Eric Bell: "When I left Thin Lizzy it was a very dark time for me"

On New Year’s Eve 1973, a little over a year after Thin Lizzy’s first hit single ‘Whiskey In The Jar’, Eric Bell famously walked off stage halfway through a show at Queen’s University Belfast, leaving the band the following day.

Now, at the age of 77, Bell has recorded a unique acoustic album that reimagines iconic songs from Thin Lizzy’s first three albums, layered with Phil Lynott’s original vocal takes and Brian Downey’s authentic drum tracks.

Did he ever imagine when he left the band that he would be recording a new Thin Lizzy album in his seventies?

“Not at all,” he asserts. “After I left, I thought Thin Lizzy might have lasted for about another three years. It’s unbelievable that it’s still such a popular band.”

His sudden departure at just 26 was steeped in sadness, as Eric was struggling with mental health issues, mixed with drug and alcohol abuse. Was the recording of this album a healing and redemptive experience for him?

“When I left Thin Lizzy it was a very dark time for me,” he reflects. “Why would someone leave a band that was becoming famous? Everything I worked for was on a plate for me, but I was just away with the fairies. The usual stuff, alcohol and drugs. A very unhealthy lifestyle. Some of the tracks did bring back some of the black memories.”

Leaving the band wasn’t an easy decision for Eric.

“When I left school, I hadn’t a clue what I wanted to do,” he notes. “I hated the 9 to 5 world, I just couldn’t fit in. I had about fourteen jobs. I wanted to make my living out of playing the guitar and I still do that. It’s part of me, it’s what I do. It’s what I’ve wanted all my life.”

Being back in the studio and making this Thin Lizzy record must have brought back a myriad of memories.

“Especially because you’re hearing Philip’s voice and Brian’s drumming,” he nods. “You’re whisked back in your imagination to those days, particularly when we recorded the first album at Decca. We used a lot of acoustic guitars then. Never on stage but in the studio, so that brought it back to me as well.”

But Eric Bell wasn’t the only one getting caught up with drink and drugs. When he started to struggle with his mental health, did he ever open up to Phillip and Brian about his issues?

“No. They didn’t give a shit to be honest with you,” he laughs.

On his upcoming solo album Authenticity, Eric reflects on that lonesome time.

“The last track on my new album is called ‘Away With The Fairies,” he explains. “There’s a line at the very end of the song where I sing, ‘Last cry for help / Nobody there’. I was going through hell on earth at that point in time. Everything was just slowly falling apart. I don’t know why I actually didn’t say to Brian and Philip, ‘Listen I think I’m going slightly mad’.

“They didn’t want to know to be honest with you. It was every man for himself. The management knew I was going through a very hard time, but they didn’t have the money in those days to put me into a clinic to get me sorted out. I was on my own basically, trying to get myself together and I couldn’t. In that environment it just didn’t work.”

While the music industry has made some improvements in terms of looking after artists, Eric wasn’t one of the lucky ones.

“These days, if some manger had a new boy band and one of the guys was into cocaine or whatever, the manager calls him aside and says, ‘Listen, you’re going to mess your career up. We’re going to book you into a clinic for a few weeks.’ But that didn’t happen in my day. It was a different thing completely.”

Living through such desperate times at a young age, it’s hard to believe that Eric would be releasing albums in his seventies, and Phil Lynott would be dead at 36.

“I know, and my old friend Gary Moore as well,” he says. “That’s why I left. It was that serious for me. I knew that if I had stayed, I’d either be a junkie, an alcoholic or dead – one of the three. It was staring me straight in the face. Get out of there.”

Eric plays a special tribute to Gary Moore on Thin Lizzy Acoustic Sessions, with ‘Slow Blues GM’.

“I had an album out called Exile after Gary passed,” he recalls. “There didn’t seem to be a fuss made of him at that point and I thought, god almighty I’ve got to do something for this guy. I decided to write a blues instrumental and then I thought no, I should do a bit more than that. So I ended up talking through this track called, ‘Song For Gary’.

Although Gary Moore stepped into Eric’s shoes when he left Thin Lizzy, their connection goes much further back.

“I met Gary when he was 11 years of age,” he says. “His Dad used to run a little rock and blues club in Holywood in Northern Ireland every week. I was with a band from Belfast called The Deltones and we were booked to play in Gary’s Dad’s club.

“We turned up, messed around, did a soundcheck and Gary was there, a little chubby bloke. Gary got up with his band, The Beat Boys, and I stood and watched him. He was a really shit-hot little guitar player for 11 years of age! We started talking after the gig and we became friends. I’d go and watch him, he’d go and watch me. He was a great guy.”

Eric reflects further on Gary.

“A lot of people thought he was this, that and the other, but he wasn’t with me,” he continues. “He had a great sense of humour – he was a great musician with lots of energy. Everything about him was positive as far as I was concerned. We used to hang about together quite a lot. Especially at gigs in London.

“I was with Noel Redding at one point and he wanted to meet Noel because of Hendrix. So I introduced him to Noel and he would introduce me to people like Jon Hiseman. When I was living in London, Gary was living in Brighton, and I would go down and stay with him for a few days, which was really nice.”

Other stripped-back highlights on the album include, ‘Shades Of A Blue Orphanage’, ‘Dublin’ and ‘Mama Nature Said’.

“Trying to forget everything I played on the electric guitar, and then play something different on acoustic, it was a bit of a challenge, you know,” Eric admits.

While Decca had the hard job of selecting which songs went on the album, were there any tracks Eric would have liked to have seen on there that didn’t make the cut?

“Yeah, ‘Vagabonds Of The Western World’ would be one, and maybe ‘Baby Face’.”

Eric still plays his old Thin Lizzy Stratocaster at home every day. Did he use an acoustic guitar from that era on this album?

“No, I brought my own in, but I don’t think they went for the one I had,” he says. “I tried these three acoustics anyway, and picked the one with the nicest tone, the one that was easiest to play. Then they put the track on and I more or less just ad-libbed on the spot.”

Eric’s guitar skills and his contribution to Irish music were rightly recognised last November, when he received the Legend Award at the Northern Irish Music Prize.

“I was totally knocked out,” he says. “It was amazing. A real surprise. I was very chuffed about the whole thing. To be recognised in your own hometown was a nice feeling.”

Speaking of Belfast, pre-Thin Lizzy, Eric served a short stint in Van Morrison’s band Them. Was he a tough taskmaster?

“Absolutely!” acknowledges Eric. “I remember the first rehearsal we had. He gave me his first few albums and told me what tracks to learn and one of them was 'Gloria'. At the very first rehearsal, I’m there, the bass player is there, the drummer is there. About 10 minutes later, Van walks in and just stands in front of the microphone and says, ‘Right. Let’s try ‘Gloria’.

“So we started playing ‘Gloria’ and I thought he was never going to sing, he just stood there in front of the mic. Then he started singing and we carried on, and at one point he said, ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute’. He came over to me and said, ‘You’re supposed to fucking shout it’. I thought, ‘Will I tell him to stuff his band or will I stay?’ And I thought, ‘No, stay for a while.’ He was in his own world, you know, no doubt about it…”

2024 was a big year for fellow Belfast natives Kneecap. I ask Eric what he makes of them.

“I don’t know who that is. I’m a tyrannosaurus rex,” he laughs. “But best of luck to anybody out there that’s trying to do something. The only thing I could say to people would be to do your own thing, no matter what anyone else says.

“You’re gonna get some of these so-called managers and agents that’ll come to you and say, ‘You should do this, you should do that’. I would ignore them completely and do your own thing, but work at it as if your life depended on it. Then you’re in with as good a chance as anyone else.”

After all these years, why is it that Thin Lizzy continue to resonate with young people? What makes them so special?

“Obviously me”, Eric jokes. “For a start, Philip’s image on stage. It took him a long time to get there, but he did it, he had a fabulous stage image. He was a great songwriter and great singer. He had a lot going for him. There were two Thin Lizzys I think. The one I was in, the three-piece, and then Scott and Brian, the twin guitar set up. They were excellent, but a different band.

“It’s like we were ahead of our time. People love those first three albums now, but sometimes I’d say, ‘Where the fuck were you when they first came out? We could have used your backing then.’ But now they’re being dug up and brought back to life.

“Regardless of the two Thin Lizzys, there’s definitely something there from both line-ups that just seems to appeal to a lot of people. I thought it would have been over years ago. I sometimes think about the amount of bands that were about in the ‘60s and ‘70s, that had loads of hit records, who were in magazines and fan clubs, and you never hear of them. They’re gone, yet Thin Lizzy 50 years later is still so fresh.”

Along with Thin Lizzy Acoustic Sessions, Eric is expected to release a solo album soon, followed by a string of live dates with the Eric Bell Trio, and a guest appearance in Moonlight, the theatre production about Phil Lynott.

“I come out at the very start of the show,” he says. “There’s an amplifier and guitar on the stage, and I’m on my own, and the spotlight comes on. I play the intro to ‘Whiskey In The Jar’ and talk to the audience for a few minutes.”

Moonlight was created by John Merrigan and Danielle Morgan, who also produced Vengeance: The Demise Of Oscar Wilde and Brendan - Son Of Dublin.

“He already did two productions about Brendan Behan and Oscar Wilde, and he thought the third one should be about Philip, because he’s a Dublin poet as well,” says Eric. “John has been really decent and he said, ‘We’d be honoured if you would take part’. I said, ‘Absolutely mate. I’d love to. They’ve got a guy that looks like Philip and sings like him, so it should be quite a thing.”

Eric Bell presented with the Oh Yeah Legend award at the NI Music Prize 2024

Having co-founded one of the greatest bands of all time 55 years ago, Eric Bell has no intention of putting his guitar down and retiring.

“It’s keeping my health and my energy flowing,” he says. “I know some great musicians and they’ve got arthritis and rheumatism – once you get that, it’s downhill. It’s difficult to play. I try to keep myself together. I practice and fight the good fight.

“That flu thing I had a few weeks ago, god almighty, I thought it was over at one point. You can’t help thinking, ‘Is this it? Is the good lord calling?!’ What a trip the whole thing is…”

Thin Lizzy Acoustic Sessions is out now on physical formats – and will be released digitally on May 9.