when I when Thin Lizzy first started, which was basically falling apart, and our manager came to see us one night playing, and he said to me after the gig; "Eric, that guitar of yours is embarrassing. We've got to get to a new one", because the pickups weren't working, the tone control, this, that and the other, and we couldn't get a Stratocaster in Ireland. It's hard to believe, but around that time, we would leave for every gig we played half an hour early, so we'd get the Limerick, or we get to Drogheda, or we get to Dundalk, wherever we were going, and would find out where the local music shop was in the town. Me and the manager would go in and say; "have you any Stratocasters?" "No, we've got Telecasters, we've got Gibsons, we've got Gretchs, but no Stratocasters". It was unbelievable. I couldn't get one in Dublin, I couldn't get one in Belfast, and they had to send to England for the one that I got. It came in a big cardboard box; it wasn't even the case! And I got it, and I didn't like it. I said; "I can't play this thing". It felt bizarre, and I tried to swap it with two other guitar players. If they were on the same bill, and I'd say; "I've got a Strat; do you fancy a swap?" "No, not at the moment". So I was left with it, and it took me about three months to get into it. Now I'm so glad I still have it.
What album did you first use it on with Lizzy? Was it on the first album?
Yes, it was. Well, it might have been a little mixture of the white one as well. I don't know where the white one went. I wish it had it, but yeah, I was mostly on the Stratocaster I have now, except it had different pickups.
They're kind of strange pick-ups for a Stratocaster; they're like humbuckers or something?
To this day, I don't know if they're single coil or double; that's being honest. They're DeArmond, that's what they're called. This guy called Derek Nelson who was a guitar maker living just outside Dublin, when I was with Brush Shields, he made a guitar for Brush, and he put the DeArmond pickups in the guitar, and I tried it out, and I liked the tone, so I thought I'd take a chance and get to the pickups in my Strat. I still have them, and I love them because they're not the pickups you get that are really distorted and loads of sustain; they're quite clean'
I wanted to talk about the last time you actually recorded with Phil and Brian, which was on a track called 'For Jimmy' in 1980; how did that come about? Did that kind of reset the past?
Not really. The way I left Thin Lizzy, like, leaving them and doing my theatrics on stage, not only that, but leaving halfway through an Irish tour, leaving them in the shit, at the time, I didn't care. I just wanted to find myself, so they got Gary [Moore] in to finish the tour. We didn't keep in touch, myself or Philip or Brian for a very long time, and I got a phone call one day from the management saying that Philip was going to do a track, a tribute Hendrix, the song 'For Jimmy' [sic], and he said, would I play on it? And I said yeah, and I went down and I met Phil. It's very strange because we recorded that, and I think it was the very first flexi-disk ever that you would get a free copy with one of those magazines that was out in those days, but the thing was, every time I've heard that track, I can't hear my guitar playing. It's like somebody wiped all the guitar off. It's very strange.
So do you think that's a different guitar player on that?
I honestly don't know. No, I don't think there's another guitar player on there, I think it's just they've taken me off, basically, and it's just a basic riff, but I don't think there's any guitar work in it, not that I heard. You can never tell.
What was it like playing with Thin Lizzy again in 1983, when all the old members got up and played with them?
Hammersmith Odeon? That was 'Life Live' or something. That was the last time, and they got all the guitar players. It was fucking deafening! Philip was the last one to turn up, and he came in and he got us all around, and it's sort of a circle, and he said; "right, this is what's going to happen. Whenever we do 'The Rocker', Eric does this little phrase, and I want you all to come in with him and play that phrase", so we all tried it, and at one point I stopped playing, and nobody noticed. It was so loud, just like, this wall of Marshals. Oh, my god, looking back, it mush have been about twenty cabinets of Marshalls, just a big wall behind us. I wasn't into it at all. It was just this incredible noise.
Was that the last time you saw Phil, or did you see him again after that near the end?
Yeah, I saw him maybe once around that period, I was in Shepherd's Bush, and he was in this 7 Eleven shop. There's thousands of black guys in London, so I wasn't sure if it was him or not, but I went over to him, and it turned out it was. We give each other a big hug, and he said; "fuck, you know what?", he says; "everywhere I fucking play, they want 'Whiskey in the fucking Jar! What monster have we created?", and I think that was the last time I saw him.
I have to ask you about joining Metallica on stage in Dublin in 1999, because I was at that gig. I gather it wasn't a brilliant experience for you.
Well, I didn't know who they were, because I'm not into that type of music, that heavy metal side of things. They called me up and they said they were doing a world tour and they'd be very chuffed if I did Dublin with them. So they had a private plane and everything, we flew over to Dublin, and I was sitting in the changing room for like, two hours. They did a two hour show. Then the other thing was, they tuned the guitars down a whole tone, not a half a tone, a whole tone, and I thought; "fuck that! I'm not going to do that!" It would be like a banjo, you know? I've played 'Whiskey in the Jar' thousands of times in the key of G, and on this night, I had to play it in F, and that was the only thing was in my head. I was waiting on them to call me on stage, and they said; "please welcome blah, blah, blah Eric Bell!", and as I'm walking on, I'm going; "it's an F, it's in F!". It was very weird playing it in F after all this time, but I think I got away with it.
So you had to change your fingering down two frets, basically, rather than re-tuning it?
Yeah, making life too hard. If I had to do it again, I'd probably tune it down. But anyway, the show was over, and we got back into this private plane and flew over to England, and got out at this army camp, which is where the plane was whenever we first got in it, this little runway in an army camp. So they all come over to me, they say; "hey, man, real nice! See you again!", and they all fucked off, and I'm standing there with my guitar in a bag, and this car that's going to drive me back to my house, and this American road manager gave me this big ball of merchandising with hats and scarves and key rings and god knows what, and I got in the car and the guy's driving me home, and I suddenly realised I haven't been paid! So you know, "for fuck's sake Bell, wake up! You've no money; you've got this bag of merchandise!" I got back and I told my girlfriend, and she got in touch with her mother who knew her way around the internet, so she tried to get in touch with Metallica, and just couldn't. I couldn't find anything out about them whatsoever, so I just said; "oh, fuck it!"
So they owe you £2,000 Is that right?
Well, that's the figure I was expecting because these guys are like, I don't know whether they're millionaires, but they're close enough to it, and I thought, you know, they haven't paid me one penny, like, nothing, and just disappeared and left me standing there with this merchandising. And then after that. I thought; "ah bollocks, it doesn't matter!"
After you left, Thin Lizzy went on to achieve huge success with 'Jailbreak' etc; what did you think of that period? Do you have any favourite songs from that period?
No. I just wasn't interested in what they became, though they were excellent at what they did with the twin guitar line-up. I thought it was excellent, but I just wasn't into it. I'm just not that type of player, and I mean, for me to stand on the stage with another guitar player, playing the same thing every night, I'd fall asleep, I really would. But as I said, they were excellent at what they did, really, really good, sort of world class, up with the best of them.
What's coming up for you next for you?
Well, there's a musical called 'Moonlight' [Moonlight - The Philip Lynott Enigma], and this guy got in touch with me about five months ago, basically saying that he had done a musical already for Oscar Wilde and Brendan Behan, and they were quite successful in England. He's a Dublin guy, and he's got a third musical called 'Moonlight', and he got me involved because I was the original guitar player. It's a really amazing show, and the guy sold out in Vicars Street, three nights in a row, and that holds nearly 2,000 people. It's actually back in Dublin in June, another three nights in Vicars Street, and it's sold out again. He's taking it to Limerick, and he wants to get into Belfast, Cork, and then he wants to get into England and maybe the States. It's a big thing.
I've also got gigs coming with of my own band, so I'm still alive and well and playing, which when I think about it, it's fucking ridiculous! I mean, I'm 77 now, and if someone told me years ago; "Eric, you'll still be playing at 77", I'd, say; "Yeah, of course, I will! That's a if I reach it!", but I'm still playing, and it's unbelievable. It's like a different society these days. There was a time when somebody aged 77 would be playing on stage, and they'd say; "sod off, granddad!" [laughing] It's amazing now, and obviously, you have to take your hat off to the Stones, and Paul McCartney and people like this; they're not old men, but in a way they are, but they're still doing it.
Eric Bell's 'Authenticity' is available now. Click here to order.
Well, I didn't know who they were, because I'm not into that type of music, that heavy metal side of things. They called me up and they said they were doing a world tour and they'd be very chuffed if I did Dublin with them. So they had a private plane and everything, we flew over to Dublin, and I was sitting in the changing room for like, two hours. They did a two hour show. Then the other thing was, they tuned the guitars down a whole tone, not a half a tone, a whole tone, and I thought; "fuck that! I'm not going to do that!" It would be like a banjo, you know? I've played 'Whiskey in the Jar' thousands of times in the key of G, and on this night, I had to play it in F, and that was the only thing was in my head. I was waiting on them to call me on stage, and they said; "please welcome blah, blah, blah Eric Bell!", and as I'm walking on, I'm going; "it's an F, it's in F!". It was very weird playing it in F after all this time, but I think I got away with it.
So you had to change your fingering down two frets, basically, rather than re-tuning it?
Yeah, making life too hard. If I had to do it again, I'd probably tune it down. But anyway, the show was over, and we got back into this private plane and flew over to England, and got out at this army camp, which is where the plane was whenever we first got in it, this little runway in an army camp. So they all come over to me, they say; "hey, man, real nice! See you again!", and they all fucked off, and I'm standing there with my guitar in a bag, and this car that's going to drive me back to my house, and this American road manager gave me this big ball of merchandising with hats and scarves and key rings and god knows what, and I got in the car and the guy's driving me home, and I suddenly realised I haven't been paid! So you know, "for fuck's sake Bell, wake up! You've no money; you've got this bag of merchandise!" I got back and I told my girlfriend, and she got in touch with her mother who knew her way around the internet, so she tried to get in touch with Metallica, and just couldn't. I couldn't find anything out about them whatsoever, so I just said; "oh, fuck it!"
So they owe you £2,000 Is that right?
Well, that's the figure I was expecting because these guys are like, I don't know whether they're millionaires, but they're close enough to it, and I thought, you know, they haven't paid me one penny, like, nothing, and just disappeared and left me standing there with this merchandising. And then after that. I thought; "ah bollocks, it doesn't matter!"
After you left, Thin Lizzy went on to achieve huge success with 'Jailbreak' etc; what did you think of that period? Do you have any favourite songs from that period?
No. I just wasn't interested in what they became, though they were excellent at what they did with the twin guitar line-up. I thought it was excellent, but I just wasn't into it. I'm just not that type of player, and I mean, for me to stand on the stage with another guitar player, playing the same thing every night, I'd fall asleep, I really would. But as I said, they were excellent at what they did, really, really good, sort of world class, up with the best of them.
What's coming up for you next for you?
Well, there's a musical called 'Moonlight' [Moonlight - The Philip Lynott Enigma], and this guy got in touch with me about five months ago, basically saying that he had done a musical already for Oscar Wilde and Brendan Behan, and they were quite successful in England. He's a Dublin guy, and he's got a third musical called 'Moonlight', and he got me involved because I was the original guitar player. It's a really amazing show, and the guy sold out in Vicars Street, three nights in a row, and that holds nearly 2,000 people. It's actually back in Dublin in June, another three nights in Vicars Street, and it's sold out again. He's taking it to Limerick, and he wants to get into Belfast, Cork, and then he wants to get into England and maybe the States. It's a big thing.
I've also got gigs coming with of my own band, so I'm still alive and well and playing, which when I think about it, it's fucking ridiculous! I mean, I'm 77 now, and if someone told me years ago; "Eric, you'll still be playing at 77", I'd, say; "Yeah, of course, I will! That's a if I reach it!", but I'm still playing, and it's unbelievable. It's like a different society these days. There was a time when somebody aged 77 would be playing on stage, and they'd say; "sod off, granddad!" [laughing] It's amazing now, and obviously, you have to take your hat off to the Stones, and Paul McCartney and people like this; they're not old men, but in a way they are, but they're still doing it.
Eric Bell's 'Authenticity' is available now. Click here to order.
RSS Feed