In a new interview with eonmusic about his new album Authenticity, guitarist Eric Bell has detailed the mental health crisis that caused him to quit Thin Lizzy at the then height of their popularity. He also discussed his appearance with Metallica on stage in Dublin in 1999, and how the band left him standing on the side of a runway without paying him.
Speaking about the songs “Tales Of Thin Lizzy” and “Away With The Fairies”, which are taken from his new album, Bell said; “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.”
Speaking about his final gig with Thin Lizzy on New Year’s Eve in Belfast, Bell revealed it was a cry for help, but that it went unanswered. “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.”
Elsewhere, Eric detailed his performance with Metallica at Dublin’s Point Theatre in 1999. “They had a private plane and everything, we flew over to Dublin, and I was sitting in the changing room for like, two hours. Then the other thing was, they tuned the guitars down a whole tone, and I thought; ‘fuck that! I’m not going to do that!’ It would be like a banjo. 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.
Going on to detail the absentmindedness that led to him not getting paid for his services, Bell continued, “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!’”
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Speaking about the songs “Tales Of Thin Lizzy” and “Away With The Fairies”, which are taken from his new album, Bell said; “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.”
Speaking about his final gig with Thin Lizzy on New Year’s Eve in Belfast, Bell revealed it was a cry for help, but that it went unanswered. “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.”
Elsewhere, Eric detailed his performance with Metallica at Dublin’s Point Theatre in 1999. “They had a private plane and everything, we flew over to Dublin, and I was sitting in the changing room for like, two hours. Then the other thing was, they tuned the guitars down a whole tone, and I thought; ‘fuck that! I’m not going to do that!’ It would be like a banjo. 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.
Going on to detail the absentmindedness that led to him not getting paid for his services, Bell continued, “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!’”
The post ERIC BELL Remembers His Final Show With THIN LIZZY – “Throwing My Guitar Up In The Air And Kicking The Amps Off The Stage…” appeared first on BraveWords - Where Music Lives.
Continue reading...