Biography

Growing up in northern Ireland on a diet of Johnny Cash, Steve Earle, Motörhead, and the Ramones, Ricky Warwick started performing with New Model Army in the late '80s before helping to form U.K. punk band the Almighty in 1988. After a lengthy stint with several successful records in the '80s and '90s, the group disbanded in 2001. Shortly thereafter, Warwick teamed up with Def Leppard lead singer Joe Elliott to record and produce his solo debut, Tattoos & Alibis, in early 2003 for the Sanctuary imprint. With a decidedly different approach to his music, Warwick went back to his singer/songwriter roots, crafting songs resembling his country-rock heroes more than his punk roots. The follow-up, Love Many, Trust Few, appeared in May of 2005. Warwick played a series of shows with a newly re-formed Almighty in 2006, and that same year joined the L.A. hard rock unit Circus Diablo, who released an eponymous LP in 2007. The largely acoustic Belfast Confetti, Warwick's third solo album, arrived in 2009, the same year he was invited to join the latest incarnation of Thin Lizzy as the guitarist and lead vocalist. He left the group in 2012 and formed the spin-off band Black Star Riders, with whom he released All Hell Breaks Loose in 2013 and Killer Instinct in 2015. The following year saw the release of a pair of PledgeMusic-funded solo albums, When Patsy Cline Was Crazy (And Guy Mitchell Sang the Blues) and Hearts on Trees, which arrived in a single package via Nuclear Blast. ~ Rob Theakston, Rovi