Hello everyone out there. Harry Doherty here.

I worked as a staff writer for Melody Maker and went on many tours with Lizzy and did many interviews. Phil asked me to write a  book about six months before the band started recording Bad Reputation and I spent a couple of months in Toronto with them as they recorded.

We pretty much got it down and I started writing... it stuttered to a halt when Phil didn't want too much reference to drug use (I remember him saying "but I don't take drugs, Harry")   ..... anyway, we continued doing interviews and I continued writing.

When I left MM, it stuttered to a halt though we kept in touch and did the odd interview. Then when Phil sadly died, I offered to finish the book with the whole sordid aside along with the brilliant rocking music... and we topped up the interviews and got a truer picture of the story. The proviso was that if any one person close to the band - band members, close family, management - didn't want the book published, I would leave it. It was called Ballad of a Hard Man.

Copies of the draft were circulated. Scott's wife was horrified by what she read, though his brother in law Bobby Sibenberg stayed up all night reading it; but the crux came when Phil's Ma phoned me at about three in the morning in complete denial about his drug lifestyle. She was still hurting and the combination of Scott's wife's reaction and Philomena's was enough persuasion for me to halt publishing it. After all, Phil had only asked me to write the book, not release it!

Well, that's how I comforted myself. The two-parter that appeared in Metal Hammer when I was editor there was a very potted version of the contents.

Since then, Scott and I have talked about doing an updated version and actually started on it last year - a joint effort, but we sort of both decided that Thin Lizzy's story is best told through their many great albums, the memories of a truly magnificent band on stage and the imprint it left. So there you have it.....

Good luck to you all in keeping the dream alive.

HD