I’ve been recording interviews for the Friday NI Rocks Show for over eight years now, but somewhat surprisingly Northern Ireland singer and Black Star Riders front man Ricky Warwick has never been amongst my guests – until now. Ricky released his latest solo album, “When Life Was Hard and Fast”, through Nuclear Blast Records on 19th February and when the opportunity arose to have a chat I jumped at it. We spoke via Skype on 24th February. You can read the interview below or listen to what we talked about on the Friday NI Rocks Show for 5th March 2021. That Show is available from our MixCloud site - 

https://www.mixcloud.com/NIRocks/interview-with-ricky-warwick-on-the-friday-ni-rocks-show-on-5th-march-2021/ 

 

The new album is produced and co-written by former Buckcherry guitarist Keith Nelson. It also features drummer Xavier Muriel and bass player Robert Crane. Other guests include Joe Elliott, Luke Morley, Andy Taylor, Dizzy Reed and Ricky’s daughter Pepper.

 

 

 

 

Playlist for the Show

GASOLINE OUTLAWS – Breathe Again

EVERY MOTHER’S NIGHTMARE – Sin In My Heart

TOXICROSE – Domination

THE END MACHINE – Blood And Money

LEVARA – Heaven Knows

FM – Tough It Out (Live)

SHALLOW SIDE – Juke Box Hero

RICKY WARWICK – When Life Was Hard and Fast

Interview with RICKY WARWICK Part 1 (9 min)

RICKY WARWICK – You Don’t Love Me

Interview with RICKY WARWICK Part 2 (9 min)

RICKY WARWICK – Time Doesn’t Seem To Matter

Interview with RICKY WARWICK Part 3 (7 min)

RICKY WARWICK – Still Alive

BLACK STAR RIDERS – Another State of Grace

THE ALMIGHTY – Over The Edge

A RISING FORCE – Love and War

CROWNE – Mad World

THE BACK FOUR – This Is Where It All Begins

RORY GALLAGHER – Do You Read Me (Live)

SWEET – Set Me Free

WHEN RIVERS MEET – Walking on the Wire

METALITE – Cloud Connected

SECRET RULE – Mother Earth

WHITEABBEY – Swan

METALLICA – Master of Puppets

 

 

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/rickywarwickofficial/

 

 

 

NI ROCKS – HI Ricky, thanks for taking some time to talk with us. We’ve just played the title track from your new album “When Life Was Hard and Fast”. What can you tell us about that track first of all?

RICKY – Thanks for having me on the Show Nigel. Yeah, that is obviously the title track of the new album. It was co-written by myself and Keith Nelson, who co-produced the album, and my good buddy Sam Robinson from Belfast who I obviously worked with on the “Patsy Cline” album quite a lot. Sam and I were chatting about growing up in Northern Ireland in the 70’s and 80’s and our hopes and dreams and aspirations. And what it was like pre-internet and pre-cellphone when we were kids. Sam just started scribbling down some lyrics and there was a bit of backwards and forwards between us. I think he just wrote a great autobiography of our lives. There are great lines in there like “how are you going to keep me working on this farm when I can see the road ahead is tattooed on my arm”. That was my life – I grew up on a small farm between Dundonald and Newtownards. I never wanted to be a farmer (laughs) – it just wasn’t in me, even though that was what was expected of me. I was just always dreaming of being in a rock n roll band and escaping and seeing the world. I think it’s a song about looking back to move forward really.

 

NI ROCKS – The new album was released on 19th February by Nuclear Blast Records and first week sales figures have been great. Do you still have expectations or anxieties when you release a new album?

RICKY – Yeah, it’s brutal. You want it to do as well as possible and reach as many people as possible. It’s been amazing with the chart success that The Almighty had and obviously Black Star Riders have had, it’s been great. But, out of all my solo records, this is definitely the one that has had the biggest impact so far and it’s lovely to see that and lovely to see new people getting on board and checking out Ricky Warwick’s music. But of course I do – I still get the anxiety and still thinking hopefully we’ll sneak into the Top 40 – it’s still important and it still means a lot to me.

 

NI ROCKS – You’ve worked with former Buckcherry guitarist Keith Nelson in regard to production and a lot of the song writing. How did you link up with Keith originally?

RICKY – Long story and I’ll try and make it as quick as possible. When Damon Johnson left Black Star Riders obviously there was a void there for a guitar player. My buddy Richard Fortus who plays in Guns n Roses called me up and said why don’t you check out Keith Nelson, he has just left Buckcherry and I think he’d be perfect for the band. So I got a number and called Keith and had a quick chat on the phone. We arranged to meet and we met up in Barney’s Beanery in North Hollywood here in LA, early one morning. He walked in and the first thing he said to me was “I’m not your guy!” (Laughs). I was like – what the hell are you doing here? Why have you come to meet me? Why are you wasting your time and my time? He said “I love the band, I love Black Star Riders – I love everything about the band, I just thought that I should turn up and tell you in person. I think that would be the honourable thing to do”. I thought that was kinda cool and we just got chatting and he said listen, I’ve come off the road and the reason that I left Buckcherry is that I don’t really want to tour anymore. I have my own studio and I’m writing and producing and that is what I’m into. Why don’t you come over and check in out and maybe we can write a song”. A couple of days later I went over to the studio and sure enough we started working on a song. Great chemistry between us right from the get-go – similar age, similar upbringing, blue collar working class boys, similar taste in music, both loved vintage guitars. We actually ended up doing a demo of the song “Fighting Hearts”. I took the song away and was listening to the demo over the weekend and on the Monday I called him up and said that was amazing, I think we have something here. I have more than enough ideas for a solo record – would you like to work on it with me, would you like to co-produce it or co-write it? Keith said I’m in, let’s do it! That’s how the whole thing started and the whole thing worked out really well. With Keith not doing Black Star Riders we ended up getting Christian Martucci who is phenomenal as well, so it was win-win all round!

 

NI ROCKS – You’ve also Xavier Muriel on drums and Robert Crane on bass. Robert obviously is part of the Black Star Riders line-up. Have you worked with Xavier before or was that Keith’s suggestion?

RICKY – That was Keith’s suggestion and Robert was mine. Keith suggested Xavier right from the get-go and obviously I had hear Xavier’s playing on the Buckcherry stuff and he is a great drummer. He came in and he just killed it, he was really good. You know, when I do a solo record I want to try and work with somebody who is not in the bands that I’m already in, but I just love Robert so much that I have to have him every time. He is just such a brilliant bass player; but more than that – he’s just such a good person to have around. His energy and his attitude is so positive and he is a hell of a funny guy. He’s just such a good solid guy to have around and I love being around Robert. We’re so close, we’re like brothers. I just couldn’t think of anybody else that I wanted to play bass on it. I’ll go for Robert Crane every time.

 

NI ROCKS – And it was recorded then in Keith’s studio was it?

RICKY – The backing tracks were recorded in a studio called Stagg Street Studio in West Hollywood and then we did all the overdubs in Keith’s studio.

NI ROCKS – I read that you recorded most of the album live as a band. Do you have a preference for that approach, with everyone being together in the studio, rather than working remotely and sharing files and all that stuff?

RICKY – For me, I think it’s the only way. I think sharing files is good once you get further down the road and you want somebody to play on a track that is in a different country. That’s when that is key and that is important. That has been a revolution when it comes to stuff like that; but actually putting down the backing tracks and getting the feel for the song, no matter how good technology gets, I don’t think you’re ever going to replace the human soul and when you’re in a room looking at each other, vibing off each other playing together – you can’t bottle that! That’s important to me and every record that I make the basic backing tracks should always, in my opinion, be put down like that.

 

NI ROCKS – You’ve also quite a few special guests appearing on the new album. Do you want to tell us who they are and also explain the process. Do you write the track with someone in mind or does that fall into place afterwards?

RICKY – Not specifically no. The tracks are written and then it’s a case of...ah man, it’d be really cool if I got Joe Elliott to sing backing vocals on that or I got Andy Taylor; that’s when that sort of comes into it. Doing a solo record, you can be as narcissistic as you want and that gives you the freedom to do that. I’m blessed that these people – are friendships forged in thirty years of playing rock n roll. They are my dear friends, but they are also incredible musicians and I’m a big fan of everything that they do in their own right. It’s just a case of picking up a phone and saying I’m working on a new record, would you like to play a guitar solo on this track. Again, it’s kind of incestuous; I’ve worked with them over the years. I’ve sang on a Def Leppard record, obviously Joe Elliott has produced two of my solo records. Joe is like a mentor to me and one of my best friends. I’m always sending him ideas. It’s hard to argue with a guy who has sold 150 million records! (Laughs) You’re always going to value his opinion you know!

NI ROCKS – He’s doing something right!

RICKY – Yeah! He’s always a good sounding board for me. When I do a solo album it’s inconceivable for me not to have Joe Elliott involved in some way because he is just such a good guy. Andy Taylor – the same thing. I’ve been working with Andy the last couple of years. He has solo album coming out later this year which I’ve been lucky enough to co-write some songs on with him. Again, it was, hey can you return the favour? Dizzy Reed from Guns N Roses – I’ve know Dizzy for years and he lives here in LA. The good thing about Dizzy was that he was able to come into the studio and physically play on the record; which was nice. Again, I wrote a song on Dizzy’s solo album that came out a few years ago. Luke (Morley) from Thunder – Luke and I go away back to The Almighty  and Thunder coming up at the same time, both living in London. Luke and I used to hang out and party quite a bit back in the day. Luke obviously is an honourary member of Black Star Riders having filled in for Damon Johnston in South America a few years ago. I’ve always wanted to get Luke on a track and I was delighted – he plays a great solo on “You Don’t Love Me”. And the most important guest of all is my daughter Pepper, who is the one that took the most convincing! (Laughs).   

 

NI ROCKS – We’ll play another track from the new album now. Do you want to pick a track this time and tell us something about it?

RICKY – Lets go with “You Don’t Love Me” because I was talking about Luke Morley’s great guitar solo on that. I love this one because there’s a big, bombastic guitar riff. Keith Nelson wrote a great chorus for it which is really uplifting and Luke kills it the guitar. The essence behind the song is you don’t love me, I don’t care. Two fingers up to you kind of thing. (laughs)

 

NI ROCKS – Leaving aside the new solo album just for a moment. This month also sees the re-release of The Almighty’s album “Powertrippin” by Cherry Red Records and there are plans for a new box set next month. What can you tell us about those?

RICKY – Finally! I think that’s the key word here. The Almighty stuff has been all over the place for so many years with so many different labels and managements involved. We’ve spent a long, long time trying to clear all the licensing involved in that so that finally we could everything up online and finally get everything released. It’s a sense of relief and it makes me very happy that finally the house is in order – as it were – and everything is out there now or will be out there and made available. Obviously, “Powertrippin” was a seminal album for the band. It was a Top 5 album in the UK and was huge for the band at the time; so I’m really pleased that it will now be available for everybody because it has been annoying me for years that the band hasn’t been represented the way that it should have been if the stuff had been available. Happy days!

 

NI ROCKS – This year actually marks the twentieth anniversary of the release of the seventh and final studio album from The Almighty – “Psycho-Narco” was released in December 2001. Is there anything further planned as far as The Almighty re-releases or indeed anything else coming through?

RICKY – We’re working on hopefully getting a boxset together. I think this one is from ’94 onwards and I think we’re going to try to put one together with the Polydor years, which would be everything from ’89 up to ’93. I think that is the next logical step, so we’re working on it. As I said we’re in the process of making sure that everything is available in the best possible way that we can get it out there.

 

NI ROCKS – After The Almighty split in 2001 you took a very different path musically for a few years, particularly with the first solo album “Tattoos & Alibis”.  What was behind the change of direction at that time?

RICKY – A lot of things. It wasn’t a good time. The Almighty reforming when we did those two albums, which were great; but I think my heart wasn’t entirely in it and I was kidding myself that it was. No disrespect to the guys who were in the band at the time – they were phenomenal guys and great players; I’m still friendly with them to this day. But, I think I was looking for a void and I looked backwards instead of forwards. I kinda lost my way a bit – there was a lot of stuff going on that wasn’t really good back then Nigel and I fell between the cracks. No fault of anybody else – it was me that made those choices, so I’ve nobody but myself to blame. I got very disillusioned with music as a whole and was pretty much ready to walk away from the whole thing and turn my back on it. A couple of things happened. Fate kind of intervened. Joe Elliott was inspirational and kinda grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and gave me a good shake and a good talking to. Then I managed to secure a publishing deal which renewed my vigour and belief. It was really Joe and the guy who owned the publishing company – I’d written a couple of acoustic songs and they really pushed me in that direction and said this is something I think you could be good at; why don’t you try and explore it a bit more. So I did and it was really just about re-inventing myself and falling back in love with rock n roll. That’s really what happened. I had to get over the disillusionment – it was never the music that let me down – it was the business side, and I just had to pick myself back up and say right I’m not going to let this bet me. It’s all going to be on my terms now – which it was.  I just changed my whole way of thinking, my whole approach, my whole idea – not just to rock n roll, but to life. It was a really good awakening for me and I’ve really looked back since that point twenty years ago to be honest with you.

   

NI ROCKS – We’ll jump forward slightly and bypass a few years where you reformed and toured with The Almighty and joining the band Circus Diablo for a couple of years. In 2010 you joined Thin Lizzy on an invite from Scott Gorman. You’ve talked often about what a thrill that was. However, I’m sure that also brought the inevitable online trolls, as things tend to these days. How do you deal with that – not just with Thin Lizzy, but generally.

RICKY – (Laughs) BAMO! Block and Move On! Simple as that! Don’t let it get to you, just block and move on. I really can’t buy into the whole thing of if I don’t like you, or I don’t like something about you or something you’ve done – I wouldn’t go out of my way to tell you that and make that person feel bad! Who am I to judge? It’s my opinion, which I’m entitled to! But the whole negativity thing online – spending time typing something in to tell someone how shit you think they are! You’re the person who has the problem, you’re the person that needs to look in the mirror and have a good long look at yourself! I think there’s a line on the new album – “you can’t fix yourself, by breaking somebody else, that ain’t the solution” – and I really adhere to that. Putting people down, spreading negativity  and hatred – it’s a dead-end road; there’s nothing at the end of it. There’s no redemption, there’s no redeeming feature. It doesn’t work and it has been proven time and time again.

A lot of time people say “No Phil, No Lizzy” – I go I agree with you absolutely! I wish that could be the way, but you know what, Phil is longer with us and his songs are. What rock n roller or musician wants their songs to die with them when they die? I certainly don’t. The reason you write songs is to leave a legacy that will live on for time immortal – forever. I always go, yeah he’s gone and I agree Phil is the lead singer of Thin Lizzy, nobody else is. I’m certainly not the lead singer of Thin Lizzy, but guess what; I’ve been given the chance to sing his songs and look after them and keep the spirit of Phil and the band alive and that’s all that I’m trying to do. If somebody want to read more into it than that, that’s on them. I’m a Lizzy fanatic, I’m a Lizzy fan, so I’m coming at it from that whole approach, the same as everybody else. A long answer to your question, but I don’t have time for it, I don’t have time for negativity and hatred and stuff like that. It doesn’t bother me.

NI ROCKS – Yeah, totally agree with you. Too much of it around unfortunately.

RICKY – There is indeed mate.

 

NI ROCKS – After Thin Lizzy there was Black Star Riders of course. That band has now released four albums. The latest of those was “Another State of Grace” in 2019 – also on the Nuclear Blast Records label. We’ll play a track from that album later in the Show. Which track would you pick and why?

RICKY – I think we should go with the title track, just because I love it (laughs). I think it was one of the first songs that I worked on with Christian Martucci when he joined the band. Martucci joining the band has been a revelation for us. He is just such a great guy and I’m so happy that he is part of Black Star Riders and I love working with him.

 

NI ROCKS – The band played Belfast that October in 2019 and to be honest, looking back, it seems a lot longer ago with covid in-between. It seems forever ago and was probably one of the last gigs I attended; there were maybe a few after that. With touring being such a big part of your life for so long, how do you adjust to the changed environment over the last year?

RICKY - I’ve just had to. There’s no choice. You have two options here – you try to be positive and move forward and embrace the position that you find yourself in. Or you curl up in a ball, and roll backwards and forwards and go woe is me! There is nothing good that is going to come out of that. When it happened I thought what can I do here? How can I get through this – what can I try to accomplish with this new situation that we’re all in? I started exploring the online gig thing. I had no concept of it before – it was all new to me. I’m doing about one a month now and that has been a godsend because it gives me something to focus on every month and something to rehearse songs up for. You can still engage with everybody out there when you’re playing and obviously it’s not the same, but it has certainly helped fill a void. For me it’s just throwing myself even more into my little studio that I have at home, writing more and being creative and just trying to stay busy every day.

 

NI ROCKS – When do you think we might see another Black Star Riders album being released?

RICKY – It’s looking like it is going to be 2022. It’s written and ready to go. We’re really just waiting to get into the studio. I think that is probably going to be towards the end of this summer, that we get into the studio with Jay Ruston again and make album number five. Plans are afoot, absolutely.

 

NI ROCKS – We’ll get back to your new solo album again and play another track. Once again, do you want to pick a track and tell us something about it?

RICKY – Do you want to play one of the slower ones? Are you cool to play “Time Don’t Seem to Matter”, because that’s the one that I did with Pepper, my daughter. Obviously it’s a proud dad moment and it was just lovely having her on the record.

 

NI ROCKS – Your last solo albums, of original material, first appeared in 2014 following a pledgemusic campaign. It was released on vinyl a few years after that. So there was almost seven years between solo albums this time – the longest gap to date. Was that simply been because you were so busy with Black Star Riders or was there any anything else?

RICKY – The album came out on Pledge in 2014, but the album wasn’t officially released by Nuclear Blast until 2016 and I did tour with The Fighting Hearts twice in 2016. So I guess it has been five rather than seven, but it is still a long time (laughs). Black Star Riders is the day job and Black Star Riders in that time put out two albums and toured consistently. The time and the effort and the writing of those two records is the thing that takes up the most time. With scheduling, I can’t put out a Black Star Riders album and then three months later say, oh by the way, here’s a Ricky Warwick album. That’s too much. And it’s the same with gigs. I can’t come and play Belfast with Black Star Riders and then a month later be there with Ricky Warwick.

NI ROCKS – Of course, you could!

RICKY – Thank you for saying that. Certain people might like that, but the promoters would be saying no, it’s not happening. You know what I mean. You have to schedule it all in and that’s where management usually comes in. We usually work in cycles and we usually work in two year cycles when we’re doing something. So, if there’s a Black Star Riders album coming out – this is in a normal world obviously when we don’t have covid – you basically say the album is out in September and we’re going to tour it for a year and a half. So you know what you’re doing and what your schedule is for that year and a half. So really that’s the planning for the solo record – the solo record was actually recorded in 2019 and finished in 2019, pre pandemic. It was always scheduled to be released in 2021, but because last year we thought we’d be out all year with Black Star Riders – obviously that didn’t happen – but it didn’t make any sense to move the solo album six months forward into the midst of a full-on pandemic and we just stuck to the plan basically.

 

NI ROCKS – The new album is released in a number of formats including the rocket red vinyl version that myself and quite a few other people in Northern Ireland have bought. I think quite a few of those 300 ended up in Northern Ireland I think! Tell us about the album cover and how much input do you get in regard to vinyl formats and that kind of stuff.

RICKY – 100% it’s all me. 100% myself and my management are in total control of everything that we do. Going back to what we were talking about twenty years ago and telling you about losing my way; that was one of the things that I vowed that I’d never give up control to anybody of anything ever again. The buck stops with me and I’ve nobody to blame but myself if something goes wrong. Making decisions about album covers and vinyl and everything like that all starts with myself, or the band in Black Star Riders case, or with my management.

With the cover obviously being a scene from the Ards TT Race from the early ‘30’s – at the corner of my grandfather’s farm between Dundonald and Newtownards, Quarry Corner. It depicts a crash scene and obviously is very personal to me. I wanted something to tie into that title and that energy – it all just went together. I’ve been interested in the Ards TT for many years and I’ve been looking for a reason to use some of the footage or some of the great photographs from then because of the family connection. It all seemed to suddenly click together with this album and I’m delighted to be able to go back and revisit those old pictures and that old footage from that classic time and tie it all in.

Regarding the vinyl, yeah I get to pick the colour. I think I let my management pick the ivory pearl colour vinyl. I think that was their decision. I wanted red, green and black for the Glens (laughs). Obviously, black we’ll have anyway, but that’s why I picked the red one and I think there is a green vinyl one coming as well. So I based it solely on football (laughs).

NI ROCKS -  I have the previous album in green – the double album.

RICKY – Yeah, it’s either green for Northern Ireland or you know! It’s all based around football with me (laughs).

 

NI ROCKS – Speaking of vinyl, I watched the short video you posted a couple of days ago - for HMV talking about your favourite vinyl albums. You’re obviously a fan of the vinyl format. Do you try to find time when you’re out and about to check out the local record stores?

RICKY – I’m really into at the minute. When my parents passed away I went back up their house in Scotland Nigel and I had a bunch of vinyl in the garage. I had every intention of finally boxing it up and shipping it back home to the States, but sadly the rain had got in and destroyed it all. So I lost a lot of my childhood albums and I’m in the process now of building that back up. I’m buying a lot of vinyl re-issues and a lot of second hand stuff off e-bay. I love it. I just don’t think you can beat it. It’s the way to listen to music as far as I’m concerned. The ultimate way.

 

NI ROCKS – When the opportunity finally arises, post-covid whenever that is, are there any plans to play some shows in support of the new album and what format would those take?

RICKY – Yeah, there is. Obviously we had the show booked in the Limelight. I think that was in April or May. I think we’re announcing this week that we’ve had to move the tour. It was inevitable that it would happen. We’re moving it to early 2022 and I think that will be the first solo show that I do. It’ll be with the full band of The Fighting Hearts. Black Star Riders are still scheduled to headline the Stonedead Festival in August and it looks like that now has a chance of going ahead with everything that’s going on at the minute and we’re moving in the right direction. Hopefully, fingers crossed, that will still go ahead. I think the Autumn, hopefully get back out there and start seeing how things are.

 

NI ROCKS – You mentioned that the next Black Star Riders album should be out next year sometime. Any thoughts as to when we might see another solo album? I know it’s further down the line!

RICKY – If it was me I’d put it out next year as well. It’s written. It’s done. We’ve already written it and we’re working on the demos off and on as we speak right now. We’ve written about fifteen songs for it. I’ll hopefully try and get in and record that maybe before the end of the year. That’s one thing you can obviously take advantage of – not being able to go anywhere – you can obviously go into the studio. I’m hoping, but who knows – again it’ll be down to scheduling, but it’s in the can and just waiting on the word.

 

NI ROCKS – Hopefully not too long then. We’ll finish by playing another track from the new album and again do you want to pick a track and tell us something about it?

RICKY – Let’s pick the track “Still Alive”. On this one Keith Nelson plays great guitar – Keith is a great slide guitar player and you can really hear him on this track. His playing on this is brilliant so if you want to check that one out that would be cool.

 

NI ROCKS – Thanks for taking to time to chat with me. Good luck with the album and hopefully we’ll see you back in Northern Ireland sometime soon.

RICKY – Definitely Nigel. Thanks for all the support mate. Be safe and be well. I’ll see you soon.