Thin Lizzy should have been everything Irish guitarist Eric Bell had ever wanted. At first, it was. But by 1973, his dream gig had become unsustainable.
“At the start, it was fabulous,” Bell tells Guitar Player. “It was my dream, come true. We formed Thin Lizzy, and it was fabulous.”
The band’s early years were a blur of hash, Guinness and, eventually, harder drugs. Bell says the musicians were permanently stoned, but that didn’t stop them from having a great time making their first three albums: 1971’s Thin Lizzy, 1972’s Shades of a Blue Orphanage and 1973’s Vagabonds of the Western World. The latter featured Bell’s best-known recording with the band, their version of “Whiskey in the Jar.”
“It was great,” says Bell, who last year released Acoustic Sessions, an album that re-imagines songs from the group’s first there albums — including “Whisky in the Jar” — in acoustic guitar arrangements.
I couldn’t stop. And it got worse and worse.”
— Eric Bell
But Bell’s relationship with drugs and alcohol was changing. He was drinking more, smoking increasingly strong marijuana and watching his social and family life fall apart. Living alone in a grungy attic in London, he reached a point where he could no longer separate performing from getting high.
Before one show, he found himself sober and unable to settle. A crowd was waiting outside, but there were no drugs available. Bell picked up his guitar and immediately felt that something was wrong.
“And it felt horrible.”
A joint eventually appeared, and Bell says the transformation was immediate.
“All of a sudden, I’m Eric Clapton,” he says, laughing.
The moment also forced him to confront how dependent he had become. “Eric, you’ve got a problem here, man,” he remembers thinking. “You can’t play when you’re straight.”
Thin Lizzy’s relentless touring schedule left little room for Bell to deal with the problem. He says he needed a few weeks away from the road, but management refused. After shows, he would tell himself to have one drink, pack up and go to bed. Instead, the whiskey and dope would come out, and the cycle would begin again.
“I couldn’t stop. And it got worse and worse.”
The breaking point came on New Year’s Eve 1973, when Thin Lizzy played Queen’s University in Belfast.
Bell arrived early and found a table in the dressing room stocked with bottles of alcohol. He tried to keep himself under control, but by the time he strapped on his Stratocaster and walked onstage, he was completely intoxicated.
I must have sounded like Ravi Shankar on acid. It had to be fucking awful.”
— Eric Bell
“I didn’t know where I was,” he says. “I didn’t know what I was doing. I surely should have cancelled the gig.”
Instead, the band played. Bell lasted three songs.
Throughout the performance, he says, a voice in his head was telling him to leave. He knew he needed professional help and knew he could not continue, but he was too far gone to act on either realization.
Eventually, he threw his guitar into the air and kicked his amplifiers offstage before staggering away and collapsing.
A roadie ordered him back onstage. Bell was hauled to his feet and placed back onstage. Someone handed him his guitar, but no one thought to retune it.
“The guitar was completely out of tune,” Bell recalls. “I must have sounded like Ravi Shankar on acid. It had to be fucking awful.”
The following day, Thin Lizzy’s management called from London, demanding to know what had happened. Bell replied that he’d quit. The band was halfway through its Irish tour. Though they tried to persuade him to stay, Bell insisted he was finished.
“They realized I wasn’t going to do it, and said, ‘Is that your last word?’ I said, ‘Yeah…’
“And they said, ‘Right — we’re getting Gary Moore to finish the tour,’ and slammed the phone down.”
I didn’t have the willpower to stop. I could get drunk very easily. If I had two or three whiskeys, I was anybody’s, you know?”
— Eric Bell
Just like that, Eric Bell’s dream gig was over.
In retrospect, Bell believes the disastrous final show may have saved his life.
“I just kind of whittled about, wondering what to do with myself,” he says. “But yeah, I’d say that what happened probably saved my life.”
Bell rebounded and landed a gig with the equally hard-drinking Noel Redding later in the 1970s. He never rejoined Thin Lizzy, although he reunited with Phil Lynott in the studio for the Jimi Hendrix tribute “Song for Jimmy.” Bell says most of his playing did not make the final recording.
Thin Lizzy briefly continued with Gary Moore before replacing him with Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson, whose twin-guitar harmonies would become central to the band’s sound on songs such as “Jailbreak” and “The Boys Are Back in Town.”
Bell still owns the Stratocaster he threw that night in Belfast. He has had a long time to consider what happened — and what it took to get back to playing without drugs and alcohol.
“I didn’t have the willpower to stop. I could get drunk very easily. If I had two or three whiskeys, I was anybody’s, you know?”
“And my Strat that I tossed in the air, I still have it. I think it’s finally just forgiven me. But man, it was hard. It took me forever to be able to play guitar straight again.”
