Celebrating his continuing success in the art world, Scott Gorham has just released a range of t-shirts featuring a brace of his striking designs. Joining us for the second time this year, the Thin Lizzy guitarist is finally settling into life creating in a newer medium; "I'm kind of getting used to it now", he tells us as we sit down for a chat over Zoom; "my confidence is up and running". Discussing 50 years of Thin Lizzy, who his favourite guitar partners were, who he'd like in a 2025 Lizzy, and the final days of Phil Lynott, we caught up with the Glendale Gunslinger. Bad reputation; Eamon O'Neill.
Hi Scott, how are you doing?
I am doing very good. It's good talking to you again. I know we talked last May. That was really good, so I'm all ready for the next round here.
You're five or six months since the art launch, and you've had a time for everything to settle; how does it feel this far down the line?
Well, I'm kind of getting used to it now. I don't know if I mentioned that exhibition that we did, how absolutely scared stiff I was of getting up there in front of everybody and showing these things that I'd done over the last forty or so years. That was a very nerve wracking but since then I've had so many really great comments and talked to so many people that it's kind of got my confidence up and running. So, we're good with that.
Obviously, you have nothing to prove as a guitar player, but this was something new; it must have been like letting a piece of yourself out there the world didn't know about.
Yeah, a little bit because I hadn't told anybody that I was doing any of this at all. It was basically just for me. I would sit in hotel rooms around the world and just come up with these ideas and start drawing. If I got a knock on the door, I would take my pad and pencils and put it under the bedspread so nobody knew what I was doing, so yeah, you're absolutely right. When you're in a band, you take all the applause and all the heat together, so you can kind of lean on each other; "well, they were right for that criticism, and that was great what they said about you", blah, blah, blah, but when you're up there on your own, a loan ranger, and all of a sudden, showing these things that you had never shown anybody else before, it's a pretty daunting prospect.
In our last chat, you said that you were doing some of them while you were on the road with Thin Lizzy; was the art therapeutic?
It kind of happens in every aspect of my life; good times, bad times, weird times, confusing times, uh, painful times! There's one I've got that's actually called pain, and that was a condition that I had. It was called cluster headaches, which they actually nicknamed the suicide headaches, and for good reason! If you look at the picture, I think I got it described it pretty well, but you feel like there's a railroad spike being driven into your skull while somebody else has got a steel boot and kicking in your other eye. It's a terrible thing to go through, so I just wanted to get that one out. I just drew how I was feeling and what it was like, what you feel that you look like when you're going through this, although you don't look like that, but that's how you feel. So it was important for me, for myself, to just draw this and get it out of my system. So yeah, so you could say it was a little bit therapeutic on some sides.
'Pain', along with 'Freedom of Speech' are the two pieces that you've chosen to put out as t-shirt prints; why those two?
Well, probably because those two at that point were the most popular ones. Yeah, 'Free Speech', the whole thing is, I really believe in free speech. I mean, we've had World Wars about being able to speak your mind and say anything you want to, but what that picture is really saying is, back when social media just started to get rolling, and people thought; "I can say anything I want to, to all these new friends that I've got", only to find out that all these new friends completely disagreed with them, and they've been crushed along the way, because they just kind of divulged too much about their feelings on that subject or that. So that's why I obscured the mouth; it's almost like a reminder; "yes, we have free speech, absolutely, but you've got to think about what you're going to put out into the public domain. Think before you speak".
That has never been more relevant, especially in the age of social media, right?
Right! And especially in the Trump era, where he kind of says anything he wants, and people go; "did he just say that!? Yeah, I can't believe you said that". So there's a lot of that going on right now.
You've alluded to the fact that you might be going to resize some of the prints; is that part of a grander plan for what's going to happen with the art going forward?
Well, yeah, we're going to add to the t-shirt collection, because I think there's probably a couple of more that probably even look better on the t shirts than the first two, and I'm going to be adding possibly four new prints to the collection that I've already got right now. So we'll be doing that, easily, in the next couple of months. I know there's a couple that are going to come out before Christmas, so we'll see how that goes.
Art is obviously your primary focus right now; is it nice to be doing something slightly different?
You know, it kind of is, and I'm glad you asked me that. I've been doing the whole guitar, writing, touring, all of that, for fifty years now, and I hadn't actually realised that until somebody made that obvious to me. I came over [to the UK] in 1974, and got in the band in 1974, and we kind of never stopped, and I never stopped. So I've been constantly doing this for fifty years, for god's sakes! I thought; "wow, how is that even possible!?" So with the the art thing coming up, I think it's a nice little diverging path to take right now, just to kind of recharge the batteries and all that. I do love playing music, and I love getting out there, I love touring, but there is a time where you've got to step back, and get a breather. So my breather is to be able to do this. I just find it really fun.
I suppose, in a way, you must be hoping that you'll be getting out there playing, and seeing people wearing these T shirts?
Well, that that would be nice. I mean, I've had people go; "so when you go on a tour, are you going to have your own booth out there selling your own T shirts?", and yeah, absolutely not, because that that would be infringing on everybody else in the band, with the merchandise and all that. So I won't be doing that. No, I guess the only way that we can get the T shirts out is through the website, so and make sure you come and visit it.
I am doing very good. It's good talking to you again. I know we talked last May. That was really good, so I'm all ready for the next round here.
You're five or six months since the art launch, and you've had a time for everything to settle; how does it feel this far down the line?
Well, I'm kind of getting used to it now. I don't know if I mentioned that exhibition that we did, how absolutely scared stiff I was of getting up there in front of everybody and showing these things that I'd done over the last forty or so years. That was a very nerve wracking but since then I've had so many really great comments and talked to so many people that it's kind of got my confidence up and running. So, we're good with that.
Obviously, you have nothing to prove as a guitar player, but this was something new; it must have been like letting a piece of yourself out there the world didn't know about.
Yeah, a little bit because I hadn't told anybody that I was doing any of this at all. It was basically just for me. I would sit in hotel rooms around the world and just come up with these ideas and start drawing. If I got a knock on the door, I would take my pad and pencils and put it under the bedspread so nobody knew what I was doing, so yeah, you're absolutely right. When you're in a band, you take all the applause and all the heat together, so you can kind of lean on each other; "well, they were right for that criticism, and that was great what they said about you", blah, blah, blah, but when you're up there on your own, a loan ranger, and all of a sudden, showing these things that you had never shown anybody else before, it's a pretty daunting prospect.
In our last chat, you said that you were doing some of them while you were on the road with Thin Lizzy; was the art therapeutic?
It kind of happens in every aspect of my life; good times, bad times, weird times, confusing times, uh, painful times! There's one I've got that's actually called pain, and that was a condition that I had. It was called cluster headaches, which they actually nicknamed the suicide headaches, and for good reason! If you look at the picture, I think I got it described it pretty well, but you feel like there's a railroad spike being driven into your skull while somebody else has got a steel boot and kicking in your other eye. It's a terrible thing to go through, so I just wanted to get that one out. I just drew how I was feeling and what it was like, what you feel that you look like when you're going through this, although you don't look like that, but that's how you feel. So it was important for me, for myself, to just draw this and get it out of my system. So yeah, so you could say it was a little bit therapeutic on some sides.
'Pain', along with 'Freedom of Speech' are the two pieces that you've chosen to put out as t-shirt prints; why those two?
Well, probably because those two at that point were the most popular ones. Yeah, 'Free Speech', the whole thing is, I really believe in free speech. I mean, we've had World Wars about being able to speak your mind and say anything you want to, but what that picture is really saying is, back when social media just started to get rolling, and people thought; "I can say anything I want to, to all these new friends that I've got", only to find out that all these new friends completely disagreed with them, and they've been crushed along the way, because they just kind of divulged too much about their feelings on that subject or that. So that's why I obscured the mouth; it's almost like a reminder; "yes, we have free speech, absolutely, but you've got to think about what you're going to put out into the public domain. Think before you speak".
That has never been more relevant, especially in the age of social media, right?
Right! And especially in the Trump era, where he kind of says anything he wants, and people go; "did he just say that!? Yeah, I can't believe you said that". So there's a lot of that going on right now.
You've alluded to the fact that you might be going to resize some of the prints; is that part of a grander plan for what's going to happen with the art going forward?
Well, yeah, we're going to add to the t-shirt collection, because I think there's probably a couple of more that probably even look better on the t shirts than the first two, and I'm going to be adding possibly four new prints to the collection that I've already got right now. So we'll be doing that, easily, in the next couple of months. I know there's a couple that are going to come out before Christmas, so we'll see how that goes.
Art is obviously your primary focus right now; is it nice to be doing something slightly different?
You know, it kind of is, and I'm glad you asked me that. I've been doing the whole guitar, writing, touring, all of that, for fifty years now, and I hadn't actually realised that until somebody made that obvious to me. I came over [to the UK] in 1974, and got in the band in 1974, and we kind of never stopped, and I never stopped. So I've been constantly doing this for fifty years, for god's sakes! I thought; "wow, how is that even possible!?" So with the the art thing coming up, I think it's a nice little diverging path to take right now, just to kind of recharge the batteries and all that. I do love playing music, and I love getting out there, I love touring, but there is a time where you've got to step back, and get a breather. So my breather is to be able to do this. I just find it really fun.
I suppose, in a way, you must be hoping that you'll be getting out there playing, and seeing people wearing these T shirts?
Well, that that would be nice. I mean, I've had people go; "so when you go on a tour, are you going to have your own booth out there selling your own T shirts?", and yeah, absolutely not, because that that would be infringing on everybody else in the band, with the merchandise and all that. So I won't be doing that. No, I guess the only way that we can get the T shirts out is through the website, so and make sure you come and visit it.
I wanted to talk about some of the co-writes you had in the Thin Lizzy catalogue; you recently said that 'She Knows' is one of your favourites, and that's the opening track on that first album from 1974 isn't it?
That one is near and dear to the heart for me, yeah. I had just joined Thin Lizzy, and I was just getting know the guys and Phil and I became pals, kind of straight off the back. We just really clicked together, and he kept saying; "I do write the majority of the material, but I want everybody in the band to write. I want everybody's name on these songs. So whatever ideas you have, just bring them forward; Some will get used. Some won't", It was like; "oh, okay", and when we were rehearsing, it was either for a really short tour, or maybe for the 'Nightlife' album, I can't remember, but I had that riff, and I was just kind of warming up, and Phil turns around and he says; "Is that yours? Do you have any more to go with that?", and I said; "well, yeah", so I played him the next bit, and he says; "I love that. Do you mind if I write some lyrics to that?", and I'm like; "are you kidding me? Absolutely!", so that became the first song that Phil and I wrote together on the first album that I'd ever done, and it became the opening track for that album.
I'm really proud of that song, and also, I would love to redo that song somehow; get another bunch of guys in there and just re-record that, just to see how it would sound with the new technology today and all that, to see what we could come up with.
I have to ask, have you any names? Who would you like to do it with?
There's a whole load of guys out there that are great; there's Vivian Campbell from Def Leppard, Richard Fortus from Guns n' Roses; I've worked with both of those guys. Marco Mendoza, great bass player, so yeah, I mean, there's a tonne of guys out there. The problem being with all that is they all have day jobs. They've got to pay the rent, and I imagine their rent is pretty high! So with that kind of thing I have to wait around, to wait to see when all the stars align perfectly, to get everybody lined up on that stage.
Another track I wanted to mention was 'Massacre'; do you remember writing that, and who wrote what?
The main verse riff was more me, an the intro melody, that was Phil. He came up with that on the bass, and as soon as both myself and Brian Robinson heard that, we started to feed off of that riff, because there's multiple ways you can go with that, because it's a really wide open kind of riff, and kind of inspiring at the same time, but you want to put something on that riff. Also that song became real steadfast in the set. We when we made up the different set lists for whatever tour, 'Massacre' was in there for a very, very long time, purely because we just loved playing that song. It was one of those things where as a guitar player or a drummer, or whatever, you could really get your rocks off with that one. It was a fun song to play.
That part in the verse, with the chords changing underneath the riff, that's some kind of beautiful musical genius going on there.
Yeah, that's what I mean. Those kind of things are open to chord changes and all that. When you keep that one pattern lick going, there's all sorts of things that you could do underneath it to make it kind of flower out a little more. I think really, we could have done it even more drastically if we had a little more time to think about it, but the problem was with those first couple of albums, there was a time related thing, and you had start and you had to finish that album. A lot of the times you would do, maybe, like a lead guitar thing, and the next day you go; "you know, I'm not really happy with that. I really would like to try that again". Well, we don't really have time, because we have this whole grocery list of other things we've got to do. So a lot of times you had to live with what you did on that day.
Iron Maiden actually covered 'Massacre', in 1988; did you hear their version?
I did. They did a really good job with it, and I can imagine, with them playing that live [in the studio], they got a real kick in the ass doing that! There was Bon Jovi that did 'The Boys Are Back in Town. It was okay, but if I'm going to cover a song, I'm going to try to change it a little bit, to try to make it my own, like we did with 'Rosalie'. We took that Bob Seger song, and I remember the day that Phil showed me this song, and it's really slow, and I'm like; "Phil, what are you talking about here?" And he goes; "no, what we'll do is we'll really bump it up in tempo, and really bring up the guitars and, we'll light the place up", and I thought; "yeah, that sounds good!" And bravo, it was great because he grabbed that guitar by the neck, and he just nailed it, and that made everybody jump up and and jump all over that. So, yeah, that's what I would do if I covered somebody else's song; I would try to make it my own in some way, shape or form.
That one is near and dear to the heart for me, yeah. I had just joined Thin Lizzy, and I was just getting know the guys and Phil and I became pals, kind of straight off the back. We just really clicked together, and he kept saying; "I do write the majority of the material, but I want everybody in the band to write. I want everybody's name on these songs. So whatever ideas you have, just bring them forward; Some will get used. Some won't", It was like; "oh, okay", and when we were rehearsing, it was either for a really short tour, or maybe for the 'Nightlife' album, I can't remember, but I had that riff, and I was just kind of warming up, and Phil turns around and he says; "Is that yours? Do you have any more to go with that?", and I said; "well, yeah", so I played him the next bit, and he says; "I love that. Do you mind if I write some lyrics to that?", and I'm like; "are you kidding me? Absolutely!", so that became the first song that Phil and I wrote together on the first album that I'd ever done, and it became the opening track for that album.
I'm really proud of that song, and also, I would love to redo that song somehow; get another bunch of guys in there and just re-record that, just to see how it would sound with the new technology today and all that, to see what we could come up with.
I have to ask, have you any names? Who would you like to do it with?
There's a whole load of guys out there that are great; there's Vivian Campbell from Def Leppard, Richard Fortus from Guns n' Roses; I've worked with both of those guys. Marco Mendoza, great bass player, so yeah, I mean, there's a tonne of guys out there. The problem being with all that is they all have day jobs. They've got to pay the rent, and I imagine their rent is pretty high! So with that kind of thing I have to wait around, to wait to see when all the stars align perfectly, to get everybody lined up on that stage.
Another track I wanted to mention was 'Massacre'; do you remember writing that, and who wrote what?
The main verse riff was more me, an the intro melody, that was Phil. He came up with that on the bass, and as soon as both myself and Brian Robinson heard that, we started to feed off of that riff, because there's multiple ways you can go with that, because it's a really wide open kind of riff, and kind of inspiring at the same time, but you want to put something on that riff. Also that song became real steadfast in the set. We when we made up the different set lists for whatever tour, 'Massacre' was in there for a very, very long time, purely because we just loved playing that song. It was one of those things where as a guitar player or a drummer, or whatever, you could really get your rocks off with that one. It was a fun song to play.
That part in the verse, with the chords changing underneath the riff, that's some kind of beautiful musical genius going on there.
Yeah, that's what I mean. Those kind of things are open to chord changes and all that. When you keep that one pattern lick going, there's all sorts of things that you could do underneath it to make it kind of flower out a little more. I think really, we could have done it even more drastically if we had a little more time to think about it, but the problem was with those first couple of albums, there was a time related thing, and you had start and you had to finish that album. A lot of the times you would do, maybe, like a lead guitar thing, and the next day you go; "you know, I'm not really happy with that. I really would like to try that again". Well, we don't really have time, because we have this whole grocery list of other things we've got to do. So a lot of times you had to live with what you did on that day.
Iron Maiden actually covered 'Massacre', in 1988; did you hear their version?
I did. They did a really good job with it, and I can imagine, with them playing that live [in the studio], they got a real kick in the ass doing that! There was Bon Jovi that did 'The Boys Are Back in Town. It was okay, but if I'm going to cover a song, I'm going to try to change it a little bit, to try to make it my own, like we did with 'Rosalie'. We took that Bob Seger song, and I remember the day that Phil showed me this song, and it's really slow, and I'm like; "Phil, what are you talking about here?" And he goes; "no, what we'll do is we'll really bump it up in tempo, and really bring up the guitars and, we'll light the place up", and I thought; "yeah, that sounds good!" And bravo, it was great because he grabbed that guitar by the neck, and he just nailed it, and that made everybody jump up and and jump all over that. So, yeah, that's what I would do if I covered somebody else's song; I would try to make it my own in some way, shape or form.
You've worked with a lot of great guitar players, but who was your favourite, not just musically, but personally, and who was the easiest to work with?
Wow, that's a tough question because each one of these men had their own characteristics, their own certain kind of talents that they could or could not do, and personality, you know, their characteristics on stage. Everybody was different, so to come up with the best? I mean, I loved, obviously, playing with Robbo [Brian Robertson], because he and I came up with the whole harmony guitar thing that every other guitar player that came into Thin Lizzy had to adhere to, which they did. They were happy to do that because that's why they wanted to jump on board because they love the band. That was the template, and it was me and Robbo that started that. I think on a personal level, I probably laughed harder with Brian than anybody else in the band. He has this real kind of sick sense of humour, and I loved that.
And Gary Moore, wow, what a musician. Oh, my God. I mean, this guy could just about play anything in any style. It was fabulous to be up on stage with this guy. I learned a lot from Gary, and I always tell a lot of young musicians; "always try to get on stage with somebody who's better than yourself, because that's the way you're going to learn something". If you're playing with somebody that is maybe your equal, or maybe not as good, you're not really going to be advancing yourself. So, yeah, I always loved playing with those guys that really thought highly of themselves, if I can put it that way.
I'm glad you mentioned Gary Moore; what do you remember about recording the song 'Róisín Dubh (Black Rose): A Rock Legend' [1979]; did you work as a team? Did you have ideas? Talk to me about that.
When you listen back to it, it is a pretty complicated song, but on the surface, it seems kind of simple, but it's kind of not. There's a lot of moving parts going on there. So we all, all of us worked on that song. I think Gary came up with a really great guitar solo in that song that really kind of glued that whole thing together. And the lyrics that Phil came up with, some of those were really kind of on the fly. They weren't in his song book and his lyric book; they would kind of come to him at the microphone, and I always thought that was pretty cool for him to be able to do that. And a lot of those were keepers, and what was on the fly actually stayed on the record,.
Once again, as soon as that album came out, 'Black Rose' became a huge staple of the band. We played that every single night, and the audience was right with us, kind of waiting for that song to come up, so, we were more than happy to get up there and play that song.
There's that amazing solo section where you're bouncing off each, and then you join up in unison; do you remember recording that?
I do. I absolutely remember that, and I think it was Gary who actually came up with that bit, the call and answer kind of thing, but he wanted to carry it on much further than we actually did it. I said; "well, you know, there's got to be a cut off point, so why don't we cut it off about there?", which I think was right, and in the end so did he. But, yeah there's a lot of moving parts in that song that you really had to work out and think about and get it right, because you knew you're probably going to be playing this every single night, so these parts needed to be as killer as they possibly could get.
That's probably the most difficult Thin Lizzy song to play; would you agree?
Well, I've been in the band with other guitar players after Gary had left and watched them try to do that actual solo, and every once in a while they would get it, but more times than not, it would be kind of slipping and sliding in there and kind of making up their own things to try to get themselves through it. So it was a difficult guitar piece, but yeah, as soon as he finished it on that day, I just went; "God, damn, that is amazing, man!"
Wow, that's a tough question because each one of these men had their own characteristics, their own certain kind of talents that they could or could not do, and personality, you know, their characteristics on stage. Everybody was different, so to come up with the best? I mean, I loved, obviously, playing with Robbo [Brian Robertson], because he and I came up with the whole harmony guitar thing that every other guitar player that came into Thin Lizzy had to adhere to, which they did. They were happy to do that because that's why they wanted to jump on board because they love the band. That was the template, and it was me and Robbo that started that. I think on a personal level, I probably laughed harder with Brian than anybody else in the band. He has this real kind of sick sense of humour, and I loved that.
And Gary Moore, wow, what a musician. Oh, my God. I mean, this guy could just about play anything in any style. It was fabulous to be up on stage with this guy. I learned a lot from Gary, and I always tell a lot of young musicians; "always try to get on stage with somebody who's better than yourself, because that's the way you're going to learn something". If you're playing with somebody that is maybe your equal, or maybe not as good, you're not really going to be advancing yourself. So, yeah, I always loved playing with those guys that really thought highly of themselves, if I can put it that way.
I'm glad you mentioned Gary Moore; what do you remember about recording the song 'Róisín Dubh (Black Rose): A Rock Legend' [1979]; did you work as a team? Did you have ideas? Talk to me about that.
When you listen back to it, it is a pretty complicated song, but on the surface, it seems kind of simple, but it's kind of not. There's a lot of moving parts going on there. So we all, all of us worked on that song. I think Gary came up with a really great guitar solo in that song that really kind of glued that whole thing together. And the lyrics that Phil came up with, some of those were really kind of on the fly. They weren't in his song book and his lyric book; they would kind of come to him at the microphone, and I always thought that was pretty cool for him to be able to do that. And a lot of those were keepers, and what was on the fly actually stayed on the record,.
Once again, as soon as that album came out, 'Black Rose' became a huge staple of the band. We played that every single night, and the audience was right with us, kind of waiting for that song to come up, so, we were more than happy to get up there and play that song.
There's that amazing solo section where you're bouncing off each, and then you join up in unison; do you remember recording that?
I do. I absolutely remember that, and I think it was Gary who actually came up with that bit, the call and answer kind of thing, but he wanted to carry it on much further than we actually did it. I said; "well, you know, there's got to be a cut off point, so why don't we cut it off about there?", which I think was right, and in the end so did he. But, yeah there's a lot of moving parts in that song that you really had to work out and think about and get it right, because you knew you're probably going to be playing this every single night, so these parts needed to be as killer as they possibly could get.
That's probably the most difficult Thin Lizzy song to play; would you agree?
Well, I've been in the band with other guitar players after Gary had left and watched them try to do that actual solo, and every once in a while they would get it, but more times than not, it would be kind of slipping and sliding in there and kind of making up their own things to try to get themselves through it. So it was a difficult guitar piece, but yeah, as soon as he finished it on that day, I just went; "God, damn, that is amazing, man!"
Is it true that around the time that Phil passed, he was trying to put Thin Lizzy back together? Did he approach you? Did that actually happen?
It absolutely did. I went over to his house, I think it was three weeks before he died, mainly because I wanted to show him I was completely clean at this point. My skin was glowing, and I was, like, the picture of health, and I just wanted to show Phil; "you've got to follow me on this man, you've got to follow me", because he was looking terrible. He was having a hard time breathing, the asthma kicked in, and so I just wanted to show him this can be done; you know, "look at me. I was as bad as you, but we can do this". And he's going; "yeah, I'm doing it. I'm getting off this crap. I hate it. This is terrible". He says; "you know Scott, we've really got to put the band back together again", and I'm looking at him and looking at the state that he's in, and he sees the way that I'm looking at him, and I don't need to say anything, and he goes; "yeah, I know, but I'm going to get off of this crap, man, and we'll put..." And I said: "okay, as soon as we get everybody healthy and road worthy, let's do this, but you've got to do this, Phil, you've got to do this". And he promised me up and down that he would, and three weeks later, I got the phone call that he was gone. And that just crushed me. Absolutely crushed me. There's no more to say about that.
Finally, I'm sure will cover a lot of what you just talked about in your autobiography 'The Man on the Left'; what's the status of that currently?
It's probably at the three quarter stage, and it's funny, you already named the title of the book.
Yeah, you told me that when we last spoke.
I'm the guy on the left, right? And it covers everything... well, nearly everything. Obviously, there's certain things you can't say because then you've got to live with it, but we've got Midge Ure in there, Jim Fitzpatrick has come on board, I'm still trying to get Joe Elliott in there, and Vivian, and all the different people that I worked with. Unfortunately, some aren't here any longer, so we can't talk to them, but we're trying to get as many really good stories as possible in this book as we possibly can. This is done by a guy named Martin Power, and he did the did the Gary Moore book, and he did the Jimmy Page book, and the reason they wanted to do it on me - which I couldn't quite believe - was because Martin interviewed me for the Gary book, and he just liked the stories that he was hearing, and went to the editor and said; "man, we've got to do a book on this guy!" So I just; "okay, here goes nothing!" So now I have to be embarrassed all over again.
For more on Scott Gorham's art, and to purchase prints, shirts, and more, visit scottgorhamworld.com.
It absolutely did. I went over to his house, I think it was three weeks before he died, mainly because I wanted to show him I was completely clean at this point. My skin was glowing, and I was, like, the picture of health, and I just wanted to show Phil; "you've got to follow me on this man, you've got to follow me", because he was looking terrible. He was having a hard time breathing, the asthma kicked in, and so I just wanted to show him this can be done; you know, "look at me. I was as bad as you, but we can do this". And he's going; "yeah, I'm doing it. I'm getting off this crap. I hate it. This is terrible". He says; "you know Scott, we've really got to put the band back together again", and I'm looking at him and looking at the state that he's in, and he sees the way that I'm looking at him, and I don't need to say anything, and he goes; "yeah, I know, but I'm going to get off of this crap, man, and we'll put..." And I said: "okay, as soon as we get everybody healthy and road worthy, let's do this, but you've got to do this, Phil, you've got to do this". And he promised me up and down that he would, and three weeks later, I got the phone call that he was gone. And that just crushed me. Absolutely crushed me. There's no more to say about that.
Finally, I'm sure will cover a lot of what you just talked about in your autobiography 'The Man on the Left'; what's the status of that currently?
It's probably at the three quarter stage, and it's funny, you already named the title of the book.
Yeah, you told me that when we last spoke.
I'm the guy on the left, right? And it covers everything... well, nearly everything. Obviously, there's certain things you can't say because then you've got to live with it, but we've got Midge Ure in there, Jim Fitzpatrick has come on board, I'm still trying to get Joe Elliott in there, and Vivian, and all the different people that I worked with. Unfortunately, some aren't here any longer, so we can't talk to them, but we're trying to get as many really good stories as possible in this book as we possibly can. This is done by a guy named Martin Power, and he did the did the Gary Moore book, and he did the Jimmy Page book, and the reason they wanted to do it on me - which I couldn't quite believe - was because Martin interviewed me for the Gary book, and he just liked the stories that he was hearing, and went to the editor and said; "man, we've got to do a book on this guy!" So I just; "okay, here goes nothing!" So now I have to be embarrassed all over again.
For more on Scott Gorham's art, and to purchase prints, shirts, and more, visit scottgorhamworld.com.
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