Best known for his incredible work as "the man on the left" with Thin Lizzy, Scott Gorham has put down the Les Paul and picked up the paint brush for the launch of his first ever art collection. Featuring a series of surrealistic images conceived as far back as the 1980s, the guitarist is showcasing a new side to his talent; "I hadn't even shown my wife anything until three and a half years ago", he says, as we sit down for a chat over Zoom. Talking the collection, some lost Lizzy gems, the failure of 21 Guns, and how he's putting pen to paper to tell his life story, we sat down with the one and only Scott Gorham. Waiting for an alibi; Eamon O'Neill.
Photo: Jimmy Little Jnr.
Hi Scott, how are you doing?
Hey man, I'm good, how you doing, buddy?
You recently launched your artwork at the Sanctum in London; how was that?
I have to admit on that night, well, actually, a week before the night, I was extremely nervous. It's one thing being in a band where you've got three or four other guys and you can always lean on each other through the good times and the bad times, but when you're doing something like this art project, I mean, I'm definitely the Lone Ranger up there, right off the bat! If people don't like it, it's your fault, but on the other side, if people like it, then you get all the applause. It's pretty nerve racking, I will admit,
I'm guessing it's like going in to record a guitar solo, in a way; it's a pure expression of what you're feeling, isn't it?
Absolutely. You hit the nail right on the head with that one. It's purely just coming out of yourself. A lot of the times I don't have things planned. Sometimes I do. I see something on TV - a documentary or something like that - and strike this thing in my head, and I'll find myself just drawing away. Or take, for instance, the football game that Phil Lynott took me to, my first one with Manchester United and it was Sheffield United? Anyway, I was amazed at the crowd reaction and everything; you know, goals going in against them, and men holding their head in their hands and crying, and kids crying; I was just amazed. The other thing that got me to was the almost choreography of the audience; the way they would all of a sudden start singing, and I'm kind of looking for the leader down here who's counting all these people in, and there is nobody! They all just instinctively just do it right on time. It was amazing.
How has the response been to your artwork since the launch, both from critics and fans?
It's all been great. People are buying things left, right and centre, on the different sizes and all that. I'm kind of waiting for the bad one [review] to come in! This can't keep going on; there's got to be a bad one out there, so it's going happen, but we're mentally prepared for it. I hope the goodness part of the whole thing hangs in there a while longer though.
The fans have just been great and been really supportive, but really surprised that I would do something like this. The whole art thing, I think, took everybody by complete surprise, which I thought it would because I kept everything pretty secret. I had no reason to show anybody anything. It was my hobby, and I love doing it. In fact, I hadn't even shown my wife anything until three and a half years ago. Now I've been doing this for 40 years, but I just actually showed her only three and a half years ago, and she was a little cheesed off with me that I hadn't shown her beforehand, but she's the one with that launch; she's really the main instigator, putting all that together and how well it was put together. So I applaud her all the time for I know how hard it was.
She's been your main supporter in lot of ways, obviously, over the years.
Yeah, in a lot of different ways. She's helped me get over a lot of things that have been well documented; she instigated that, and this art thing, I had no idea, I had no intentions at all of showing anybody, but she kept prodding me; "you've got to show somebody!", and I finally gave her an; "okay, well, let's see what happens", so good for her.
I guess people shouldn't be that surprised, with the amount of musicians that came out of art college; from The Beatles to Pink Floyd.
Right. Well, you know the difference there is they all went to art school; I've never had any sort of art training at all. I don't know what you'd call it; it's just kind of the way I play guitar; you just teach yourself, and you learn this, you learn that, you make that mistake, and you've got to erase the whole thing and then try again. So, yeah, the whole thing has been a forty year learning experience.
Your artwork is very unique; it's surrealistic. What influenced that? Was an escape, or was it just something else?
Yeah, pretty much, when you're out on the road. That's why I started a lot of these pictures, when was out on tour. I mean, you've got to remember, you're out there for something like two or three months at a time, right? And you hang with the same fifteen or twenty guys for three months, and then you hear somebody tell a joke an you go; "oh my god, I've already heard that ten times! I've got to get out of here!" So that's what I did; I just went walking around Amsterdam one day and I saw an art shop that looked really intriguing - the way they had displayed the whole thing - I thought it was really cool. So I walked in. I had no intention on buying anything, and about a half hour later, I walked out with two sketch pads and a couple of tins of pencils and erasers and all that, and went straight back to the hotel and I just started drawing away there. So that's how it started really; just wanting to break away from the herd.
You've said that this was in the early '80s, and I'm guessing it was therapeutic because it seems things were utterly chaotic in Thin Lizzy at that point, with Brian Robertson out, Gary Moore in, Gary Gone, Midge Ure temping, Snowy White in.
I mean, I'm going to have to agree with you. You know, it's seems like every time I turned around, there was somebody new over on the right hand side! "Who the hell is that guy?!", you know? But, uh, yeah, you're right. There was a lot of pressure. A lot of it was put on me because I was the guy that stayed there the whole time. I was the guy that Phil always said; "you know, we can put the candidates in front of you, but you've got to be the guy that chooses who's going be on the right-hand side, because it's going to be you that's going to be working most closely with the guy on the right-hand side". So Phil always made sure that it was my choice to choose whoever was up there. You know, I thought I actually chose pretty well; maybe not on the stability part, but on the talent part, I think I chose really well. I think we all chose some really great guys to be in Thin Lizzy.
One of my favourite pieces that you've done is 'Pain'; there's a lot of depth to that one.
Well, I guess it's what we were talking about; a lot of the pressure that I was under. I got to the point where I was starting to get these headaches, and they're called 'cluster headaches'. It's like the granddaddy of the migraine headache, in fact, the nickname for it is the 'suicide headache'. The pain is just unbelievable; you can't get away from it, so it left a real indelible stamp on you. The picture pretty much shows you, with the bone going through the eye and the ear and all that, because that's where the main pain was coming from. The skin, it's all messed up because you feel like you've just started looking terrible the whole time because you're in such pain. But the weird thing is, I talked to this doctor and I said; "if I'm on tour and I get these headaches, there's no way that I can walk out on stage and perform, especially with the epic noise that's coming off the amplifiers and all that." I said; "I just couldn't take it, but thankfully, I don't get them while I'm out on tour." And the doctor said a really interesting thing, that the brain is a pretty fascinating organ, because what it'll do is, it knows that you're under pressure, but it kind of puts this protective film over you, like a shell, right? So it keeps you away from that pain, and as soon as you come off the road, your brain says; "well, I can relax now. I can take the protective shell away", and that's when it happens. I thought that was a really interesting analogy.
Hey man, I'm good, how you doing, buddy?
You recently launched your artwork at the Sanctum in London; how was that?
I have to admit on that night, well, actually, a week before the night, I was extremely nervous. It's one thing being in a band where you've got three or four other guys and you can always lean on each other through the good times and the bad times, but when you're doing something like this art project, I mean, I'm definitely the Lone Ranger up there, right off the bat! If people don't like it, it's your fault, but on the other side, if people like it, then you get all the applause. It's pretty nerve racking, I will admit,
I'm guessing it's like going in to record a guitar solo, in a way; it's a pure expression of what you're feeling, isn't it?
Absolutely. You hit the nail right on the head with that one. It's purely just coming out of yourself. A lot of the times I don't have things planned. Sometimes I do. I see something on TV - a documentary or something like that - and strike this thing in my head, and I'll find myself just drawing away. Or take, for instance, the football game that Phil Lynott took me to, my first one with Manchester United and it was Sheffield United? Anyway, I was amazed at the crowd reaction and everything; you know, goals going in against them, and men holding their head in their hands and crying, and kids crying; I was just amazed. The other thing that got me to was the almost choreography of the audience; the way they would all of a sudden start singing, and I'm kind of looking for the leader down here who's counting all these people in, and there is nobody! They all just instinctively just do it right on time. It was amazing.
How has the response been to your artwork since the launch, both from critics and fans?
It's all been great. People are buying things left, right and centre, on the different sizes and all that. I'm kind of waiting for the bad one [review] to come in! This can't keep going on; there's got to be a bad one out there, so it's going happen, but we're mentally prepared for it. I hope the goodness part of the whole thing hangs in there a while longer though.
The fans have just been great and been really supportive, but really surprised that I would do something like this. The whole art thing, I think, took everybody by complete surprise, which I thought it would because I kept everything pretty secret. I had no reason to show anybody anything. It was my hobby, and I love doing it. In fact, I hadn't even shown my wife anything until three and a half years ago. Now I've been doing this for 40 years, but I just actually showed her only three and a half years ago, and she was a little cheesed off with me that I hadn't shown her beforehand, but she's the one with that launch; she's really the main instigator, putting all that together and how well it was put together. So I applaud her all the time for I know how hard it was.
She's been your main supporter in lot of ways, obviously, over the years.
Yeah, in a lot of different ways. She's helped me get over a lot of things that have been well documented; she instigated that, and this art thing, I had no idea, I had no intentions at all of showing anybody, but she kept prodding me; "you've got to show somebody!", and I finally gave her an; "okay, well, let's see what happens", so good for her.
I guess people shouldn't be that surprised, with the amount of musicians that came out of art college; from The Beatles to Pink Floyd.
Right. Well, you know the difference there is they all went to art school; I've never had any sort of art training at all. I don't know what you'd call it; it's just kind of the way I play guitar; you just teach yourself, and you learn this, you learn that, you make that mistake, and you've got to erase the whole thing and then try again. So, yeah, the whole thing has been a forty year learning experience.
Your artwork is very unique; it's surrealistic. What influenced that? Was an escape, or was it just something else?
Yeah, pretty much, when you're out on the road. That's why I started a lot of these pictures, when was out on tour. I mean, you've got to remember, you're out there for something like two or three months at a time, right? And you hang with the same fifteen or twenty guys for three months, and then you hear somebody tell a joke an you go; "oh my god, I've already heard that ten times! I've got to get out of here!" So that's what I did; I just went walking around Amsterdam one day and I saw an art shop that looked really intriguing - the way they had displayed the whole thing - I thought it was really cool. So I walked in. I had no intention on buying anything, and about a half hour later, I walked out with two sketch pads and a couple of tins of pencils and erasers and all that, and went straight back to the hotel and I just started drawing away there. So that's how it started really; just wanting to break away from the herd.
You've said that this was in the early '80s, and I'm guessing it was therapeutic because it seems things were utterly chaotic in Thin Lizzy at that point, with Brian Robertson out, Gary Moore in, Gary Gone, Midge Ure temping, Snowy White in.
I mean, I'm going to have to agree with you. You know, it's seems like every time I turned around, there was somebody new over on the right hand side! "Who the hell is that guy?!", you know? But, uh, yeah, you're right. There was a lot of pressure. A lot of it was put on me because I was the guy that stayed there the whole time. I was the guy that Phil always said; "you know, we can put the candidates in front of you, but you've got to be the guy that chooses who's going be on the right-hand side, because it's going to be you that's going to be working most closely with the guy on the right-hand side". So Phil always made sure that it was my choice to choose whoever was up there. You know, I thought I actually chose pretty well; maybe not on the stability part, but on the talent part, I think I chose really well. I think we all chose some really great guys to be in Thin Lizzy.
One of my favourite pieces that you've done is 'Pain'; there's a lot of depth to that one.
Well, I guess it's what we were talking about; a lot of the pressure that I was under. I got to the point where I was starting to get these headaches, and they're called 'cluster headaches'. It's like the granddaddy of the migraine headache, in fact, the nickname for it is the 'suicide headache'. The pain is just unbelievable; you can't get away from it, so it left a real indelible stamp on you. The picture pretty much shows you, with the bone going through the eye and the ear and all that, because that's where the main pain was coming from. The skin, it's all messed up because you feel like you've just started looking terrible the whole time because you're in such pain. But the weird thing is, I talked to this doctor and I said; "if I'm on tour and I get these headaches, there's no way that I can walk out on stage and perform, especially with the epic noise that's coming off the amplifiers and all that." I said; "I just couldn't take it, but thankfully, I don't get them while I'm out on tour." And the doctor said a really interesting thing, that the brain is a pretty fascinating organ, because what it'll do is, it knows that you're under pressure, but it kind of puts this protective film over you, like a shell, right? So it keeps you away from that pain, and as soon as you come off the road, your brain says; "well, I can relax now. I can take the protective shell away", and that's when it happens. I thought that was a really interesting analogy.
'Pain' by Scott Gorham.
You had a fantastic endorsement from Thin Lizzy cover artist Jim Fitzpatrick; that must have meant a lot to you.
Well, it's meant so much. My wife Christine said; "listen, I've got Jim Fitzpatrick on Zoom, and I'm going to show him your drawings". I went; "wait a minute, you're going to to WHAT?!" And she goes; "yeah, Jim's kind of interested to see his what you're doing", and I said; "well, I can't be in the room", and I walked out of the room while she was showing him because I was afraid that if Jim went" yeah, they're okay. It's nice. It's a good first try", I'd probably go; "oh, my God, I'm done", but Jim just came back with these glowing compliments that almost put a lump in my throat, because I'm such a huge fan of Jim Fitzpatrick.
What was it like working with Jim Fitzpatrick in the Thin Lizzy days?
I used to wait for album cover a day. I knew exactly when Jim was coming down, and I'd be almost the first guy in the studio or wherever we were going to meet, to get a nice place to be able to sit next to Jim so I could see these images that he came up with. And it always blew my head off. He was always given like; "okay, Jim, here's here's the title to this album. We need a album cover for it; it's called 'Jailbreak', right?" Now. I don't know how he came up with the image that he did, but I guess he was shot some liner notes on the back that got a little science fictiony, so he took all that on board and he just came up with this epic figure, this overlord kind of guy that's holding this electric ball or whatever. It was just amazing.
You recently told me that 'Johnny the Fox' [1976] is your favourite cover that he did.
He did the same thing on 'Johnny the Fox', with the Irish borders, and all that is really intricately done with this sort of shadowed wolf figure. You're looking over this, what I seem to think it's like almost like Las Vegas, or Chicago or something like that, just the atmosphere in that picture was just incredible. He kept doing it time after time after time; 'Black Rose' [1979], it's a simple idea; It's just a black rose, it's got blood drops on it, and the funny thing is, he said,; "I had the hardest time with 'Black Rose', because I would actually paint this black rose and it started to just look like a blob, a black blob". He said; "that's why I had to go with a more purple kind of colouring; to give out the different layers in the rose petals and all that". I go; "that's interesting", so I'm kind of feeding off Jim, getting tips on what he does, and so yeah, I was so grateful for Jim and what he said about what I'm doing with art. so thank you, Jim Fitzpatrick.
His work is obviously really iconic. Didn't he submit a cover idea for 'Thunder and Lightning' [1983] that wasn't used?
Now that's a good point. I can't remember him actually drawing a 'Thunder and Lightning', and I can't for the life of me understand why we would not want to use it. I mean, we've used everything else and fell in love with it. We'll have to make a phone call to Jim and see what he says on that!
Moving on, I wanted to ask you about the single 'Dedication', which was released on the five year anniversary of Phil Lynott's passing; how did that all come together?
The record company found the demo of 'Dedication', and they said they were thinking of putting it on this compilation album ['Dedication: The Very Best of Thin Lizzy', 1991], and I thought; "okay, well let me have a listen to this." I listened to it and you could tell it was a demo, oh my god, you could really tell. I mean, things were a little out of tune here, but Phil's vocal was great, his bass playing was great, but a little out of tune guitars are, or there's a missed drumbeat here or there, right? And I said; "let me go in and rerecord just a basic track, and I'll put the lead guitar down and all that", right? I had Brian Downey come in do the basic track with me, and I did the lead lead guitar bits, but the funny thing is, it wasn't finished. This song wasn't finished, and I came in the next day and the record company had gone down and taken the tape; "that's it, we can't spend any more money on this", you know? "It's done. It's good enough", right!? Which kind of, you know; "what's going on?!" It kind of cheesed me off a little bit, but it worked out well. Like you say it's a good song, and I I love what Phil did, and I love what everybody did on it, so yeah, I'm glad you brought that up.
There was talk of Gary Moore being involved with that track.
I can't remember him being involved at all on that one. You know, I've tried to give credit where credit's due on everything that Thin Lizzy has done.
It's one of the lost and Lizzy tracks, and I know Laurence Archer co-wrote that.
Yeah, and he's a good player too.
There's a few tracks that fall into that category like 'Killer on the Loose' and 'Chinatown'.
You know, you're absolutely right there. I mean, the catalogue is so damn huge with Thin Lizzy of possible songs that we could play. I mean, we could literally be up there for three, three and a half, even four hours playing those songs! So really at rehearsal, you're picking these stack of songs that you think are going to be more fan favourites than maybe other ones. Sometimes we miss one. Like you just said, you just reeled off four there that like, oh, yeah, you're right there, there are those!
Well, it's meant so much. My wife Christine said; "listen, I've got Jim Fitzpatrick on Zoom, and I'm going to show him your drawings". I went; "wait a minute, you're going to to WHAT?!" And she goes; "yeah, Jim's kind of interested to see his what you're doing", and I said; "well, I can't be in the room", and I walked out of the room while she was showing him because I was afraid that if Jim went" yeah, they're okay. It's nice. It's a good first try", I'd probably go; "oh, my God, I'm done", but Jim just came back with these glowing compliments that almost put a lump in my throat, because I'm such a huge fan of Jim Fitzpatrick.
What was it like working with Jim Fitzpatrick in the Thin Lizzy days?
I used to wait for album cover a day. I knew exactly when Jim was coming down, and I'd be almost the first guy in the studio or wherever we were going to meet, to get a nice place to be able to sit next to Jim so I could see these images that he came up with. And it always blew my head off. He was always given like; "okay, Jim, here's here's the title to this album. We need a album cover for it; it's called 'Jailbreak', right?" Now. I don't know how he came up with the image that he did, but I guess he was shot some liner notes on the back that got a little science fictiony, so he took all that on board and he just came up with this epic figure, this overlord kind of guy that's holding this electric ball or whatever. It was just amazing.
You recently told me that 'Johnny the Fox' [1976] is your favourite cover that he did.
He did the same thing on 'Johnny the Fox', with the Irish borders, and all that is really intricately done with this sort of shadowed wolf figure. You're looking over this, what I seem to think it's like almost like Las Vegas, or Chicago or something like that, just the atmosphere in that picture was just incredible. He kept doing it time after time after time; 'Black Rose' [1979], it's a simple idea; It's just a black rose, it's got blood drops on it, and the funny thing is, he said,; "I had the hardest time with 'Black Rose', because I would actually paint this black rose and it started to just look like a blob, a black blob". He said; "that's why I had to go with a more purple kind of colouring; to give out the different layers in the rose petals and all that". I go; "that's interesting", so I'm kind of feeding off Jim, getting tips on what he does, and so yeah, I was so grateful for Jim and what he said about what I'm doing with art. so thank you, Jim Fitzpatrick.
His work is obviously really iconic. Didn't he submit a cover idea for 'Thunder and Lightning' [1983] that wasn't used?
Now that's a good point. I can't remember him actually drawing a 'Thunder and Lightning', and I can't for the life of me understand why we would not want to use it. I mean, we've used everything else and fell in love with it. We'll have to make a phone call to Jim and see what he says on that!
Moving on, I wanted to ask you about the single 'Dedication', which was released on the five year anniversary of Phil Lynott's passing; how did that all come together?
The record company found the demo of 'Dedication', and they said they were thinking of putting it on this compilation album ['Dedication: The Very Best of Thin Lizzy', 1991], and I thought; "okay, well let me have a listen to this." I listened to it and you could tell it was a demo, oh my god, you could really tell. I mean, things were a little out of tune here, but Phil's vocal was great, his bass playing was great, but a little out of tune guitars are, or there's a missed drumbeat here or there, right? And I said; "let me go in and rerecord just a basic track, and I'll put the lead guitar down and all that", right? I had Brian Downey come in do the basic track with me, and I did the lead lead guitar bits, but the funny thing is, it wasn't finished. This song wasn't finished, and I came in the next day and the record company had gone down and taken the tape; "that's it, we can't spend any more money on this", you know? "It's done. It's good enough", right!? Which kind of, you know; "what's going on?!" It kind of cheesed me off a little bit, but it worked out well. Like you say it's a good song, and I I love what Phil did, and I love what everybody did on it, so yeah, I'm glad you brought that up.
There was talk of Gary Moore being involved with that track.
I can't remember him being involved at all on that one. You know, I've tried to give credit where credit's due on everything that Thin Lizzy has done.
It's one of the lost and Lizzy tracks, and I know Laurence Archer co-wrote that.
Yeah, and he's a good player too.
There's a few tracks that fall into that category like 'Killer on the Loose' and 'Chinatown'.
You know, you're absolutely right there. I mean, the catalogue is so damn huge with Thin Lizzy of possible songs that we could play. I mean, we could literally be up there for three, three and a half, even four hours playing those songs! So really at rehearsal, you're picking these stack of songs that you think are going to be more fan favourites than maybe other ones. Sometimes we miss one. Like you just said, you just reeled off four there that like, oh, yeah, you're right there, there are those!
I wanted to touch on 21 Guns. The debut album 'Salute' was released in 1992; did grunge kill the chance 21 Guns had?
Killed us stone dead. I mean, it just killed us, right? As soon as those kinds of records came out. people like me and you know, the more expensive production kind of thing got pushed in the background. People wanted a more natural, garage kind of sound, and I got that. I felt a lot of times that you know, that's what Thin Lizzy was; more like a garage kind of thing until later on when we spent more money on production. But yeah, it was amazing, because I love that album. We all put our heart and soul into that album and we felt we had come up with a really good piece of work, and nothing happened with it. I think it sold maybe 100,000 copies or something like that - which isn't that bad - but still, we were kind of hoping for more. So thanks, Kurt Cobain! [laughing!]
The follow up 'Nothing's Real' [1997] was even better, but hardly anyone heard it as it only received a limited release.
There's a lot of songs of that album I was really sorry that a lot of people wouldn't be able to hear. It's one of those things in life where you put so much work into something and you feel that this is really going to be great and hopefully people are going to love this thing, and then the rug gets pulled under your feet and it's kind of over with. I remember going to the record company, because that was an American record, right? I remember going to the record company in England, and a couple of the A&R guys are going; "yeah, you have to stick with just the promoters in America. I mean, the sound is a little too American for over here." And I thought, Is that such a thing? Being 'too American'? You categorise music like that? So I didn't actually get that one.
Around that period you recorded the song 'I'm Alive' with Adrian Smith on the Psycho Motel album 'Welcome to the World'; what was it like working with him?
I'm a big Adrian Smith fan. He showed me the demos of that album he was going to record and I listened to his voice. I said; "Adrian, why aren't you singing in Iron Maiden? Be the singer!" He's got a great voice, you know? Forget about being a great guitar player - which he is - this guy can sing! And he said to me, he said; "no, that's WAY too much pressure, way too much being the frontman, you know, having to talk everybody every single night. No, no no, I'm good with just playing guitar." And I kind of got that because watching Phil every night, the way he could shrink the audience, no matter how big the arena was, he could shrink it down and include everybody into it, and that's a real art form to be able to do something like that. It takes a long time for most frontmen to learn how to do that, so I got what Adrian was saying, but I still think Adrian Smith ought to get out there and do a little more recording and do more singing.
Speaking of a little more recording, is the guitar put down for good now? Are you going to be getting out there again, either with Thin Lizzy or something on your own, or is it all about the art now?
I want to try to make it fifty / fifty; fifty percent art, fifty percent music. I don't think I can ever really actually put the guitar down. Oh, I think I would get too depressed if I did something like that! I would love to put Lizzy back together again, but the problem is, the whole COVID thing just put up a huge slash into everybody's ideas of how we were going to progress, because everybody that I want to be in that band representing Thin Lizzy, they're all in extremely well known bands. They're out on the road, because they were off the road for like, two years, you know? So was I, but this is their band that pays the mortgage and pays the food bills and all that, so I've got to understand all that, and I do. So I have to wait a little while longer until all that calms down and maybe some of these guys are off the road and feel comfortable about spending more time on the road with me. In the past it has been pretty easy, but like I say that damn COVID, that really put a kink in that armour. So, hopefully maybe next year, and I would love to bring this over to Ireland if at all possible.
We've barely scratched the surface here, but our time is running out! We've not even even mentioned the recording of 'Jailbreak', for example!
I don't even know if I can remember that! You know, I'm doing a book right now with Omnibus Publications, and the guy who's the journalist who's writing is a Thin Lizzy fan, so I have to kind of rely on him; "so chronologically, how did that go!?", you know, and he'll tell me; "oh, that's right!", because it's been like, fifty years ago, so you can't remember all of it. So I'm glad to have him on my side there to remind me about certain things.
Is that for an autobiography?
Yeah, he's writing it. I think it's it's tentatively titled 'The Guy on the Left'.
What was Brian Robertson really like to work with?
You know, we've talked about that a lot in the book. I'm trying to make everybody understand that Brian Robertson was a really good friend of mine, and it was he and Phil that just couldn't get along. You know, they're just butting heads all the time, and you knew at some point this whole thing was just going to blow up between those two guys right? And I was always the referee; "alright, come on guys! Let's keep it apart here. Let's keep it clean". I was that guy, but after a while, poor old Brian, as much as I loved him, just kind of did that one thing too many, and I couldn't defend him any longer and he was gone. So it's a shame. He's was such a great player.
What's in your immediate future; are you going to be doing some more artwork?
What you've got to remember, I've been doing this for 40 years now, so I've got a whole library of stuff. The six that are on the website is just kind of just to show everybody what this guy can do, what the style is, and all that. We're just now talking about putting another couple of pieces on the website in different forms, in different sizes and all that. Right now, I've got the feeling that some of them were a little too big, and maybe a little too pricey for some people, so we're going to bring the sizes down and with the price too, so everybody can jump in and have a good time with them.
For more on Scott Gorham's art, and to purchase prints, visit scottgorhamworld.com.
Killed us stone dead. I mean, it just killed us, right? As soon as those kinds of records came out. people like me and you know, the more expensive production kind of thing got pushed in the background. People wanted a more natural, garage kind of sound, and I got that. I felt a lot of times that you know, that's what Thin Lizzy was; more like a garage kind of thing until later on when we spent more money on production. But yeah, it was amazing, because I love that album. We all put our heart and soul into that album and we felt we had come up with a really good piece of work, and nothing happened with it. I think it sold maybe 100,000 copies or something like that - which isn't that bad - but still, we were kind of hoping for more. So thanks, Kurt Cobain! [laughing!]
The follow up 'Nothing's Real' [1997] was even better, but hardly anyone heard it as it only received a limited release.
There's a lot of songs of that album I was really sorry that a lot of people wouldn't be able to hear. It's one of those things in life where you put so much work into something and you feel that this is really going to be great and hopefully people are going to love this thing, and then the rug gets pulled under your feet and it's kind of over with. I remember going to the record company, because that was an American record, right? I remember going to the record company in England, and a couple of the A&R guys are going; "yeah, you have to stick with just the promoters in America. I mean, the sound is a little too American for over here." And I thought, Is that such a thing? Being 'too American'? You categorise music like that? So I didn't actually get that one.
Around that period you recorded the song 'I'm Alive' with Adrian Smith on the Psycho Motel album 'Welcome to the World'; what was it like working with him?
I'm a big Adrian Smith fan. He showed me the demos of that album he was going to record and I listened to his voice. I said; "Adrian, why aren't you singing in Iron Maiden? Be the singer!" He's got a great voice, you know? Forget about being a great guitar player - which he is - this guy can sing! And he said to me, he said; "no, that's WAY too much pressure, way too much being the frontman, you know, having to talk everybody every single night. No, no no, I'm good with just playing guitar." And I kind of got that because watching Phil every night, the way he could shrink the audience, no matter how big the arena was, he could shrink it down and include everybody into it, and that's a real art form to be able to do something like that. It takes a long time for most frontmen to learn how to do that, so I got what Adrian was saying, but I still think Adrian Smith ought to get out there and do a little more recording and do more singing.
Speaking of a little more recording, is the guitar put down for good now? Are you going to be getting out there again, either with Thin Lizzy or something on your own, or is it all about the art now?
I want to try to make it fifty / fifty; fifty percent art, fifty percent music. I don't think I can ever really actually put the guitar down. Oh, I think I would get too depressed if I did something like that! I would love to put Lizzy back together again, but the problem is, the whole COVID thing just put up a huge slash into everybody's ideas of how we were going to progress, because everybody that I want to be in that band representing Thin Lizzy, they're all in extremely well known bands. They're out on the road, because they were off the road for like, two years, you know? So was I, but this is their band that pays the mortgage and pays the food bills and all that, so I've got to understand all that, and I do. So I have to wait a little while longer until all that calms down and maybe some of these guys are off the road and feel comfortable about spending more time on the road with me. In the past it has been pretty easy, but like I say that damn COVID, that really put a kink in that armour. So, hopefully maybe next year, and I would love to bring this over to Ireland if at all possible.
We've barely scratched the surface here, but our time is running out! We've not even even mentioned the recording of 'Jailbreak', for example!
I don't even know if I can remember that! You know, I'm doing a book right now with Omnibus Publications, and the guy who's the journalist who's writing is a Thin Lizzy fan, so I have to kind of rely on him; "so chronologically, how did that go!?", you know, and he'll tell me; "oh, that's right!", because it's been like, fifty years ago, so you can't remember all of it. So I'm glad to have him on my side there to remind me about certain things.
Is that for an autobiography?
Yeah, he's writing it. I think it's it's tentatively titled 'The Guy on the Left'.
What was Brian Robertson really like to work with?
You know, we've talked about that a lot in the book. I'm trying to make everybody understand that Brian Robertson was a really good friend of mine, and it was he and Phil that just couldn't get along. You know, they're just butting heads all the time, and you knew at some point this whole thing was just going to blow up between those two guys right? And I was always the referee; "alright, come on guys! Let's keep it apart here. Let's keep it clean". I was that guy, but after a while, poor old Brian, as much as I loved him, just kind of did that one thing too many, and I couldn't defend him any longer and he was gone. So it's a shame. He's was such a great player.
What's in your immediate future; are you going to be doing some more artwork?
What you've got to remember, I've been doing this for 40 years now, so I've got a whole library of stuff. The six that are on the website is just kind of just to show everybody what this guy can do, what the style is, and all that. We're just now talking about putting another couple of pieces on the website in different forms, in different sizes and all that. Right now, I've got the feeling that some of them were a little too big, and maybe a little too pricey for some people, so we're going to bring the sizes down and with the price too, so everybody can jump in and have a good time with them.
For more on Scott Gorham's art, and to purchase prints, visit scottgorhamworld.com.
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