An Interview With Original Thin Lizzy Guitarist Eric Bell

Photo by Cormac Figgis

As a founding member of Thin Lizzy and the band’s original guitarist, Eric Bell’s six-string talents accentuated the trio’s first three albums: 1971’s Thin Lizzy, 1972’s Shades of a Blue Orphanage, and 1973’s Vagabonds of the Western World.

If those don’t ring a bell, to be specific, it’s Bell’s fiery chops that you hear on Lizzy’s iconic cover of “Whiskey in the Jar.” Since leaving Lizzy in 1973, Bell has done his best to champion Ireland’s bluesy past, present, and future… with a rock ‘n’ roll twist. “Ireland has always seemingly had the blues around,” Bell tells ClassicRockHistory.com.

“Belfast was buzzing with it,” he adds. “It’s fabulous. It’s still got a lot of blues, and so does the rest of Northern Ireland. It’s very popular. I don’t know why, they don’t seem to be into folk music the way Southern Ireland and Dublin us. Belfast always was and is interested in the blues.”

To that end, Bell has a new—and very bluesy—record called Authenticity, the title of which came via one of Belfast’s blues-loving listeners. “For some reason, one night,” Bell says. “I was playing in London, and a girl came up to me and said, ‘Oh, your band sounds very authentic.’ I started hearing this word everywhere I went; it’s like a new word in society. So, I thought, ‘Yeah, I’ll call the album Authenticity.’”

Bell says that, despite his stature in Ireland’s rock and blues scenes, it has been hard for him to step out of Thin Lizzy’s shadow. For a long time, this meant that most of his live setlists were filled with Thin Lizzy covers.

But not anymore, as Bell’s confidence in his songwriting has finally come head-to-head with his guitar playing. “It’s mostly my songs, and a few Lizzy covers,” he explains. “The whole is basically geared toward improvisation. That’s the way I present it, which I love.”

“I love having to wonder what I’m going to play,” he says. “Sometimes, you’re in that frame of mind and body, and it just pours out. And then, some other nights, it’s a little bit different, you know? But I really do enjoy it, it keeps me interested.”

What inspires you these days?

The Shadows. They’re one of my earliest influences, and I still love them. I find that there’s a million great guitar players out there, but I find them all pretty boring, to be honest with you. I don’t really listen to new rock music much, so if I’m trying to get my rocks off, I actually still put on the early Shadows music. It sounds old-fashioned, or dated, but I still get a real buzz, and a chill up my back listening to that type of stuff.

Why do modern guitar players bore you?

Everybody is just playing the blues, but with a bit of distortion, and sometimes, as fast as possible, like electric typewriters. [laughs] But don’t me wrong—all these players are great; it’s just the way they play doesn’t do anything for me. I listen, and go, “Yeah, he knows what he’s doing, but there’s nothing there that makes me go, ‘Wow.’”

Can you describe the type of player that you are for new listeners?

I don’t know… I remember when I was in Thin Lizzy, and we came over to London from Ireland, and recorded our first album and released it, all the critics said, “This band has no sense of direction. Every track is different, blah blah blah.” We said, “So what?” And it’s the same with my album. Every track is different. Why not?

Are you still using the same Fender Strat from your Thin Lizzy days?

Yeah, because I just like the sound of the guitar to be sort of pure. And that guitar is about 53 years old now. I bought it brand new when Thin Lizzy first started because I had a white Strat that was falling apart, and the manager suggested I get a new guitar. So, I got this Fender Stratocaster in 1972, and I’ve been playing it ever since. I still play it. It’s a beautiful guitar.

Digging into the tracks on Authenticity, what’s the story behind “Tale of Thin Lizzy?”

That’s exactly what happened, you know, the whole thing. It’s basically like an autobiography; it’s exactly what happened. Like, the whole song is true. I left the show band I was in, went to a club called Countdown, had my first trip on acid, met Philip [Lynott], and we decided to get a band together. That song tells the whole story of what happened. It’s all in the song.

How about “Honeycomb Nights?” What’s the backstory of that track?

When I was a kid, maybe about eight or nine years of age, I’d be playing out in the street with some of my friends, and it would start becoming evening time. And around that time, I could sort of sense the smell in the air, which was like honeycomb. So, a few years ago, I was thinking about that, and why it was.

So, what we used to do in Belfast was we’d only have one fire because there was no central heating, it was just one fire in this one room in the house. My parents used to light the fire, and sometimes, it wouldn’t catch; it just wouldn’t happen. So, they would get a big handful of sugar, white sugar, and throw it on the flames, and then, the fire would start igniting.

I got this idea of all the houses in Belfast doing this, and then, the smell of the burnt sugar would go up the chimney and go out into the street. And then, there’d be hundreds and hundreds of houses doing this, and that’s what the song is really about. It’s about throwing sugar on the fire, it going up the chimney, and that sweet smell is spreading while I was out playing with my friends.

What’s the meaning behind “I Wasn’t Born in the Delta?”

Yeah, that’s just a funny one. There are lots of blues groups in Belfast, in Ireland, there are loads. I’ve played quite a few gigs around Ireland, and sometimes, there are bands on with us, support bands. One night, before we went onstage, this blues band was playing, and the guy from Ireland was singing, “I was born in the Delta,” and I thought, “No you fucking weren’t.” [laughs]

You know, he lived on that same street in Ireland. [laughs] But that stuck in my head, so I thought it would be a funny take on a blues song, saying, “I wasn’t born in the Delta.” But I’ve still had my share of blues, you know? The nine-to-five jobs I had were absolutely bizarre, so I’ve had the blues myself, even though I wasn’t born in the Delta.

Do you have plans to tour behind Authenticity?

I have a band called the Eric Bell Trio. As of now, we’re doing shows, and we do one track off the album, “I Wasn’t Born in the Delta.” But the rest of the tracks that I do now, probably nine or ten, are still my own songs. But that took forever for me to do because most people aren’t interested in hearing new songs; they just want Thin Lizzy covers.

It took me forever to actually have the confidence and the nerve to go into a club and play a lot of my own songs. It took a lot for me to get the courage to do that, but there’s hundreds of Thin Lizzy cover bands all over the world. Thank God they’re keeping the name alive, but I just do three Lizzy songs, and the rest is blues, and a few rock numbers done a certain way.