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 Whether you've only encountered his work over recent years as the current lead guitarist and vocalist with Thin Lizzy, or perhaps been a fan from his days with Blue Murder or the Tygers of Pan Tang, John Sykes is a iconic figure within the rock music world.
With Thin Lizzy about to set off on their latest UK tour, Komodo Rock's Mike Elliott spoke with the man himself about the current touring incarnation of Thin Lizzy, his plans with Blue Murder, and more.
Mike Elliott: Your going to play the whole of 'Live and Dangerous' on the upcoming UK Tour?
John Sykes: I just found that out, I found out two days ago.
ME: What was the idea behind doing that?
JS: It's thirty years since the Live and Dangerous album came out and it got suggested by one of the management team and it's a great classic album. I think it's one of the old favourites, it's certainly one of my favourites anyway, it's got a lot of good content.
We opened up for Deep Purple a load of times, they're a great load of guys, and they were doing the whole of the machine head album when we were out with them on one of the tours, and that was quite exciting. So when this got brought up a couple of days a go I was like yeah. I'm kinda under the gun because I've got to learn all these songs, some of which we've never played before, but it should be fine, it's a classic album with great great content.
ME: You toured with Deep Purple earlier this year as well.
JS: We love those guys, they're really great fellas.
ME: So it's really nice to get out on the road with them.
JS: Yeah and they're really friendly, and we get on well. It's two seventies acts, it's a really good bill, and they're lovely people to work with.
ME: That always makes it easier when your out on the road if your all friends. It makes the whole touring experience for you guys easier and less stressful.
JS: And it's nice and easy, everyone gets along, and knows their part. It worked out pretty fine.
ME: Have you guys done stuff together on stage.
JS: I got up and jammed with them a couple of times, we toured America with them, England. We've done a few different runs with them. It's like a really friendly family. And plus I've always been a big of Deep Purple from when I was a kid. I always loved listening to those old classics.
ME: It's gotta be great going out there and going wow these are the guys I grew up listening to.
JS: When I was a kid, they were some of my heroes, one of the great British rock bands of all time.
ME: Queensryche have just had to pull out of the UK tour. Were you disappointed about that?
 JS: I was disappointed, I only just found out when I was flying. They called me when I was changing planes, and the management called me and said Queensryche's off the tour. I'm like what? At this late stage? It couldn't be avoided. I guess someone got sick. I've only been here a couple of days so I don't know the whole details yet. I'm kinda more trying to figure out all these lyrics I've got to remember! Panic stations here!
ME: They'll send you with a piece of paper with the lyrics on them!
JS: All my notes on the back of the guitar!
ME: I think it's a real shame. I thought it was gonna be a superb concert.
JS: I thought it was going to be great too, cause they're a great band. I was looking forward to it. Maybe we can do it again some other time. I don't know who we've got replacing them, they're probably trying to put that together right now.
ME: I know it's always been said that you guys won't do an album. Is that still the case?
JS: I don't feel it's right. This incarnation of the band is more about remembering Phill, and paying respect to his music and legacy. That's really what it's about, it's not about doing new music. It's about his legacy and his music being timeless, and what a great gift to all of us, through his music and song witting. Phil was a one off sort of giant, if you ever met him he had the presence of like a thousand men. He was a born rock star.
ME: Not something I had the privilege of doing.
JS: Trust me, he was a one off. I've been the game for a long long time, and I've never met anyone like him. The fact that we go out today, and there's a lot of youngsters in the audience. I say to them, 16 or 17 year old kids, how did you get turned onto Thin Lizzy, and a lot of them say we grew up with it with our parents. It's amazing to see the younger audience come out and be so into it. It's a testament to how great Phil's songs are and how timeless they are.
ME: I think it must be testament to how good a job you guys are doing with keeping that legacy going.
JS: We go out there and give it our all, it's definitely 100% every night. We enjoy doing it, and I love playing with Scott and there's lots of great guitar parts. It's interesting all round for us.
ME: Was it ever something you were ever worried about, stepping into those mammoth shoes.
JS: How it actually started was, I was in Japan doing a lot of solo stuff, working over there for a lot of years, and they kept saying to me, is there any chance Thin Lizzy are going to get back together. And I said how could there be without Phil. And they just kept asking and asking. I'd done a live album, and I think I'd done Cold Sweat or something, and they kept asking and asking.
Finally on the off chance I called Scott [Gorham, Thin Lizzy Guitarist], and I'm like Scott, I know it sounds crazy, but these Japanese guys keep asking if we're going to get together and play again, so I kinda explained to him what was going on. And he said, send me the CD and let me check it out, and he listened to it, and said yeah it sounds pretty good.
Next thing he called Brian Downey and the ball started rolling and everyone agreed to it, I think that was 1992 or something, early nineties. That was the thing that really go it started. I would never have dreamt we would ever have done it again, but we got such a good reception, and then we started getting asked to play in different areas. And one thing kinda led to another.
 Phil's music almost seems to go from strength to strength.
These days, the newer music today, it doesn't seem to have that sort of depth or weight to it, that the old seventies stuff does. It's funny because when we were growing up in the seventies, we didn't know that all these bands from the seventies, like Black Sabbath were going to become the icons of today, they're the godfathers of metal.
ME: The seventies really did produce so many legendary bands.
JS: Queen, Thin Lizzy. We really grew up in a great time you know, it was a really great time.
ME: Floyd as well.
JS: Yeah Floyd, yeah my god. I think the industry back then was more free, and artists could kinda do more of their art rather than being dictated to by a guy in an office running the business side of things. I think that's had a lot to do with it. When you get people dictating, you can't have a song over 3 minutes long, you have to sound like this or that. Rather than an artist being able to paint the picture they want they end up trying to please some guy with a suit on in an office. It becomes a bit sanitised, that's not really what arts about. These days combined with technology Pro tools and things like that, a lot of players today can go in a studio and the most important guy in the room is the guy running the computer.
ME: I'm guessing that's not something that you guys have to worry about so much because you don't have a guy in a suit wanting you to record more music.
JS: That's the beauty of being able to go out and play all this stuff. Even though we're playing all the same material it's still a great thrill to play those songs in front of a live audience. Every nights a different experience.
ME: Different place, different town, different crowd.
JS: Yeah, and it's always great to see everybody with their arms up in the air with a great big smile on their face.
ME: I'm going to take you away from Thin Lizzy for a minute if you don't mind. There's been a lot of reformations of bands over the last few years. Is there any chance we'll see you going back to Blue Murder one day.
JS: You know, I've been talking to the guys about doing that, I wouldn't mind doing it. Tony Franklin works for Fender now, he's been working for Fender for quite some time. We're all pretty close where we live. The main thing is though is, because Tony's been there for 12 years or something, logistically it's a little tough to be able to say I'm going to go on the road for this amount of time. Obviously he's put a lot of time in, and he's got his work there. I think he could set some time aside, he said he could, and we all want to do it, it's just a case of setting up a time when we can all get together and get out and play some places and have so fun. We want to do it, it's just a case of setting it up and getting everyone on the same page.
I've been saying this for a couple of years, but I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't get it together in the next year or eighteen months. Maybe this coming year, I'd like to get it together this coming year and go out and do some stuff, cause there's some great music on there.
Unfortunately we never really had the support of the label behind that one. Tony had said to me about a month ago, have you listened to the album lately, and I was like no, I haven't heard it in years. Well just put it on and go have a listen, so one night I dug it out, blew the dust off it and put it on, and I was like, that really does sound good to me, it's really kicking. The productions great on it to. I ended up speaking to Bob [Rock, producer of the self titled Blue Murder album], and I said that record we did together that's a killer record, he was like yeah that really came together. It was a pleasant experience to put it on, and look back, and it made me want to do it more. It's definitely time. I love doing Lizzy and that's great and classic, but I've got to get out there and do some of my old stuff too, i gotta make it happen. Keep your eye out.
 ME: The other stuff you worked on years ago was the Tygers, and they're recording now.
JS: Is that Rob [Weir, Tygers of Pan Tang Guitarist] doing that?
ME: Yeah they've just put out a new EP out with 2 new songs and 3 re-recorded tracks, in preparation for a new album next year.
JS: That's great! I was talking to Rob about a year ago, and he was telling me that there was some demos that came out from one of the albums, and they got put out by someone, and he said they were really good. I didn't really remember us doing those demos, but I'm kinda curious to hear. I'll have to dig around the web and try and find them.
He's a really nice guy Rob, we used to have some great laughs together.
ME: Is that something you'd like to go back to about at some point, maybe get up for one night?
JS: I might get up with him and have a jam with him, if I'm around, and we're in the same spot. I wouldn't say no to that, get up and have a play, and see what happens. He's a nice guy, I like him a lot. I like all those fellas. If I'm playing in Newcastle, he'll come out, so hopefully I'll see him on this tour when we get there.
ME: The last thing was your time with Whitesnake.
JS: That was a great thing. I did that run with Whitesnake, co-wrote the 1987 album, I think we came up with some magic there. Unfortunately he changed the band around as he does many times, he lost the magic I think. We tallied up there was more than 30 members been in that band over the years. It's kinda hard for people to relate when it's an ever revolving door.
I don't think he's ever really topped that music we did together, and I don't think he ever really will.
ME: That period in the mid eighties was almost perfect songs.
JS: Back in those days when we had Cozzy [Powell] on drums, it was a really powerful blues rock band, it was definitely happening. Times moves on, and things change you know. Live and learn I guess.
A huge thank you to John for taking the time to talk with us.
You can catch Thin Lizzy on tour in the UK during November and December.
The bands full schedule shapes up as follows:
Leicester De
Montfort Hall (Nov 22)
Cambridge Corn Exchange (Nov 23)
Ipswich Regent (Nov
24)
Nottingham Royal Concert Hall (Nov 26)
Birmingham Academy (Nov 27)
Cardiff St David's Hall (Nov 28)
Glasgow Academy (Nov 30)
Aberdeen Music Hall
(Dec 1)
Newcastle City Hall (Dec 2)
Sheffield City Hall (Dec 4)
Manchester
Apollo (Dec 5)
Liverpool University (Dec 6)
Bristol Colston Hall (Dec 8)
Southampton Guildhall (Dec 9)
Exeter University (Dec 10)
Folkstone Leas Cliff
(Dec 12)
London Hammersmith Apollo (Dec 13)
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