INTERVIEW: Ricky Warwick (Black Star Riders, Thin Lizzy) on new album, touring, vinyl and more
hello you metal pilgrims and welcome to yet another episode of our interview series our today's guest is the frontman of blackstar riders and the legendary thin lizzie ricky warwick ricky and i will be speaking about his upcoming solo album when life was hard and fast the process behind it we'll also discuss the new material by black star writers touring the current state of rock and roll and much much more but as always before we start i'd like to take a moment and invite you to join the conversation and subscribe to metal pilgrim channel on youtube and join our communities on instagram facebook or any other social media you actually hang out at to submit your questions for all future guests stay tuned with the updates and be the very first ones to find out what is inside the future rock and metal releases and we're currently voting for the best rock and metal album of 2020 we have some great nominees so you make sure to submit your vote for your favorite album of the year by going to our instagram and facebook pages and have a chance of winning a pretty cool christmas gift from us here you go [Music] how are you doing oh he's good man that was good how about you doing okay thank you are you in there kiev yeah i'm a kid what about you are you welcome no never i'm in los angeles never been never been to kiev i i'm sure it's beautiful wonderful city right it is it is a gorgeous city i mean the the weather is not as good as uh it is in california at the moment but uh but believe me it's it's fun yeah you should definitely come at some point i will do i'll definitely get there yeah we're in california are you yeah i'm in beverly hills believe it or not oh nice yeah i'm yeah i before the pandemics i used to go to california like for for work every every month or so so right yeah not cool santa monica usually yeah yeah it's pretty close to santa monica it's nice down there by the ocean it's great you know yeah yeah good to hear good to hear how are things with the covered second wave and everything yeah it's not good you know um you know america's america is just such a mess right now you know with the pandemic and politically it's it's a real it's really sad we just went back into a really hard lockdown last week yeah we had outdoor dining still going they closed that down now um you're not allowed to mingle with anybody from a different household at all yeah so pretty severe um but you know i think the vaccines are coming help us come in i think this will be maybe the last hard lockdown we're going to i think next year things will be a little better i'm hope i hope so let's pray for that man the same thing over here uh we're about to close that and shut everything completely um again the same thing no connections with anyone else and um but i think we should all just push through at this point and that's it i mean if we're gonna just ignore this stuff i mean yeah push through wait for the vaccines to start kicking in and then you know we take it from there right absolutely man absolutely but um enough of the sadness man um there's some good news in the world and especially new music uh by a lot of musicians and you're actually about to drop a new album new studio album uh when life was hard and fast uh on february 19th uh i believe sure this is the first one in five years man congrats on finishing it up during these hard times i know thank you well it was actually finished before oh really yeah before this happened it was actually finished in april 2019. oh oh really yeah but then okay so let me ask you something uh we haven't heard from you for five years right and then you decided to drop a new album during the pandemic when you cannot do the regular you know promo release tour routine why why didn't you wait until you know until next time well because my main but i played a brand called black star riders which is my main bathroom and and um i play also sing for thin lizzy and you know we've been touring constantly and we just put a black star riders album out last year yeah it was most supposed to be supposed to be touring it constantly this year um so i have to we have to plan when i when i can work on the solo record the plan always was for the solo record to come out in 2021 because we were going to take some time off from black star riders so we just stuck to the plan the pandemic really hasn't changed anything for me the only thing that affected was black star riders not being able to tour this year but my solo plans were always what they were going to be regardless of the pandemic or not so that hasn't changed so you know the album's been completed i've been waiting for i was waiting for blacks or writers to stop touring obviously the pandemic stopped that so hence it's coming out in 2021 and fingers crossed that by spring i can start turning again that's the plan yeah hopefully you and all the other bands will be able to hit the road man because everyone's missing concerts at this point and uh i know i know you know crazy i mean but um i i know it's been a while now for you then uh i guess but could you take us back for just a bit and talk about the creative process behind it you know and how did all of this come together into this one cohesive piece um you know i'll be building been writing constantly since since my last solo record came out i write all the time anyway so i'm always working on songs and i got together with keith nelson who produced the record and also co-wrote some of the tunes with me on the record keith is well known for being in the band buck cherry uh he was a guitar player in buck cherry yeah and i got together with keith and we just started working on some demos and uh i said to keith i think it would be great if you covered just the record with me and we did it together and keith was up for it so this is 2018 we started working on the demos for the album uh we finished those up and then early 2019 we actually got into the studio for real uh we put it we put a band together and we went in we recorded the record nice and in addition to keith you've obviously collaborated with the the great many of other musicians on this one including luke morley of thunder you you featured in the latest uh single right i mean he he wrote the solo there yes yes and many many others right how was it working with them did you feel like you're assembling a new superband or something [Laughter] you know they're just they're they're they're great friends of mine i'm lucky to have got to know over the years they just happen to be extremely talented friends who happen to be in bands that i love um and when i make a solo record the the great thing about doing a solo record flat is you can be as narcissistic as you want i don't need to turn around to the other guys in the back and go hey can we get so-and-so in to play that guitar solo and the guitar guitar goes well that's my job yeah you know it's my it's my record i go i want this guy playing on it and this guy playing on it so it's it's totally it's totally cool and i just you know when i was when we were writing the songs in the back of my mind and going you know joe elliott would sound great singing on that i wonder if he'd be up for doing it and then it was a case of making the call sending over the track everybody said yes they they'd love to be part of it which was a huge honor for me and it was really that easy it really was very simple that's pretty cool and what about the inspirations i mean where do you look for inspiration when you usually write a music i mean i write very introspectively i always say that i can communicate way better in my songs than i can in any other form um and i think i think that i more comes out and i let more of myself out when i'm writing lyrics um you know i'm a fairly reserved person which people always find quite surprising but i am and i i tend to keep things bottled up when i'm writing it's a great way for me to get them out so all the songs are very introspective they're all things that have affected me or my family or my friends or or stuff that's happened to my family or friends that this inspired me to write about or my my take on the world as i see it you know like everybody else i turn on the news and i have an opinion yeah and i i tend to put those into the songs uh and what about the music i mean uh how much do you think of what you you're doing in the other bands you know blackster writers and than lizzie of course you brought on this record um i mean a lot because i'm the main songwriter for black star writers too so you know you can't separate yourself from yourself so um there's obviously yeah there is but you know when i'm writing a song usually within the sort of first couple of minutes i can tell if it's going to work for black star writers or it's going to be a ricky warg song sometimes i don't know why i just instinctively know um with black star writers i'm very aware that i'm going to take that song in and four other people are going to put their input into that song and listen to it i love that you know i love that the fact that they'll just they want to change it or they'll they'll you know so that's in my mind also black star writers people expect a certain a certain sound from the band and um absolutely yeah i have to i have to adhere to that as well because i don't want to give the people what they want with the soul stop there's no rules there's no boundaries i can do anything i want and that's why i do it that's the beauty of doing it and i can go as far down the road with a song and finish it before i need to sort of take it to anybody else or play to anybody else yeah absolutely man and what about the you know your personal favorite track or it's like choosing a favorite kid an impossible question yeah well it's funny you said that with this album i can't choose a favorite track with a favorite kid on it because there's a song called time don't seem to matter on the album which i do a duet on with my daughter oh really she's on there she's on there so favorite favorite track favorite kid right nice so um that was a very proud moment for me to have her sing on on the record it was it was wonderful how old is she she's now 13 she was 11 when she signed on the record she's she's 13 nine wow that's amazing and is she into rock and roll she's in the music i wouldn't say rock and roll she's she she likes a lot of she likes a lot of rap stuff she's a big billy eileesh fan she plays a couple of instruments she plays ukulele she plays keyboards plays violin she's a great little singer she's into music yeah but you know she i'll catch and listen to fleetwood mac now and again and stuff like that so she's got pretty eclectic taste okay that's pretty cool my daughter my eldest daughter is three years old and all she listens to is uh kiss and acdc literally oh look at that great taste already yeah yeah right it's so funny because she knows i mean she's ukrainian she speaks ukrainian with us but she knows the lyrics to thunderstruck and she actually sings them in english that's that's that's wonderful that's so cool yeah it's it's really really good i'll send you a video at some point that's awesome i'd like to see that yeah yeah absolutely man and you know moving away from uh from this record only right um speaking about your other projects can we expect any new material a follow-up to you know another state of grace uh anytime soon sure um i don't know about any time soon because like i said i'm focusing on the solar record next year vlad yeah the next black star writers album we have written and we have demoed it it's ready to go it's ready to be recorded uh we were hoping to get in and record it this year but again because of flight restrictions and we all live all over the place we just can't make it happen so we'll try and get that recorded next year and i think you'll probably see a 2022 release absolutely that's great yeah so next year hopefully you're going to be on the road again yeah and let's just uh let's just pray again that those concerts will happen and we'll be able you know to see you and all the other musicians live absolutely i mean um it's been tough when i've really missed it and i've missed i missed playing and i've also missed going to see see shows as well yeah absolutely you know so yeah and uh you know historically what are your personal you know influences uh you know and favorite bands i mean whom do you look up to and to this day i mean there's a lot i mean finn lizzie obviously yeah being irish and you know they were they were they were probably my favorite band of all time um but a lot of punk stuff like stiff little fingers uh clash sex pistols motorhead mc5 um i like a lot of motown i like a lot of northern soul music as well um um you know it's a real eclectic mix of stuff that i listen to um um so and i think that's good because i think that's that's good when you write i think it's good to have a a varied influence um but yeah those those would be the main bands yeah and what about i mean i new any new bands you can point out that you think deserve more attention yeah there's a great little scene in the uk right now there's some really good up and coming bands coming out the uk a bank called those damn pros are really good they're worth checking out there's a band called the howling tides who are really cool too on a scottish band called anchor lane that are worth worth checking out as well check it out yeah yeah thank you thanks man um cool and uh you know we we just started talking about you know the pandemics and next year um how do you think all this craziness around the world will affect the music industry overall and you know rock and roll and metal in in particular sure because we are i mean rockers and metal heads right i mean our music lives in in in in in clubs and on stadiums right i mean digital is great but not really i mean for us sure yeah i agree you know i think it remains to be seen i think that i'm hoping that people will be really crazy and anxious to get back to going to venues will the venue still be there it's really tough on a lot of the smaller venues right now are they able to survive this year with having no concerts and no income and i really feel for them so i'm not sure what's going to be left when we get back to normal but i think if the people come back out and support it in their in their millions and they'll start to rebuild the industry back up and i think that'll be a good thing um it just remains to be seen i mean it's just been so tough on on road crews and people and agents and managements and venues they're the ones that are really really hurting yeah through all of this absolutely man absolutely and um you know any confirmed dates in the u.s at this point because this is what subscribers have been hearing a lot yeah not not in the us but there will definitely be planning a run of u.s shows probably in the fall of next year i have some uk shows booked on sale already they start end of april so fingers crossed that yeah i get to do those okay yeah britain is the first one to distribute vaccines so hopefully yeah well i'm you know i'm you know i'm i'm cautiously optimistic those will go ahead if not i'll move i'll move them i'll push them back but it's good to have something to look forward to to focus on and i'm hoping by late spring i'll be able to get back out there and start playing anywhere and everywhere that's good um and what do you personally do when you're not on the road or write in new music not a lot um because i'm usually right all the time i'm a music playing playing and writing i write for other people as well it's not just myself um so i do that i spend time with my family um i like to run i run a lot i go i run maybe you know i run 10 10 kilometers five days a week um you know look after myself i read watch movies you know really just hang out with my family because usually i'm on the road so much that when i'm home all i want to do is just chill with my family this year they've had me for a year and they haven't been out yet so that's a good sign it's true yeah i'm the same as everyone else i've been locked down you know at home for for the past year but uh you know what i'm starting to dig this at this point i don't even feel like going outside anymore well you know i i people go you know i'm presuming that you're you're like me you're lucky me there's food in the fridge i got a roof over my head i'm with the people that i love yeah i'm getting i'm getting i'm healthy thankfully i'm getting to be creative it's been okay you know it's been okay i miss playing like crazy don't get me wrong but there's been a lot of good things that for me personally have happened this year and i know i know it's different for a lot of people that are that have lost a job and and there's a lot of easy for you to say and i i feel but it's been okay you know it's been i've been lucky i've been lucky and and i'm blessed for that you know absolutely absolutely i mean i'm conscious of your time so just a couple of more questions and that's it um what is your personal guilty pleasure in terms of music casey in the sunshine band really there you go that's what you blasted or drunk [Laughter] no love casey in the sunshine partner i'm not afraid to admit it i've seen i've seen them live multiple times really i danced i've danced and i've danced in a festival and up to my modern knees in memphis watching them play a festival and i love them that's fun absolutely and this is something you usually do by the end of the episode to close it um and i would love to hear from you especially you know because you have so much experience and i i assume so many stories like this but what is your craziest touring story that you can legally hopefully share with the crowd um most of them involved volvo legal stuff back in the day in illegal drugs um we once took acid on a bus tour boss journey that involved a ferry going to germany and we decided that on us it would be a really good idea if we shaved off all our eyebrows and super glued toy furry caterpillars onto our eyebrows whole band and the whole crew did this which was genius at the time until we all woke up the next morning with these like and we couldn't get we had like you know yeah we'll leave it there needless to say when we arrived at the venue the next day the record company armani's weren't very impressive the whole band turned up with no eyebrows and bits of glitter and furry caterpillar stuff do you have any pictures of that thankfully before the internet thank you oh that's fun man this will definitely go in a 2020 the best of 20 20 stories oh i like it thank you i've been and you know i wasn't going to ask this but uh you know this just reminded me about the um how do you think the you know the music business and the you know the especially the album release process right now in 2020 2021 is different from what you did you know back in the day is it different at all you know well obviously it's been everything's different this year because the pandemic you know usually i'd go in of course a promo trip 9 face to face but yeah you know it's course is different but the whole kind of mindset behind is to see him you still make a record and you still promote that record by doing interviews on promo and going on tour the way you did 30 years ago that hasn't changed what has changed is we now have social media which you have to embrace whether you like it or not um because that's the the medium that most people use to find out about music and what's going on i think that's the biggest difference you've added that to the equation now yeah which wasn't which was never there before and i think accessibility of music you know back in the day i remember hunting for you know for a new release well that's it you know i mean you would buy it you would hear a track on the radio and you go and buy the album without being able to check out the rest of the album and that was the mystery and i think we've lost the mystery of music yeah in rock and roll which i'm sad because i think that was what made it so special um because now you can just go online and check out every track yeah you know no problem um and that has that has its advantages but also as it's dismissed because rock and roll used to be mysterious and it's it's not you know everything about everybody now you know everything about your favorite rock and roll now you go online click you know what he had for breakfast that morning i don't want to know what he had for breakfast that morning you know i want to know why he wrote that song or why he used that guitar or that to me so the mystery's gone out of rock and roll which i think is sad yeah but i think you know in a way there are so many people who are you know reminiscent of those days including me for example i'm a huge vinyl collector man i i still collect all the new pianos that are coming out and the old ones as well and the whole idea of holding the a piece of anything you know that contains me yeah it is like a treasure it's like you hunted for it you found it and it is yours it is your prize yeah yeah yeah absolutely you know um i think vinyl is still popular making a comeback i mean my daughter just gave me a list of a vinyl that she wants for christmas which which is great you know she's 13. i'm like wow okay yes absolutely so i think kids are maybe it's kind of a little bit trendy at the minute and kids are discovering how great it sounds and how great the whole concept that is like you and i used to do with the whole you know readings these leave notes and looking at the artwork you know the world's always going to be in a flux you i think you have to embrace the technology like you said one of the good things it is if you are do-it-yourself artist you don't need a label you don't need a manager you don't need anything like that to get your music out there you need an iphone and you can record a great a great tune on an iphone and you stick put it up on youtube and you're away you're off you're going you're flying that's brilliant that's punk rock that's what i love you know that's cool absolutely yeah well ricky thanks a lot for your time and i really appreciate it any last message for the fans anything you want to share with them um yeah you know thank you and uh all your support please check out when life is hard and fast if you like live guitars and big and anthemic rock and roll i'm sure and this album's for you and i hopefully get to see you very very soon and be safe and look after each other absolutely thanks a lot again just as a reminder when life was hard and fast is out on february 19th you make sure to check it out it's very cohesive and it is a great album very honest one thank you i personally love it a lot man and i hope that i'll catch you live uh you know sometime in europe or i make it to the us again or you can finally make it to cave yeah i love it that would be even better yeah absolutely man thanks a lot for your time and keep rocking thanks vlad take care thanks brother bye you
2020-12-22 14:29
