“He said, ‘Have you heard Metallica’s version of Whiskey in the Jar?’ I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘What planet are you living on?’” Thin Lizzy’s Eric Bell on reinventing an old Irish standard as a rock track and performing it with the “cartoon” Metallica

Phil Lynott and Eric Bell of Thin Lizzy perform at London's Marquee in 1973.

Although Whiskey in the Jar originated as a traditional Irish folk tune, once founding Thin Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell got ahold of it in 1973 – transforming it into a rocker with an iconic guitar solo – it took on a life of its own.

Since then, the song has been covered by numerous artists, the most notable of whom is Metallica, who released their version of Whiskey on 1998’s Garage Inc. And while Metallica’s version is great, there’s just something inescapably cool about Thin Lizzy’s version and – of course – its one-of-a-kind Eric Bell guitar solo.