page_title: Thin Lizzy
section_title: Style and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Thin Lizzy / Style and legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Thin Lizzy, performing at the 1978 Pinkpop festival: L to R: Brian Robertson, Phil Lynott, Scott Gorham, and Brian Downey (not visible at the drum kit)
context_page_description: Thin Lizzy are a hard rock band formed in Dublin, Ireland, in 1969. Two of the founding members, drummer Brian Downey and bass guitarist and lead vocalist Phil Lynott, met while still in school. Lynott led the group throughout their recording career of twelve studio albums, writing most of the material. The singles "Whiskey in the Jar", "The Boys Are Back in Town" and "Waiting for an Alibi" were international hits. After Lynott's death in 1986, various incarnations of the band emerged over the years based initially around guitarists Scott Gorham and John Sykes, though Sykes left the band in 2009. Gorham later continued with a new line-up including Downey.
  Lynott, Thin Lizzy's de facto leader, was composer or co-composer of almost all of the band's songs, and the first black Irishman to achieve commercial success in the field of rock music. Thin Lizzy featured several guitarists throughout their history, with Downey and Lynott as the rhythm section, on the drums and bass guitar. As well as being multiracial, the band drew their early members not only from both sides of the Irish border but also from both the Catholic and Protestant communities during The Troubles.
context_section_description: From 1974, Thin Lizzy switched from using one lead guitarist to two. This style was later refined and popularised in the mid-1970s by bands like Judas Priest, and later by the emerging new wave of British heavy metal groups such as Iron Maiden and Def Leppard. Iron Maiden covered the song "Massacre" from Thin Lizzy's Johnny the Fox album, and released it on their 1988 single "Can I Play with Madness". A cover of "Cowboy Song" appears on Sound of White Noise (1993) by Anthrax as a bonus track on the album's Japanese and Australian releases, and as a B-side on some singles of "Only" and "Black Lodge".
  Thin Lizzy are also a major inspiration for modern heavy metal bands such as Metallica,Alice in Chains, Mastodon and Testament.
caption: The classic line-up showing the band's famous "twin guitar" sound. L to R: Brian Robertson (guitar), Phil Lynott (bass guitar), and Scott Gorham (guitar)
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