Shamelessly name-dropping Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, Hunter S Thompson and 70s New York punk hangout Max’s Kansas City in the opening track of your new album is forgivable when you were as indisputably there as Joan Jett & The Blackhearts guitarist Ricky Byrd.
Less forgivable is the fact that Lifer is often so cheesy you’d swear you can hear Laughing Cowbells in the distance – the barroom boogie Let’s Get Gone has him ordering drinks in the most staged manner ever, Ways Of A Woman is a parody of soul, and Foolish Kind veers way too close to Rod Stewart for comfort.
The rest of the time, though, as he honky-tonks around in thrall to the Rolling Stones, this is the sound of a man still in love with his job after all these years.
