JOHN SYKES Talks THIN LIZZY, WHITESNAKE, BLUE MURDER

Marko Syrjälä and Jarno Huovila of Metal-Rules.com recently conducted an interview with legendary guitarist/vocalist John Sykes (THIN LIZZY, BLUE MURDER, WHITESNAKE). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Metal-Rules.com: You're once again on tour with THIN LIZZY. Is there a theme to this tour, like the 25th anniversary of the "Thunder And Lightning" album, for example?

Sykes: "Well, I said to Scott [Gorham] about it that we should do the whole 'Thunder And Lightning' album, but he didn't wanna do it, but we should have. I thought it could have been cool, you know. 25 year anniversary of 'Thunder And Lightning', do the whole record. The thing was... I was thinking if we did that and then we did a lot of the 'Live And Dangerous' stuff as well, but he didn't want it, maybe you should suggest it to him; he might listen to you (laughs)."

Metal-Rules.com: Alright, can you then tell us about the reunion of THIN LIZZY, back in 1994, almost a decade after Lynott's death?

Sykes: "I was playing in Japan a lot; I had a pretty thriving career over in Japan doing a lot there. Doing lot of press and stuff, they'd keep asking me 'Do you think there's any chance THIN LIZZY will get back together?' and I'd say 'Are you crazy? How the fuck is THIN LIZZY going to get back together?' so I just kind of shunned it and thought it was just silly and ridiculous. This went on for a couple of years, they'd just keep asking. Finally I recorded a live BLUE MURDER record and I think I did a couple THIN LIZZY songs, 'Cold Sweat' or something. They'd ask me again and I was like, 'You know what, I'll ask Scott [Gorham] about it,', because they just kept asking. So I called Scott one day told that Japanese promoters and press wanted us to go and get together and do like a reunion and asked what he thought about it and he was like, 'I don't know, let me call Brian Downey and I'll ask him.' And much to everyone's surprise, Brian said, 'Yeah, okay, let's think about it. Let's try it, let's get into rehearsal and see.' So that was the beginning. Then we got into rehearsals and then we did the shows, everything went kind of well, the shows were received very well and that was kind of the spark that started the whole thing. We realized that Phillip's songs were timeless and classic and the funny thing is we have three generations of people from young kids coming to the shows and they love the music, it spans generations. I love Scott, I have a great time with him, we get on really well and I thought, 'Let's just go out and have some fun, go play these songs, just do it the best we can and see what happens.' We kinda just did that and kept asked to do more things."

Metal-Rules.com: Have you ever considered recording new material, like a whole new studio album, as THIN LIZZY?

Sykes: "Yeah, we spoke about it actually. I've been dead against recording for a long time because I thought it might be disrespectful to start recording [as THIN LIZZY again]. There's been a lot people saying, 'We'd like to hear some new stuff.' and finally Scott wanted to do it and finally I just kind of thought, 'You know, maybe it's time. It's been a long time.' If we can come up with something great, I'm into doing it."

Metal-Rules.com: Back in 2003 or so, there were rumours of a possible reunion of WHITESNAKE, with you and David Coverdale was there any truth behind that?

Sykes: "Oh, God! Well, he called me up and started talking and asking about getting together. We talked a couple of times, he was basically asking my advice about what band to get, who to get in the band and everything. I told him [about] Tommy [Aldridge] and Marco [Mendoza], and then he never called again. He took my ideas, you know, same old joker. He changes his band every five minutes anyway, I was looking at some web site and he's had like almost forty different members in that band over the years. Shit, just go out a solo artist if that's what you're going to do!"

Metal-rules.com: Two years ago Carmine Appice told us there were plans for BLUE MURDER to do a tour in Japan, with Tony Franklin on bass, what happened?

Sykes: "Well, it's not his decision. Carmine does a lot of talking, but it's not his band so it doesn't matter. He's part of the band, but with BLUE MURDER I was the only guy signed to the contract, it was my band. I picked those guys to play in my band, but Carmine always talks like it's his band and that's why we never get together because he's too much of a pain in the ass."

Read the entire interview Metal-Rules.com.