As Scott Gorham remembers it, it was in Paris, in the winter of late '78/early '79, that Thin Lizzy's formerly recreational drug use started to become a problem.
That the band were becoming increasingly blasé about their habits was evident when Phil Lynott started snorting cocaine in front of producer Tony Visconti in-between his vocal takes on anti-addiction anthem Got To Give It Up. But it was when Lynott invited clean-living pop star Cliff Richard into the band's booth at Pathé Marconi EMI Studios while a heroin dealer dished out his supplies that the recklessness of his actions started ringing alarm bells even to his partner-in-crime Gorham.
"It wasn't until [the recording of] the Black Rose album that we really got in trouble," Gorham told this writer in 2019.
As a teenager growing up in California, Gorham was thrown into jail twice for drug dealing, and his decision to move to London in the spring of 1974 was at least partially motivated by an awareness that his life was only going to get bleaker if he stayed.
"Moving to England saved my ass," the guitarist told this writer in 2019. "If I hadn't come here, I'd surely have fucked up my life."
Gorham had already tried heroin long before he joined Thin Lizzy, admitting "That was one of the things I was getting into that London saved me from." And yet, despite this, while in Paris, he had little hesitation in joining Lizzy's charismatic leader in indulging once more.
"I was sitting in Phil's room, and he was like, 'Do you know what this is?' Yeah, I do know what this is. 'Do you want some?' Yeah, I do. And then the heroin cycle started up. It took another year before we were professional drug takers."
