Bob Ruggiero from the Houston Press spoke with THIN LIZZY guitar legend Scott Gorham recently about a number of topics. A few excerpts from the chat found here follow:

Houston Press: Thin Lizzy has had a resurgence of popularity in recent years. We've seen reissues, DVDs and even t-shirts popping up on the chests of current rockers. Is that gratifying?

Gorham: "It really is, you know. To think that when the band originally broke up, I wasn't sure how long people would remember the band except when they maybe blew the dust off their album covers. But here we are 33 years later, and people are still talking about Thin Lizzy and want to come out and hear the music.

Houston Press: You've taken some heat from purists for touring and calling the group Thin Lizzy, with latter-day member John Sykes [also of WHITESNAKE] taking the vocals. But at this point, only the most naïve of people would come out and expect to see Phil, right?

Gorham: "(laughs) Yeah, unfortunately he's not going to come bounding out on stage and sing 'Emerald', no matter how much that saddens me. It's really about keeping the music alive and letting fans hear it live. I'm paying homage to my best friend, and that's where I'm coming from. I - more than anybody - want Phil on the stage, or to pick up the telephone and call him."

Houston Press: Phil had his drug problems in a time when there was no such thing as celebrities going to rehab or all these treatment programs. Do you think if it happened today, the outcome might have been different, or was he too self-destructive?

Gorham: "He was in too deep. I was at his house three weeks before he died, and he was pulling out an acoustic guitar and showing me things and he was talking about getting the band back together. I was shocked at his [state]. He was in deep shit, but making all the right noises about getting cleaned up. At that point, I had been a year away from Phil and had gotten my [own drug problems] taken care of.

But during that time, if you went into rehab, it was an embarrassment and not the manly thing to do. And I gotta tell you, Phil's personality, he was such his own man, you had a tough time talking him into anything. It was like "Hey Phil, you gotta get your shit together," and he was like (imitating Phil's voice) 'Aw, for fook's sake, forget it!'

But if it happened today, he'd see how many people with the same problem came out okay in the end, and he'd probably do it. But it had gone on so long, the damage had already been done. If the heart attack didn't kill him, there were three other things ready to kill him. His body was like a time bomb."