Interviews

Ricky Warwick Interview

• 18th Jan 2011

Ricky Warwick is the driving force & lead singer of internationally know band Thin Lizzy, having grown up in Belfast, he talks us through the ups and downs of the music industry, his success, tour and brand new double A side single ““The Whisky Song, The Star Of The County Down”.

(MJay): Hey Ricky, Happy New Year, How You Doing?
(Ricky): I Am Doing Very Well Thank You & Happy New Year To You.

(MJay): Any Plans for 2011?
(Ricky): I Am Happy & Healthy Going to Keep Doing What I Love, Keep Playing and Making Music

(MJay): I Recently Researched about you and found out that you have a Brand New Double A Side Single “The Whisky Song, The Star Of The County Down” featuring “Snow Patrol’s” Nathan Connolly can you tell us about the collaboration and how it came to be?
(Ricky): Nathan’s A Friend Of Mine, We Both From the same area of Belfast In Northern Ireland, His Just A Really Good Mate Of Mine, I Asked Him if he could play Guitar on it and he was happy to help out.

(MJay): What Was The Motivation behind this Project?
(Ricky): It Was Just A Song, “A Whisky Song” that I wanted to put out with a B-Side, It Was Just a 1 off idea, but the song may end up on an album 1 day in the foreseeable future, but at the moment it was a new song and I just wanted to put it out there.

(MJay): What’s it Like Being the Front Man/Lead Singer of Thin Lizzy?
(Ricky): It’s Incredible, Really Amazing, Really Amazing.

(MJay): Tell Us A Little About Your “RICKY FECKIN WARWICK” Tour?
(Ricky): The Tour was sponsored by a whisky company called Feckin Whisky from Northern Ireland and they are a really good ice whisky and they actually sponsored the tour which is great because these days you don’t get a lot of help from record companies so you have to look outside the box, they came and did a really good job of sponsoring the tour. We went out and did a UK run but also managed to get a couple of dates out in Ireland; it was fantastic, a really good tour, really lots of fun, it was just me and a guitar but we had a lot of fun.

(MJay): Your Website is Fantastic and has all the information a Fan would need to know about you, but are you Personally on any of the social networking sites (Twitter, facebook etc?) if so can we get some links for the fans?
(Ricky): Yeah Absolutely, I Think you have to because these days if you a musician it’s all about being in contact with people who love your music. I try make myself accessible as possible to the people who like what I do. I try to reply to as much stuff as I can, I mean its impossible to reply to everything but I certainly go on there everyday to let people know what I am doing and what I am up to. It’s the main way now to let people know what you doing touring wise and when you in the studio and stuff like that, so it’s definitely a necessary place to be and you can definitely catch me on twitter, facebook and all the networking sites.
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(MJay): I Read Your Blog where you say “Growing UP In Belfast was a lot different than say, London or Los Angeles, why do you feel this?
(Ricky): We Had the Troubles, it was all about what was going on in the 70’s & 80’s when I was a kid which was the situation with the Government and IRN so it was a very dangerous place to live in when you were a kid. On top of that a lot of bands wouldn’t come over and play, we were really, really starved for music, when a band came over to play everybody would go see them because it was very rare and so when we started getting our own scene which is the Punk-Rock scene towards the end of the 70’s that was just a god send because suddenly there was bands from our own streaks that were starting to do well. They were playing in Belfast and all over the country regularly and we would go see them, so that’s what was different because the kids over in the UK and the mainland or the states had concerts that they could go to every night of the week, where as we didn’t because of the situation that we were living in, we were practically living in a war zone so that’s what was different for us.

(MJay): Can We Expect An Album This Year?
(Ricky): I Am Not Sure, I am going to try. I got some stuff written just depends how busy we are with Lizzy and if I can get a break, but there will be an album at some point maybe this year, maybe early next year.

(MJay): Any Advice You could Offer to aspiring musicians?
(Ricky): The Most Important thing at the end of the day is the music and staying true to what you believe in, write from your heart that’s a good starting point, make sure you writing really good songs that you believe in but you know that other people will believe in 2, listen to advice but only listen to good advice which is very hard to do there’s a lot of rubbish out there, people will try to change you but as soon as you don’t feel comfortable about something don’t do it, if it doesn’t feel right don’t do it, do what feels right, listen to the people that give you good advice, stick to your guns, just stick to your guns and you will be fine.

(MJay): Great Speaking To You Ricky, All the Best for the New Year, Any Shout Outs/Last Words?
(Ricky): Yeah I just wish everybody all the best For the New Year. Love, Peace & Happiness. Thank You for Supporting Me.