In a new interview with Neil Jones of TotalRock, THIN LIZZY/ex-BLACK STAR RIDERS guitarist Scott Gorham was asked if he is involved in any music projects at the moment. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Well, I’m not really working on anything really solid right now, unfortunately. I would really like to get back out, put just an absolute kick-ass THIN LIZZY band together and either tour England again or Europe or something like that.
“I don’t think I’m ever going to lose that love for playing that music, just because all of us were so involved in writing it, rehearsing it, recording it,” he explained. “And there was a lot of work that — well, everybody, every bandmember will know all the work that has to go into just being able to get out on the road.
“So, we’ll see. Hopefully in the near future I’ll have some sort of news and I’ll get my butt out there and start playing again,” Scott added. “So, that’s really all I can say right now.”
In 1974, the Californian musician moved to the United Kingdom and joined Irish rockers THIN LIZZY. Scott would perform on ten best-selling albums, including “Jailbreak”, “Johnny The Fox”, “Bad Reputation” and “Live And Dangerous”, and on the hit singles “The Boys Are Back In Town”, “Rosalie”, “Dancing In The Moonlight (It’s Caught Me In Its Spotlight)” and “Waiting On An Alibi”.
This past April, Gorham unveiled six new works of art, with limited-edition prints available to purchase through the artist’s web site. The Scott Gorham World site showcases the first six illustrative works from an archive the now-73-year-old guitarist started creating under the radar as an artist nearly 40 years ago.
Gorham was in BLACK STAR RIDERS for nearly a decade, having formed the band in 2013 with other THIN LIZZY members after deciding to write and record new music under a new moniker. BLACK STAR RIDERS‘ original lineup was completed by vocalist Ricky Warwick, guitarist Damon Johnson, bassist Marco Mendoza and drummer Jimmy DeGrasso.
BLACK STAR RIDERS announced Gorham‘s departure in September 2021, with Warwick saying in a statement: “We are very sad to see Scott go, but we discussed a very heavy world touring commitment on the new record and Scott decided he wanted to concentrate just on THIN LIZZY — and being the legend he is, none of us can blame him.”
Gorham discussed his decision to leave BLACK STAR RIDERS in a February 2022 interview with “The Hook Rocks!” podcast. He said: “It was right in the beginning of the whole pandemic thing. I know Ricky wanted to do an album straight off the bat. And I said, ‘Well, I can’t and I won’t get on a plane right now, for god’s sakes. We’ve got this thing raging around all of us. It’s kind of impossible.’ And I did not wanna do an album by Zoom; I didn’t even wanna contemplate on that. Plus, I did wanna start concentrating on THIN LIZZY, to get out there and show people these really great songs. So I thought it would be unfair to try to really put a hundred percent concentration and effort into one and then the other is kind of flailing there on the side. So I thought, well, I’ve done four albums with BLACK STAR RIDERS. I love ’em and I love the guys. I’ve proved the point with BLACK STAR RIDERS. Now it’s time to concentrate a little bit more on THIN LIZZY and see what we can do. ‘Cause there are so many really great musicians who want to be in this band called THIN LIZZY. They’ve listened to the songs their whole life, and to be able to get up on a stage and for real play the songs… It’s really kind of heartwarming that I know that I can reach out and there’s so many guys who wanna get up there and sit up there shoulder to shoulder with me, paying homage to Phil [Lynott] and Gary [Moore] and everybody else that was in the band. And it’s not an easy thing as you would think to pick who’s going to do it. It really is picking the right person for the right tour when we do THIN LIZZY.”
