Another hotel room, another interview, but oddly enough, after nearly four years in this paper, my first formal encounter with our own Philip Lynott.
Another hotel room, another interview, but oddly enough, after nearly four years in this paper, my first formal encounter with our own Philip Lynott, a man whose work I've celebrated and despaired over in roughly equal proportions down the years. The evening interview is taking place in Cork city, where Thin Lizzy will later play to a thronged and jubilantly partisan audience in the local City Hall. For my part, it's an opportune moment to converse with Lynott, given that I believe the Renegade album - released at the tail-end of '81 - to be a stirring return to form, both for Lynott as a writer, and for Lizzy as a re-organised, revitalised, creative and playing concern.
Despite the unwelcome attentions of a sore throat - which had, by his own admission, played havoc with his singing during the previous night's gig in Athy - Lynott is in a receptive mood, and patently eager to talk. By way of getting into it I ask him about the reference to the prophesies of Nostradamus on Renegade's opening track, 'Angel Of Death'. An unsettling song, the ideas it expresses bordering on fatalism, I suggest.
"I personally do believe there is a Great Unknown," gasps Lynott between another coughing fit. "Satan, cults, UFOs, I pack the whole lot together. I thought Nostradamus was very near the mark, he must have scratched the nerve somewhere. How he did it, I don't know. But basically, myself, I'm a very practical person, I live day to day. So I don't go too far into it, I could find myself like, y'know, the Don Juan of Crumlin (laughs). My saving grace, or my cop out if you like is when I say in the song 'Do you believe in this?' So the listener has the option. Like, Chris Tsangrides who co-produced the album went to Canada where the album has really taken off, and this geezer said to him, y'know, 'Is it tongue in cheek'. And Chris says, 'An album costing £60,000 to make. Do you think it's tongue in cheek?' But then he said, 'Knowing Phil Lynott, it could be.'"
The prophesy around which the song is based refers to an apocalypse in the late 20th century, and regardless of whether you place any credence in Nostradamus' predictions or not - and personally, I don't - there exists, in the here and now, the very real threat of a holocaust resulting from the senseless stockpiling of nuclear arms. Lynott believes that the song does have a genuine value in the present context.
"I do feel that something can be done," he says. "I think one of the best tactics that can be used is fear. Y'know like on the telly they show people going through car windows, they smash eggs and say 'This could be you' and people do go 'Hey, I've got to wear a safety belt.' Shock tactics, I did it with 'Killer On The Loose', which got misinterpreted. But, yeah, I am an optimist. I mean, I've got two children."
The response from pressure groups who alleged that 'Killer On The Loose' virtually glamorised rape, is something that still irks Lynott.
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