Thin Lizzy Thin Lizzy are an Irish hard rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. Their music reflects a wide range of influences, including blues, soul music, psychedelic rock and traditional Irish folk music, but is generally classified as hard rock or some ...

are an Irish

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

band from

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

. Formed in 1969, the group originally consisted of bassist and vocalist

Phil Lynott Philip Parris Lynott (, ; 20 August 1949 – 4 January 1986) was an Irish singer, bassist, and songwriter. His most commercially successful group was Thin Lizzy, of which he was a founding member, the principal songwriter, lead vocalist and ba ...

, guitarist

Eric Bell Eric Robin Bell (born 3 September 1947 in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a Northern Irish rock and blues musician, best known as a founding member and the original guitarist of the rock group Thin Lizzy from 1969 to 1973. After his time in Thin ...

, drummer Brian Downey and keyboardist

Eric Wrixon Eric Wrixon (29 June 1947 – 13 July 2015) was a musician from Belfast, Northern Ireland, and a founding member of Them (band), Them and Thin Lizzy. He came up with the band name "Them" (from the 1954 sci-fi film ''Them!''), but as he was a mino ...

. The band broke up in September 1983, at which point the lineup included Lynott and Downey, guitarists

Scott Gorham William Scott Gorham (born March 17, 1951) is an American guitarist and songwriter who is one of the "twin lead guitarists" for the Irish rock band Thin Lizzy. Although not a founding member of Thin Lizzy, he served a continuous membership after ...

and

John Sykes John James Sykes (born 29 July 1959) is an English guitarist, best known as a member of Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy and Tygers of Pan Tang. He has also fronted the hard rock group Blue Murder and released several solo albums. Following a stint in ...

, and keyboardist

Darren Wharton Darren Leigh Wharton (born 25 December 1961) is a British keyboardist, singer and songwriter. He has fronted his own band, Dare, since 1985, but first came to attention as a member of Thin Lizzy. His son, Paris, is also a musician. Biography W ...

. In 1996, the group reformed with new bassist

Marco Mendoza Marco Mendoza is an American rock musician who has worked in diverse genres. He became a professional rock musician in 1989 and debuted on Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward's solo album '' Along the Way''. He has performed on a number of nota ...

, and Sykes taking over lead vocal duties. The most recent lineup included Gorham, Wharton, vocalist

Ricky Warwick Ricky Warwick (born 11 July 1966) is a Northern Irish musician and the lead singer of the rock bands Black Star Riders and Thin Lizzy. He is also the frontman for the Scottish hard rock band The Almighty, with whom he achieved chart success in ...

(since 2010), guitarist

Damon Johnson Damon Rogers Johnson (born July 13, 1964) is an American guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter, currently a solo artist and member of Thin Lizzy. In the 1990s he co-founded Brother Cane, and later joined Alice Cooper's band as lead guitarist. He w ...

(since 2011), drummer

Scott Travis Mark Scott Travis (born September 6, 1961) is an American metal musician, best known as the drummer for the English heavy metal band Judas Priest, the Irish rock band Thin Lizzy and the supergroup Elegant Weapons. He was also a longtime member ...

(since 2016) and bassist

Troy Sanders Troy Jayson Sanders (born September 8, 1973) is an American musician, best known as a member of heavy metal band Mastodon, in which he plays bass and sings alongside guitarist Brent Hinds and drummer Brann Dailor. He is also active in Killer B ...

(since 2019).

History

1969–1983

Thin Lizzy were formed in December 1969, with four members joining from two bands: guitarist

and keyboardist

from

Them Them or THEM, a third-person plural accusative personal pronoun, may refer to: Books * ''Them'' (novel), 3rd volume (1969) in American Joyce Carol Oates' ''Wonderland Quartet'' * '' Them: Adventures with Extremists'', 2003 non-fiction by Welsh ...

, and bassist and vocalist

and drummer Brian Downey from Orphanage. Wrixon performed on the band's debut single "The Farmer", but left before it was released in July 1970. Bell left the band after a concert on New Year's Eve 1973, later citing "ill-health caused by the band's lifestyle" as the reason for his departure. The guitarist was replaced by

Gary Moore Robert William Gary Moore (4 April 19526 February 2011) was a Northern Irish musician. Over the course of his career he played in various groups and performed a range of music including blues, blues rock, hard rock, heavy metal, and jazz ...

, although he would only remain with the band for a matter of months.

Andy Gee Andy Gee (born Andreas Gröber, 1 September 1950 in Berlin) is a German guitarist and musician, best known for his time with Peter Bardens, Steve Ellis and as a temporary member of Thin Lizzy. Career Gee began playing guitar in 1958, and was a ...

and

John Du Cann John William Cann (2 June 1946 – 21 September 2011), later known by his stage name John Du Cann, was an English guitarist primarily known through his work in the 1970s band Atomic Rooster. Life and career His early bands included the Wilt ...

took over for a tour in May, before Brian Robertson and

were enlisted later in the year as Bell's first full-time replacements. The lineup of Lynott, Gorham, Robertson and Downey released five studio albums and one live album, all but two of which reached the top ten of the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

, before Robertson left in 1978 and was replaced by the returning Moore. Downey also briefly took a break from Thin Lizzy around the same time, with

Mark Nauseef Mark Nauseef (born June 11, 1953), in Cortland, New York, is a drummer and percussionist who has enjoyed a varied career, ranging from rock music during the 1970s with his time as a member of the Ian Gillan Band and, temporarily with Thin Li ...

replacing him for a tour in late 1978. Moore left again in July 1979, and was temporarily replaced by

Midge Ure James Ure (born 10 October 1953) is a Scottish musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. His stage name, Midge, is a phonetic reversal of Jim, the diminutive form of his actual name. Ure enjoyed particular success in the 1970s and 1980s ...

Dave Flett David Flett (born, 2 June 1951) is a Scottish rock guitarist, best known for performing with Manfred Mann's Earth Band and Thin Lizzy. Career Early years and Manfred Mann Flett began his career with local groups in Aberdeen such as Cat Squirre ...

was brought in for a Japanese tour later in the year, as Ure moved over to keyboards, and in early 1980

Snowy White Terence Charles "Snowy" White (born 3 March 1948, Barnstaple, Devon) is an English guitarist, known for having played with Thin Lizzy (permanent member from 1980 to 1982) and with Pink Floyd (as a backing guitarist; he was first invited to tour ...

took Flett's place on a more permanent basis.

replaced Ure in April, initially as a touring member. White was replaced by

in September 1982, who featured on their last studio album '' Thunder and Lightning''. Thin Lizzy broke up in 1983, with their final performance taking place on 4 September on the German Monsters of Rock Tour; Lynott later died of heart failure and pneumonia on 4 January 1986.

1996 onwards

Thin Lizzy reformed in 1996, with Sykes taking over lead vocals and

joining on bass, alongside returning members Gorham, Wharton and Downey.

Tommy Aldridge Tommy Aldridge (born August 15, 1950) is an American heavy metal and hard rock drummer. He is noted for his work with numerous bands and artists since the 1970s, such as Black Oak Arkansas, Pat Travers Band, Ozzy Osbourne, Gary Moore, Whitesnak ...

replaced Downey in 1998, and Wharton left in 2001 to focus on his own band

Dare Dare may refer to: Places * Dare, East Timor, a city * Darè, Italy, a commune * Dare County, North Carolina, United States * Dare, Virginia, United States, an unincorporated community Name * Dare (name), a list of people and fictional c ...

. Mendoza and Aldridge left in 2003 to join

Whitesnake Whitesnake are an English hard rock band formed in London in 1978. The group was originally put together as the backing band for singer David Coverdale, who had recently left Deep Purple. Though the band quickly developed into their own entit ...

, with their places taken by

Guy Pratt Guy Adam Pratt (born 3 January 1962) is a British musician. He is best known for his prolific work as a session bass player, working with artists including Pink Floyd (also David Gilmour and Nick Mason), Roxy Music (also Bryan Ferry), Gary M ...

and Michael Lee, respectively. Pratt was replaced later in the year by Randy Gregg. Mendoza had returned to the band by early 2005, as had Aldridge by early 2007. Mendoza was replaced by

Francesco DiCosmo Francesco DiCosmo (born September 2, 1970) is an Italian-American rock musician, best known for his work with Evanescence, Thin Lizzy, and Chris Poland of Megadeth, and is an experienced live bassist and singer, and session musician playing bass ...

later in 2007. After more touring, Sykes departed Thin Lizzy in mid-2009, with DiCosmo and Aldridge leaving at the same time; speaking about the future of the band, Gorham claimed that "we will be back up to full speed soon". Gorham reformed Thin Lizzy in 2010 with former members Mendoza, Downey and Wharton, in addition to new guitarist

Vivian Campbell Vivian Patrick Campbell (born 25 August 1962) is a Northern Irish guitarist. He came to prominence in the early 1980s as a member of Dio (band), Dio, and has been a member of Def Leppard since 1992 (replacing Steve Clark after his death). Camp ...

and lead vocalist

. Campbell was replaced by

Richard Fortus Richard Fortus (born November 17, 1966) is an American guitarist. He has been a member of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he has recorded one studio album, since 2001. Fortus has also collaborated extensively with The Psychedelic Fur ...

after returning to

Def Leppard Def Leppard are an English rock band formed in 1976 in Sheffield. Since 1992, the band has consisted of Rick Savage (bass, backing vocals), Joe Elliott (lead vocals), Rick Allen (drums, backing vocals), Phil Collen (guitar, backing vocals), a ...

in mid-2011, before

became his permanent replacement later in the year. The band was put on hiatus in December 2012, when all members formed

Black Star Riders Black Star Riders is a hard rock band formed in December 2012. The band began when members of the most recent line-up of Thin Lizzy decided to record new material, but chose not to release it under the Thin Lizzy name. While Thin Lizzy continues ...

, before returning in 2016 with

Mikkey Dee Micael Kiriakos Delaoglou (born 31 October 1963), known professionally as Mikkey Dee, is a Swedish musician, best known as the last drummer for British heavy metal band Motörhead from 1992 until its dissolution in 2015. Dee also played temporari ...

initially announced on drums. Without performing with the band, Dee was replaced three months later by

Judas Priest Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band formed in Birmingham in 1969. They have sold over 50 million albums and are frequently ranked as one of the greatest metal bands of all time. Despite an innovative and pioneering body of work in th ...

, as

Aerosmith Aerosmith is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Boston in 1970. The group consists of Steven Tyler (lead vocals), Joe Perry (musician), Joe Perry (guitar), Tom Hamilton (musician), Tom Hamilton (bass), Joey Kramer (drums) and Brad Whi ...

's Tom Hamilton also replaced Mendoza. In April 2019,

Mastodon A mastodon ( 'breast' + 'tooth') is any proboscidean belonging to the extinct genus ''Mammut'' (family Mammutidae). Mastodons inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of th ...

History

1969–1983

1996 onwards

Original tenure (1969–1983)

Official members

Touring members

Recent years (1996 onwards)

Current members

Former members

Timeline

Lineups

Bibliography

References

External links