“When I heard Phil Lynott had died, I could not believe it,” his bandmate Scott Gorham told me once. It continues on Monday in print, ePaper, and online“I mean, this was Phil LYNOTT. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive/Eddie O'HareHaving binged on heroin over Christmas 1985, he collapsed while opening presents with his daughter. “Obviously, the colour he was, he stood out like a sore thumb,” Lynott’s uncle Timothy says in Mark Putterford’s biography, Phil Lynott: The Rocker. “Phil Lynott was never afraid to write from the heart, even if it was a little corny,” Metallica’s James Hetfield said in 2009.

Source: Irish Examiner January 03, 2026 21:46 UTC