Phil Lynott, Thin Lizzy and the Swagger of 1976

By May 1976, Phil Lynott had reasons to walk into a Hollywood bar like he owned it. “The Boys Are Back In Town,” written in part about Thin Lizzy’s first trip to Los Angeles, had become a hit on both sides of the Atlantic and a No. 1 in Ireland. The band had also been booked to open a US tour for Rainbow, the group Ritchie Blackmore formed after leaving Deep Purple.

At the Rainbow Bar & Grill on the Sunset Strip, Lynott found Blackmore at the bar alongside Thin Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham. John Bonham, a fixture of the place and one of rock’s more volatile drinkers, was watching. Lynott told Blackmore the support slot would not go the way he expected. Thin Lizzy, he said, would kick his ass every night. Blackmore, whose reputation for moodiness travelled ahead of him, said nothing. Bonham laughed.

The confidence was earned, up to a point. Thin Lizzy became the first internationally successful Irish rock band, and Lynott the most visible Black frontman in rock since Jimi Hendrix. Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Guns N’ Roses and The Darkness all drew on what the band built. But the same appetite for excess that made their reputation also hollowed it out from the inside. By 1983 Thin Lizzy had split. Lynott died on 4 January 1986.