{"id":600968,"date":"2026-05-24T05:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T05:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/600968\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T05:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T05:49:11","slug":"the-band-so-good-they-made-phil-lynott-break-up-thin-lizzy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/600968\/","title":{"rendered":"The band so good they made Phil Lynott break up Thin Lizzy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img width=\"1140\" height=\"855\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Phil-Lynott-Thin-Lizzy-Far-Out-Magazine-F-1140x855.jpg\" class=\"attachment-single-feature size-single-feature wp-post-image\" alt=\"Phil Lynott - Thin Lizzy\" layout=\"fill\"  style=\"object-position: 50% 20%\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Credit: Far Out \/ Alamy<\/p>\n<p>While dwelling in the lofty realm of hard rock legend across the 1970s, one big name from the UK prompted Phil Lynott to pack in his <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/tags\/thin-lizzy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">Thin Lizzy<\/a> day job for good in 1983.<\/p>\n<p>He was diffident about fame anyhow. Never one to chase superstardom, nor indulge in the usual hard rock tropes of cock rock, skirt chasing and cartoonish machismo, it took a while for Lynott to summon the quiet charisma he\u2019d wield on stage when fronting Thin Lizzy, reportedly with Slade manager Chas Chandler urging the young singer to dial up the presence when supporting the glam outfit early on.<\/p>\n<p>Easing into his rock duties, a more sensitive songcraft emerged from the Black Irishman\u2019s lyrical pen, tales of romantic belonging, heartache, working-class rebellion, and his home country\u2019s folklore all scored by Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson\u2019s twinned guitar attack.<\/p>\n<p>Evident in Thin Lizzy\u2019s work, even among the hallowed heights of \u2018The Boys Are Back in Town\u2019 and \u2018Jailbreak\u2019, is swagger, confidence, but never ego. It\u2019s a quality that radiates from Lynott in archive performances or interviews, someone naturally armed with an anchor to the ground and never to lose himself in his own hype.<\/p>\n<p>Such a modest spark would shine from his open-hearted fandom. <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/def-leppard-opening-line-so-dumb-that-not-even-band-themselves-understand-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">Crossing paths with fellow Vertigo labemates Def Leppard<\/a>, Lynott caught their lead singer and confessed that he was so floored by their new album he had to pack in his Thin Lizzy gig after nearly 15 years on the go and clocking 12 albums.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI remember meeting Phil Lynott\u2026\u201d Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliot recalled to Classic Rock in 2016. \u201cWe\u2019d delivered Pyromania and, with us sharing a label with Lizzy, he\u2019d heard it. He put his hand on my shoulder and said, \u2018I heard your album \u2013 it\u2019s the reason I\u2019ve split the band. I can\u2019t compete with that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>High praise indeed. Def Leppard were primed and ready to take their hard rock chops to the American arena, slathering their hair metal guitar with gleaming, radiant coats of pop gloss and synthy shine that would thrust Pyromania to number two on the Billboard 200. While alienating some Sheffield old timers with their new chart-friendly glow, Def Leppard and AC\/DC hitmaker Robert John \u2018Mutt\u2019 Lange were gunning for the zenith of pop-metal\u2019s MTV domination, a conquest they\u2019d truly herald with Hysteria four years later.<\/p>\n<p>Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n<p>It was a creative trajectory Lynott shared, too. While never glam metal, Thin Lizzy did embrace the day\u2019s new wave keyboards for some electronic fizz, with <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/disastrous-first-us-tour-thin-lizzy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">future Ultravox singer Midge Ure playing synths<\/a> in the late 1970s and the band\u2019s Billy Currie playing the ARP on Lynott\u2019s solo efforts. It was an intriguing new road Thin Lizzy could have pursued, a lamentable demise Elliot found no pleasure in amid Pyromania\u2019s gargantuan success.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe crappiest backhand compliment I\u2019ve ever had,\u201d Elliot confessed, concluding, \u201cI wish I had been brave enough to shove him up against the wall and say, \u2018Well, make a better album then!\u2019 But I just said, \u2018Oh,\u2019 and scuttled off.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>  <a class=\"fw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" style=\"\"> ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"28\" height=\"28\" src=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/wp-content\/themes\/far-out-magazine\/img\/google-discover.svg\" alt=\"\"\/> <\/a>   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Far Out \/ Alamy While dwelling in the lofty realm of hard rock legend across the 1970s,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[95745,96,128,76413,76414,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-600968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-def-leppard","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-phil-lynott","tag-thin-lizzy","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}