Ten Classic Quotes From Phil Lynott

Phil Lynott was never short of an appropriate comment for any occasion. Although he died long before the birth of Classic Rock, some of his most memorable quotes have been used in features on Thin Lizzy. Some are funny, others rather surprrising and even ironic. But they give a taste of his giant personality .

“People are sayin’ that they want me to be their joker. Well, I’m no dancin’ nigger for them. Obviously I’m over-reacting because the press has had a field day on me and my private life. I don’t like guttersnipes that take photographs with telescopic lenses. ‘The people have a right to know’. Bollocks!”- issue 83

“I don’t condone drugs, really, but I know why artists take drugs. They take them to experience, to go to the edge. Why do people climb mountains? To go to the edge. People always want to go to extremes. And if you go to the edge, you must be prepared to fall off. And lots of guys have.” - issue 83

“We’re a hard rock band, but in the fine tradition, but we also have the leeway to do some head songs as well as balls songs. For us now, rock is the nucleus, and we build from there.” – issue 103

“There’s nothing wrong with being a bit cocky and all the time threatening the system.” - issue 103

“The band [Thin Lizzy] had to work at maintaining a group identity rather than one individual being singled out. I wanted them to do more too so that I could do less because after getting ill [in America], I realised that I was doin’ too much.” - issue 104

“The thing that we can now definitely say is that there will always be a Thin Lizzy” - issue 104

“How many times do you say you’re going to give something up and then don’t? It’s that perpetual thing where you can’t break the habit” - issue 105

“I’m trying to foresee Thin Lizzy in the 80s and comin’ to terms with it on a basis that is not sellin’ out, but is definitely a step forward.” - issue 105

“I myself don’t take drugs.” - issue 105

“I was also in Thin Lizzy who took all the heavy stuff and I got all the fish that John West rejected [for my solo albums]!” - issue 154

Read the Buyer’s Guide to Thin Lizzy here

Harry Doherty began his career at the Derry Journal in Ireland before moving to London in the mid-1970s, relaunching his career as a music journalist and writing extensively for the Melody Maker. Later he became editor of Metal Hammer and founded the video magazine, Hard’n’Heavy. He also wrote the official Queen biography 40 Years Of Queen, published in 2011 to celebrate the band’s 40th anniversary. He died in 2014.