Latest / DISGRACELAND / Thin Lizzy: Gangsters, Drugs, Punks and St. Patrick

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Thin Lizzy: Gangsters, Drugs, Punks and St. Patrick · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Please check the show notes for more information. Disgraceland is
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: a production of Double Elvis. This is a story about
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: a rock stars, rock star and his band. A band
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: that made Ireland proud, a band that makes me want
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: to drive fast and break things. A band that some
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: of you, for some reason, think I hate, but I don't.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: A band born belly up in a bar filled with
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: bad men. A band who never really broke in America
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: the way they should have. A band named Thin Lizzie,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: A band that made great music, unlike that music I
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: played for you at the top of the show that
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from my
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: melotron called roll me over and do what Now? MK two.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: I played you that loop because I can't afford the
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: rights to December nineteen sixty three, Oh What a Night
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: by the Four Seasons? And why would I play you
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: that specific slice of Jersey Boys Cheese? Could I afford it?
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Because that was the number one song in America on
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: March twenty sixth, nineteen seventy six, And that was the
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: day that Thin Lizzie released their sixth studio album Jailbreak,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: featuring the hit single the Boys Are Back in Talent,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: a song that changed everything for them, for better and
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: for worse. On this special Saint Patrick's Day episode a
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: rock Stars, rock Star, Bad bad Man in the Pride
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: of Ireland, Thin Lizzie, I'm Jake Brennan and this this
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: this great sign. You're Saint Patrick, the primary patron Saint
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: of Ireland. You're the reason why barb An Accounting Where's
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Green to the office each year on March seventeenth. You're
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: also the reason why on that same day, the lad's
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: knock back pints of guinness down at the pub at
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: an ungodly hour, typically frowned upon for drinking. But although
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: people around the world drunkenly celebrate you once a year,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: they don't really know you. They don't know that you're
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: not even Irish, or that your name isn't actually Patrick,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: your real name is Mainwin or something. But it doesn't matter.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: The point here is that you, Saint Patrick, are not
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: who everyone thinks you. They don't know that you were
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: born in Britain, or that when you were a teenager
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: around four hundred and eighty ars so you were kidnapped
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: by pirates who took you to Ireland and made you
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: a slave. You toiled in the fields as a shepherd
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: boy for six long years, and then the voices started,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: voices inside your head. They told you to leave this place,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: flee your captors, make a break for it, and go
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: back to the motherland. And so you did. For two
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: hundred miles straight. You ran. Your chest was pounding, your
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: knees were weak. You made it to the Irish coast,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: where you convinced a group of sailors till you board
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: their boat headed to Britain, but the seas were too rough.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: The vessel shipwrecked near the coast of France. You were
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: starving and the food was all gone, so the sailors
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: began to pray. And this is when you found out
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: that the sailors were Pagans, because they were praying to
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: their pagan gods, which got you all buckus. They turned
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: to you and they said, hey, why don't you try
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: praying to your Christian God. So you did, and do
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: you know what happened? Suddenly a herd of pigs appeared
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: out of nowhere, which you, for one, were thankful for
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: because it meant you no longer had to worry about
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: becoming a meal for a boat full of starving heathens.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Hold up, did this really happen? Did Saint Patrick pray
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: pigs into existence? Probably not. But this is where the
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: larger than the life myth of Saint Patrick begins, a
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  Speaker 1: myth which includes the story of how he later returned
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  Speaker 1: to Ireland, this time not as a slave, but as
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: an apostle to preach the good word, fight for the
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: end of human bondage, and drive all the snakes out
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: of the country. And since it's likely that Ireland never
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: actually had snakes in the first place, that part of
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: the story, just like the pigs thing, it probably isn't
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: true either. But if Saint Patrick didn't drive out actual snakes,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: he did drive out demons from Ireland, real demons, namely
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: through his work as an anti slavery activist. Thus, Saint
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Patrick's spirit and legend loom large, just like a forty
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: seven foot statue of him now looms large on the
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  Speaker 1: western coast of Ireland. These days, it takes about three
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: and a half hours to drive from that huge statue
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: of Saint Patrick all the way across to the opposite
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  Speaker 1: side of the island, specifically to Dublin, where a different
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  Speaker 1: statue celebrates a different patron. Saint of Ireland Philip Linett,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: lead singer, bassist in the primary songwriter for the band
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  Speaker 1: Thin Lizzie, which formed right there in Ireland's capital back
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty nine. Like Saint Patrick, Phil Leneck was
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: born in Britain and later came to Ireland, in this
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: case at seven years old. But unlike Saint Patrick, Phil
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: was Irish on his mother's side. Phil's father, who left
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: when Phil was born, was from British Guiana. So, as
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: Phil said in his own words, he was Irish, and
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: he was black, and he was a bastard, which meant
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: from the jump growing up he had cultural, social, and
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: even psychological barriers that made his personal struggle unique. He
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: once said that if he couldn't make it as a singer,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: as a rock star, well then he couldn't make it period.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Phil was motivated by these insecurities, just as Saint Patrick
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: was motivated by those voices in his head. And I
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: believe it's those insecurities that inform Phil's code as a
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: professional musician, a code which insisted that one you always
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: be professional, two you never lose your cool, and three
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: you always remain in control, which is why in the
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: early nineteen seventies, when Thin Lizzie was starting to make
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: their mark, Phil Lynett kept his transgressions out of the
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: public eye at a tucked away joint that only those
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: in the know knew about. Oppa set of backstairs, passed
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: some tough geezers standing lookout, and finally passing through the
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: door into a place called the show Biz. The show
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Biz or the Biz if you're into that whole brevity
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: thing was an after hour his bar attached to a
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: hotel in Manchester, owned and operated by Phil Linet's mother, Philhimina.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Inside you get to rub elbows with the so called
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Quality Street Gang, a loose collection of scrappers and safecrackers,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: used car salesmen and other con artists. Guys with pickled
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: faces and long rap sheets, the kind who may or
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: may not have a concealed weapons smuggled into their fancy
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: tailored suit. On any given night at the Biz, you'd
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: run into guys like Jimmy the Weed, named so because well,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: he grew on you. Jimmy the Weed was an underworld zelig,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: busted for fraud, for drugs, even for murder, but somehow
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: eluding conviction every time. And then there were the local
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: heroes like George Best, a legendary Irish footballer a winger
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: for Man United. It was this crowd of famous and
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: infamous faces that Phil Line and his Thin Lizzie bandmates
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: guitarist Eric Bell and drummer Brian Downey were hanging out
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: with on one particular evening in nineteen seventy two. Just
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: hours earlier, they'd performed as the opening act for the
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: popular glam rock band Slade. While Phil thought that then
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Lizzie's set had been pretty good, he was shocked when,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: just minutes after they finished, Slade's manager, Chaz Chandler, was
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: all up in his face. Normally Phil would welcome such
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: an interaction, seeing as Chazz had previously served as Jimmy
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Hendrix's manager, and to Phil, Jimmy was a god. But
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Chaz Chandler was not in a compliment giving mood. In fact,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: Chaz was pissed the fuck was that. He asked Phil that,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: of course, referring to Thin Lizzie set, you're here to
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: wake the crowd up, not put them asleep anymore. That
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: ho hum bullshit on stage and you're off the tour.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Phil then carefully watched Slade's headlining set, focusing specifically on
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: the group's front man, Naughty Holder, his flashy manner of dress,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: his wild charisma, every move calculated to put the audience
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: in a fist pumping trance, and he understood exactly what
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Chaz was saying up there, and simply playing the songs
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: wasn't enough. Bowie knew this, Rod the Bod knew this,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: and now Phil Lyne did too, just like he knew
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: that to truly succeed, he and Thin Lizzie would have
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: to do better than Whiskey in the Jar, their version
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: of an old folk song that was currently sitting at
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  Speaker 1: number one on the charts in Ireland. It was the
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: band's first bona fide hit, but Phil thought it was
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: a joke. It was kind of a novelty song. Wasn't
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: even his song. Phil's own songs reflected his life, and
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: Whiskey in the Jar was not his life, not like
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: his mother's Hush Hush Bar, the Biz and the men
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: who haunted it, the quality street gang. Sitting there in
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Manchester's best kept secret, he looked around the room, this
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: little speakeasy sorts overrun with footballers, gangsters, actors from hip
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: British television soaps, Jimmy the Weed in the Corner making
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: Man united to George Best nearly snort logger out of
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: his nose with a joke. And it was at this
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  Speaker 1: moment that the Thin Lizzy we know now truly began
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: to take shame. Before I go any further, I need
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: to clear something up. I have no idea how this
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: rumor started online that I personally am not into Thin Lizzy,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: But nice work to all you guys, guys who have
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: been keeping the joke alive. It is ludicrous. I love
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Thin Lizzy, and I pretty much have from the first
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: moment I heard them. But don't take my word for it.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: Everyone from Huey Lewis to Sid Vicious loved Thin Lizzy.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: Phil Lynett even called both of those dudes his friends.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: And to paraphrase Henry Rawlins, there's a Thin Lizzy song
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  Speaker 1: for everything, whether your head over heels in love or
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: crushed halfway to death by breakup. Plus just look at them,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: or actually just look at Phil. The platonic ideal of
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: a rocker, high heeled boots, black leather pants, big hair,
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  Speaker 1: sharp mustache, mister Johnny Cool himself, those long legs spread
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: in a power stance, his Fender pe bass shooting straight
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: up in the air like a craw rocket. It's a
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: move that says this bass is a giant weapon, and
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: also this bass is a giant penis, which is about
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: his rock and roll as it gets. But again, it
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: didn't begin that way. It began when Jimmy Hendrix's former
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: manager Chas Chandler red Phil Line at the Riot Act.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: And then when Phil recognized that the true inspiration for
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: his biggest hits and thus the image of Thin Lizzie,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: those below the table badasses at the heart of incredible
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: songs like the Boys Are Back in Town and Jail Break,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: We're all sitting around him at his mother's tiny pup
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: in Manchester. And then when Thin Lizzie's original guitarist Eric Bell,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: exhausted from touring from the non stop partying the communal
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: house where the band lived, from the hamster wheel of
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: promotion to make the suits that Decca records happy, distraught
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: over his girlfriend running off to Canada with their young son,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: taking one too many bad trips himself, by which I
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: mean LSD getting paranoid, Eric finally melted down halfway through
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: a show in nineteen seventy three, threw his guitar on
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: the stage and quit the band. Eric Bell clearly was
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: unable to adhere to phill Line A's strict code. He
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: was not in control, and he most definitely lost his court.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: Phil on the other hand, was very much in control,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: which meant that he was the one who was left
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: to pick up the pieces, and he did because he
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: was built for this. He was born against all odds,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: and he didn't ask for help to do it, just
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: as he didn't ask for help back when he was
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: the only black kid in his school. This time he
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: got not one but two guitarists, and not for artistic reasons,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: but for insurance. When asked why he hired Brian Robertson
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: and Scott Gorm Scotsman in a Californian, respectively, to replace
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Eric Bell, Phil said, and I quote, the next time
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: one of those cunts walks out, there'll be another one there.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to be caught out again. Failure for
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: Phil Line was not an option. Remember, if he couldn't
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: make it as a singer, as a rock star, then
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: he couldn't make it period. The thing is. Phil Linet
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: had no idea that the choice he just made would
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: lay the groundwork for Thin Lizzy's breakthrough innovation and push
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: them higher than he ever could have imagined. If you
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: know Thinn Lizzie, you know what I'm talking about. That
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: harmonized twin guitar attack an integral part of Thin Lizzie's sound,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: which began on their fifth studio album, Fighting, released in
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy five. But the twin guitar thing wasn't planned.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: In fact, it was a mistake. It happened like this.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: Brian robertson Robbo was laying down his guitar part in
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: the studio, some nice melodic stuff, unaware that the engineer
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: had absentmindedly left an echo or delay effect on what
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: he was playing on guitar, so the guitar begins to
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: feedback on itself and thus harmonizing with itself. Scott's guitar
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: was harmonizing with Scott's guitar, and then when I start
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: hearing it in the playback, they're all freaking out. The
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: engineers like fuck. He leaps from his seat to fix
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: the issue, worried that he's gonna get his ass fired.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: But He's shocked when he hears the guys in the
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: band say no, man, don't touch anything that's awesome. This
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: is great, and thus was born in the process by
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: which Robbo and Scott wrote out harmonized lead guitar parts,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: which yeah, I know, weren't new at the time. The
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: Allman Brothers for Want had been doing it for a minute,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: but the way Thin Lizzie did it was fresh because
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: it truly was an attack, written and performed like duel
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: of switchblades. It snapped open in the middle of the song.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: This sound perfectly complimented Phil's songs about tough guys, about
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: cowboys and escaped inmates, powering the big hits on their
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: beloved nineteen seventy six album Jailbrey, both the aforementioned title
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: track and the Boys Are Back in Town, the band's
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: biggest hit in America, and Man, oh Man, what a
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: song When that song was climbing the charts in the
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: summer of seventy six. Then Lizzie were forced to cancel
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: the second half of their American tour, which was supposed
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: to finally break them in the States after seven long
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: years of making music. Instead, Phil Lynett, who had quickly
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: fallen under the spell of a sex, drugs, and rock
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: and roll lifestyle, looked in the mirror and saw that
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: his eyes had turned orange hepatitis. He told a friend
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: he probably got her from shooting up with a dirty needle,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: and though it should be noted, at this point, Phil
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: was merely dabbling in heroin, with cocaine, marijuana and alcohol
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: being more central to his drug diet regardless. Instead of
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: conquering America, Phil watched from a hospital bed in Manchester
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: as a pre taped performance of The Boys Are Back
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: in Town played on top of the Pops from a
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: tiny television set on the wall. While back in the
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: US the singles slow only slipped back down the charts
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: after peaking at number twelve. Just months later, it happened again.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: Thin Lizzy were set to conquer America a second time,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: only to once again be forced to cancel when Robo
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: got in a fight at a London nightclub, severing tendons
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: and an artery in his hand when he tried to
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: deflect a broken bottle. It seemed that Americans were destined
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: to never truly know Thin Lizzy. Breaking America, of course,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: was the dream of any band from across the pond,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: and for Thin Lizzy and Phil Line, it wrong plays,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: wrong time quickly became an unfortunate reality. Dublin, August twentieth,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven, hometown heroes Phil Line and Thin Lizzy
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: were back to headline the Capital of Ireland's first open
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: air rock festival. But that was tomorrow. Today or tonight
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: was Phil's twenty eighth birthday, and he was celebrating in
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: style at Castletownhouse, a lavish mansion owned by the Guinness family,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: specifically Esmond Guinness, second son of Brian, the famous brewer
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: and heir to the Guinness beer empire. But I digress.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: The doctors had told Phil to avoid these sorts of
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: environments where the booze and the coke floated like well,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: you can imagine the deluge of booze and coke and
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: a party happening at a Guinness mansion in nineteen seventy seven.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: It was simply too dangerous given the complications from his hepatitis.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: Phil however, didn't look to doctors as role models these days.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: He looked up to the great Freddie Mercury, whom Phil
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: had witnessed during a recent tour when thin Lizzy opened
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: for Freddy's band Queen Freddy was decadence in Carnie. The
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: hotel suites, the entourages, the willing enabled groupies, the piles
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: of illicit substances served on silver platters. Everything was bigger
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: for Freddie Mercury and Phil Lynett wanted to reach that
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: hallowed ground where Freddy and Queen now found themselves. Followed suit.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: In Freddy, Phil even saw a reflection of himself, someone
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: who had his own set of insecurities to overcome simply
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: based on who he was. Freddy's gave Phil confidence and hope,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: But any feelings of hope or of birthday joy were
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: suddenly dashed when the front door of the Castletown mansion
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: flew open into the party, barged the gardener at the
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: State Police Force of the Republic of Ireland. They were
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: here on a tip that they'd find musicians and thus drugs,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: and they did. A ton of blow and weed was seized.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: But one of the many things Phil Line had had
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: learned from a guy like Freddie Mercury was how to
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: keep your vice as a secret, which is how Phil
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: had managed to get someone else to hold onto his stash.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: The party when he was stopped and searched by the Garda.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: He was clean. Two days later, however, the headline on
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: the front of the Irish Independent newspaper read six held
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: in drugs raid on pop party, and none other than
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: Phil Lenett's name was right there in the mix. Phil
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: was furious. Was he using that night? Sure? But was
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: he holding? He wasn't that stupid, at least not on
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: that particular night. The police hadn't found anything, and now
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: here he was being branded public offender number one by
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: the press. He walked over to the paper's office and
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: paid a personal visit to the editor, whom he berated
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: in front of the entire staff. My grandmother saw that.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: He shouted, it's not fucking true what you printed. I
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: didn't have any fucking drugs. It was just as Freddy said,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: It was all about what you showed them, what they
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: saw the controlled narrative. Phil Lineing for one, locked down
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: his private life even as it began to spin out
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: of control. Behind locked doors, We'll be right back after
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: this word word word. Sid Vicious, bass player for the
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Sex Pistols, stumbled out of Phill Linett's bathroom with his
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: girlfriend Nancy sponge and hanging off his track mark Daram
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: behind them. They left their own blood splattered on the
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: bathroom wall. The junk was coursing through their veins, now
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: slowly animating them like stop motion skeletons. Down the hall
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: to the living room, where they collapsed on a couch
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: next to Phil, who was watching an old Elvis Presley
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: movie on a giant TV. Hey, Sid, Phil said himself
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: high on one substance or another at the moment, when
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: are you gonna let me show you a few things
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: on the base? Mate? Sid scrunched his face in disgust.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: I'm not interested in that crap. I'm in the fucking
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Sex Pistols. It was the summer of nineteen seventy eight,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: so actually Sid's math, or more likely, his mind, was off.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: The Pistols had broken up earlier that year after releasing
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: one studio record which sent shockwaves through the rock and
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: roll world. Things were changing, and changing fast, all because
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: of bands like the Sex Pistols taking the piss out
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: of the status quo. Phil Linett and Den Lizzie were
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: not exactly status quo when it came to rock and roll,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: but they were close enough. Phil knew that adaptation was
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: essential for survival. If you can't beat him, join them
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: in all that, which is how Phil found himself moonlighting
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: in the Greedy Bastards, a supergroup of sorts that featured
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: Sid Vicious, Steve Jones and Paul Cook from the Sex Pistols,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: plus Brian and Scott from Thin Lizzie, Bob Geldoff from
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Dublin's own Boomtown Rats, and more. They played sets at
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: places like the Electric Ballroom in Camden, and a version
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: of the group even appeared as the Greedies on Top
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: of the Pops. And it wasn't just the punks in
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: England who are taking a film over in America. In
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: New York City, Johnny Thunders was sitting in his room
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: at the Chelsea balancing some Heroin on his guitar pick
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: to kill time, waiting for his fix, and waiting on
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: a friend. That friend being Phil Lightning, who wound up
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: playing bass on a bunch of the tracks on Johnny's
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: classic nineteen seventy eight solo record So Alone The Thing Is.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Nineteen seventy eight was supposed to be huge for Thin
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: Lizzy Punks or No Punks. This is the year that
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: they released their double live album Live and Dangerous, a
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: record which not only featured Phil's very unpunked buddy Huey
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Lewis on harmonica, but is widely considered one of the
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: greatest live albums of all time. It was a huge
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: hit for the band, also number two on the UK chart.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: This is the kind of record you pull out when
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: the aliens land and they want to know what a
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: killer rock show sounded like in the nineteen seventies. Fuck
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: Brampton Comes Alive. Live and Dangerous has got the goods
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: as amazing as it is. However, Live and Dangerous by
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: Thin Lizzie has a dirty little secret, and I'm sorry
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: to be the one to tell you, but your favorite
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: live album probably shares the same secret, and it's this
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Live and Dangerous is not live, at least not entirely.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Here's what I mean. Thin Lizzie's producer, Tony Visconti, was
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: tasked with assembling a cohesive listening experience from a ton
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: of concert tapes taken from shows the band played throughout
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Europe and North America. A lot of live albums are
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: made this way. You cherry picked the best versions of
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: the songs you want to win from an entire tour,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: but Tony Visconti had a problem. The tapes were all
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: different speeds, different formats, and in various shades of quality.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: He couldn't edit together a consistent balance sound based solely
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: on what he had in his hands. So the solution
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: was to have Thin Lizzy come into the studio and
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: re record some of their parts. But once they started
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: the overdubbing process, they thought, well, instead of just re
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: recording the bass part or that vocal part, why not
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: re record the whole thing. By producer Tony Visconti's estimation,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: about fifty percent of Live and Dangerous is not live
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: and is therefore not dangerous, but instead it's a studio recreation.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: Some of the audience noise isn't even from Thin Lizzy shows,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: but instead from the tapes for David Bowie's so called
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: live album Stage, which Tony Visconti was also working on
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: at the time. The true backstory of Live and Dangerous
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: was just as much of a secret as was Phil
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: lein It's life. These days, no one on the outside
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: knew it, and many on the inside didn't either. But
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: in addition to cocaine to marijuana, Phil was continuing to
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: do more heroin or whatever he could get on tour.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: In New York, he checked in on Sid and Nancy
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: at the Chelsea Hotel while his limo driver drove up
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: to Harlem to score some dal hit, which he melted
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: down and shot up. Two weeks later, Nancy bled out
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: from a stab wound to her abdomen and the cops
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: fingered Sid for the job, but just a few months
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: later he was dead too. And the reason Phil's own
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: transgressions were never salacious front page news like his friends,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: and when they were like the bust at the Guinness Mansion,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: the reason he was so adamant to shut them down
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: was because of the strict code he lived by. He
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: was always professional, he never lost his cool, and he
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: was always in control. And now he was a family
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: man with a wife and two daughters. If someone wanted
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: to get at the real truth, the whole truth, that
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: had to come and get him. November nineteen eighty the
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: doorbell rang at one of Phil lene It's houses, not
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: the one in his beloved Ireland, but the one at
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: one eighty four Q Road, and took it to England,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: where he lived with his young family. He answered it
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: and was greeted by employees from the gas company, there
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: to carry out a routine inspection. Phil was confused. No
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: one had told him anything about an inspection, but it
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: was possible he'd missed the letter in the mail. These days,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: Phil had a lot more than usual on his mind,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: two small girls and a wife to provide for his
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: band than Lizzie constantly touring all over Europe, Australia and Japan,
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: despite their latest album, Chinatown, getting some of the most
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: lackluster reviews of their career. And last, but not least,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: was the constant turnover in the band, with Gary Moore
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: replacing Scott Robertson on guitar and then Gary replaced in
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: short order by Snowy White. Phil struggled to keep it
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: all together. He chalked up this gast thing as something
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: he'd overlooked and welcomed the men inside his home. They
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: began to look around, but not where the furnace or
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: the piping was. Phil watt as one of the men
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: walked into the master bedroom, which was odd. Suddenly, Phil
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: began to panic. Paranoia set in the kind of paranoia
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: that his old friend Eric Bell thin Lizzie's original guitarist
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: once experienced just before he threw his guitar to the
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: stage and walked away for good. But there was no
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: walking away from this for Phil. He was surrounded, and
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: not by gas men, but by Philip Line. Phili spun
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: around to see the so called gas man who'd entered
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: the master bedroom standing there. He was holding two wrap
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: packages of cocaine in one hand. In the other he
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: was holding a badge, not a gas man badge. These
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: guys were the drug squad. Philip linon the phony gas
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: man said again, you're under arrest. In addition to the
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: coke which had been stuffed into one of Phil's jackets,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: the narks found grass and Phil's Mercedes and a cannabis
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: plant growing inside his house, And that next summer, on
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: his thirty second birthday, August twentieth, nineteen eighty one, Phil
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: Linett stood before the judge who sentenced into a two
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: hundred pounds five It was a lenient penalty, but only
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: because Philip convinced one of his rodies, a guy they
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: called Big Charlie, to take the fall for the drugs
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: and swear under oath that the jacket belonged to him
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: and not to Phil. It was a page taken right
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: out of Freddie Mercury's book Keep your Secrets, Control your narrative, or,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: as Phil Linett's own code instructed, always be professional, always
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: be in control. Sean O'Connor couldn't believe his luck. His
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: Dublin based band The Lookalikes had managed to score an
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: opening slot on Thin Lizzie's tour, and though you didn't
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: have to look into a crystal ball to know that
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: their best days were now behind them. For any Dublin
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: or dub as the local parliaance goes, Thin Lizzie were it.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: The rest of the world can have Saint Patrick give
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: us Saint Phil. Lizzie were a source of tremendous national pride.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: Sean O'Connor in particular was stoked to be able to
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: support such legends night after night, and he knew what
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: came with the territory. The parties, the women, the revolving
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: door that was Phil line It's private room, so many
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: women coming and going that, despite Phil's relationship status at
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: the time, earned him the nickname Phil Line him up.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: And then there were the drugs. They were everywhere, dealers,
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: hangers on, guys looking for a one way ticket to
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: the big show with a little bagging. One night backstage,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: one of these dudes approached Sean, flashing his ready supply
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: of cocaine. Well, Sean thought went in Rome, but before
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: he could indulge, out of the shadows, wrong Phil Line.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: He put his hands on the dealer's arms, pushing him
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: away from Sean and violently slamming him up against a wall.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: Head first. The dealer felt like his brain was oozing
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: from his ears. With one hand, Phil held him in place,
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: and with the other he stuck on his finger and
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: pressed it against the dealer's chest. If you ever offer
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Sean Cooke again, I'll fuck it. Have you killed? This
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: was just one side of Phil Lint, the side that
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: fancied himself a character down at the pub with the
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: Quality Street gang, a badass, a jail breaker, a no
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: shit taker, one of the boys who is back in
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: town and who's going to fuck you up for turning
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: this young grasshopper here on the dope. And then there
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: was the other side, the gentler side, the more vulnerable
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Phil Line, the self described black Irish bastard from Dublin
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: who successfully drove out his own insecurities in order to
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: realize his dream of rock stardom, just as his fellow
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: Sat Saint Patrick once drove the Snakes out of Ireland allegedly.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: But there was no one protecting Phil Lionett the way
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Phil Line was now protecting Sean O'Connor. No one to
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: step in when he showed up again at Johnny Thunders's
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: room at the Chelsea, this time with a bag of
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: heroin in his hand, or when he was stopped at
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: the Doublin Airport with more junk grass and methadone in
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: his possession. Not just because he ignored his own advice
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: and the advice of doctors, but because he did so
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: while delving further into his addictions in secret. Phil's longtime bandmate,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: guitarist Scott Gorm, also struggling with a heroin addiction, got
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: himself under control, using neuroelectric therapy to kick his habit.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Unlike Scott, however, Phil wasn't so lucky. On January fourth,
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six, at just thirty six years old, his heart, liver,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: and kidneys gave out. It was just about seven years
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: since Phil's old friend Said Vicious died from a hot shot,
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: and roughly five years After Phil's death, another one of
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: his friends, Johnny Thunders, would also die from an overdose.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: Phil's buddy from the other side of the musical tracks,
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: Huey Lewis looked around at all the carnage, all this
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: talent and promise wasted, a handful of his friends gone
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: or on their way out. Huey, for one, wanted a
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: new drug, one that wouldn't make him sick, one that
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: made him feel the way he felt when he listened
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: to the rich musical legacy of Thin Lizzy, which is
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: to say something like Grace, I'm Jake Brennan and this
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: this Disgrace man, all right, happy Saint Patrick's day, everybody.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: This week's question of the week is which Irish artist
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: or band is your favorite? And why is it? In
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: Lizzie You two the Undertones Cranberry's who is it? Which artists?
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: And why? Let me know? Six one seven nine oh
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: six six six three eight, Leave me a voicemail, send
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: me a text. We'll get into it in the after
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: party this week. You can also reach me at Disgrace
• 32:13
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• 32:17
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• 32:20
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• 32:28
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• 32:31
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• 32:35
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in
• 32:38
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• 32:42
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• 32:45
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• 32:48
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• 33:23
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