PLANET ROCK 65the band and brought with him a lot of posiĥ
tivity and energy, and he showed me the whole
drop D/Sabbath tuning, and that changed the
way we went about writing. We loved the
whole grunge scene, those bands sounded
punky as fuck, but heavy as fuck as well, which
was what we’d been trying to do. We’d always
promised that we would never be a band to
make the same album again and again. There
were some complaints, of course, but a lot of
people just don’t like change.
So you finally toured America on that
album?
Yeah, we booked a nine week tour and it nearĥ
ly fucking broke the band! We did it in two
vans, driving 700 miles, and then playing
shows to empty rooms. It’s just fucking hard
work. You’re a successful band in the UK and
Europe and then you get to America and you
realise that no one gives a fuck. It’s very humĥ
bling. It’s the typical thing where you’re in
New York and Boston and everyone from the
label is there, and the gigs are fairly full, and
the same on the West Coast in LA and San
Francisco, but then you get to Boise, Idaho
and there’s three people and a fucking dog.
When we got on Headbangers’ Ball and
suddenly there were 100 people and a dog, but
still, that’s not enough to sustain you.
When did you realise you weren’t going to
crack the US?
I remember we played with Metallica at
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ĭDQGWKHQH[WGD\ZHÀHZWR$PHULFDWR
start our tour at some club in Pennsylvania
And we were opening up for a Metallica tribĥ
ute band, Fade To Black. The guys in the band
were like, “Hey, you’re from the UK, what was
the last gig you played?” And you can’t say,
“Actually, we opened up for Metallica in front
of 8 5 ,000 people, and now we’re here supportĥ
ing you in front of 8 5 people!” We never got on
a good tour in America, and got in front of
people, and that just beat us in the end.
Your fourth album Crank brought another
change of sound.
I actually think CrankLVWKHPRVW$OPLJKW\ĥ
sounding record of everything we done. If
you’d asked me in 1988 what I wanted the
EDQGWRVRXQGOLNH,¶GKDYHVDLGH[DFWO\OLNH
Crank. I remember it as a brilliant time.
There was great unity in the band, we were
playing really well, our shows were really
intense. We borrowed Iron Maiden’s PA
system, put it in this little bar outside
Brighton, and we’d just crank out these
ULɱVDOOGD\ ORXGDVEDOOV%\WKHHQGRI
three weeks down there we’d Crank
written. It my favourite time of the whole
H[SHULHQFH %XWWKHQRQWKHRWKHUKDQGP\
marriage was falling apart, and at 27/28 you just
ignore that and hope it goes away. There was a
lot of drug taking during that recording, me
trying to hide and get away from the reality
that I didn’t want to have to deal with.Just Add Life, album five, seemed like
something of a reaction to BritPop.
By that point I think it’s fair to say that the
other guys had lost a bit of interest in the
band... and I had as well, but I didn’t realise it.
I pretty much wrote that record on my own,
and it was an attempt to inject some commerĥ
ciality into the band, if I’m really honest.
7KHUHDUHVRPHUHDOO\KHDY\VRQJVRQWKHUHĦ
VRQJVOLNHDQG)HHG7KH1HHGĦEXW,ZDV
very much going back to the 14, 1 5 year old me,
only listening to punk. I think it’s a great
DOEXPEXWLWZDVGH¿QLWHO\WKHEHJLQQLQJRI
the end. I remember phoning my manager to
say I wanted out on pretty much the same
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the Top 3 0, which seems bizarre. I felt lost, I
GLGQ¶WNQRZ ZKHUHZH¿WWHG
anymore. So I decided I
was leaving, which in hindĥ
sight was totally the wrong
fucking decision. I was a
bit of an arsehole, quite
SLJĥKHDGHGWhen it finished, how did you feel, because
so much of your identity was bound up in
being ‘Ricky from The Almighty’?
Alright, initially. My divorce had come
through, I moved to Dublin, and I started a
EDQGFDOOHGĪVLFīZKLFK,ORYHGZLWKWZRJX\V
I loved. There was a great buzz on the band
and it looked like we were going to get signed
on a worldwide deal by Mercury. And then, the
day before we were due to sign that contract,
WKHJX\JRW¿UHGDQGDOOGHDOVZHUHRɱ7KDW
sent me into a downward spiral, complete
depression, disillusionment with everything.
The money ran out and I started to really hate
music, and everything that went with it. I
ZHQWGRZQDYHU\GDUNURDGIRUVL[PRQWKVIn what way?
Using way too many substances, hating myself
and hating the world. I was selling a guitar
every month to pay my bills. But I dragged myĥ
VHOIRɱWKHQDUFRWLFVVWDUWHGJRLQg to the gym,
DQGVWDUWHGJHWWLQJP\KHDGFOHDU -RH(OOLRWW
DQGĬ7KHUDS\"IURQWPDQĭ $QG\&DLUQVZHUH
both amazing to me, fucking brilliant, and they
encouraged me to start writing songs again.
7KH$OPLJKW\UHIRUPHGIRUWZRDOEXPVĬ¶V
The Almighty and 2001’s 3V\FKRĦ1DUFRĭEXWLW
wasn’t the same. The game was up. But I got
VRPHPRQH\IRUDVRORGHDODQGWKHQ-RHWRRN
me into his studio and we made my Tattoos &
Alibis album. And slowly my swagger and
FRQ¿GHQFHFDPHEDFNLife has worked out pretty good since, with
Black Star Riders, your solo career and
Thin Lizzy. But there must still be people
asking you about your days in The
Almighty...
$OOWKHWLPH $QGZHVWLOOJHWRɱHUV
WRSOD\IHVWLYDOVJRRGRɱHUV %XW,
don’t feel like I need to go back. I love
that people remember us fondly,
and I love that we have
a legacy. There’s
still some people
who’ll see me
as ‘Ricky from
The Almighty’
DQGWKDW¶V2.
with me.“I WAS USING TOO MANY
SUBSTANCES, HATING
MYSELF AND HATING
THE WORLD.”
GETTY
All sussed
out: Warwick
in Belfast in
2019.