Renowned rock and blues guitarist Gary Moore was found dead in his hotel room in the early morning hours of Sunday, February 6, while on holiday in Estepona, Spain. Moore, one time guitarist for the Irish rock band Thin Lizzy and a successful solo artist, died in his sleep. He was 58. As of this writing, authorities have yet to determine a cause of death pending further tests, although speculations run the gamut from a heart attack to Moore being yet another casualty of a rock 'n' roll lifestyle, a rumor that has fans outraged considering Moore kept to a rather healthy lifestyle.
News of Moore's sudden passing last Sunday shocked friends and fans and resulted in an outpouring of love and respect, with many taking to internet sites, Twitter, and even football forums on what was Super Bowl Sunday here in the States to honor the unpretentious and supremely talented man who inspired many notable guitarists, including Zakk Wylde, Randy Rhoads, and Kirk Hammett. "I am in total shock," said Thin Lizzy drummer Brian Downey. "I just can't believe he's gone." Niall Stokes, editor of the Irish music magazine Hot Press, called Moore a "genius" who had that something "special" about him even as a teenage musician.
As one of rock's most underrated guitarists, Moore's work extended beyond the rock and heavy metal realms to include pop, jazz, blues, and country. He possessed a passion for making music and a restless spirit and insatiable desire to experiment that made it hard for him to stay with any one band for too long. Moore drifted in and out of various groups over the course of his four-decades-long career and collaborated with an array of artists including B.B. King and Bob Dylan. Although he was just a blip on the radar in America, Moore's substantial catalog of over 20 solo albums brought him much acclaim and commercial success in most other parts of the world, especially in Europe.
Born on April 4, 1952, in Belfast, Ireland, Gary Moore began performing on a battered acoustic guitar he picked up at the age of 8. He got his first quality guitar at age 14 and learned to play the right-handed instrument in the standard way despite being left-handed. After discovering such blues-rock masters as Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, and perhaps his biggest influence of all, Fleetwood Mac's Peter Green, Moore moved to Dublin in 1968 when he was 16 to dedicate himself to becoming a musician. His first foray into live music was with a local Dublin rock group called Skid Row (not to be confused with the glam metal band of the same name), which featured a young singer by the name of Phil Lynott. The illegitimate son of a Brazilian father and Irish mother, Gary's first impressions of Lynott were of "a tall skinny cool black guy." Moore said of that time that, "There weren't a lot of black guys in Dublin then, and Phil stood out like a sore thumb." The two bandmates hit it off and eventually rented a place together where Lynott mothered Moore, rising early every morning to cook him breakfast.
When Lynott struck out on his own in 1969 to form Thin Lizzy, Moore stayed behind to soldier on with Skid Row, who eventually opened a show for Moore's hero, Peter Green and Fleetwood Mac. The band made such an impression on the veteran group that Green personally requested Mac's manager help secure Skid Row a recording contract with CBS. In addition, Green sold Moore one of his prized guitars, a maple 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard, which would become Moore's primary instrument. Skid Row went on to issue several singles and albums, but commercial success eluded them.
Moore exited Skid Row in 1972 to form his own group, the Gary Moore Band, but once again, his efforts went largely unnoticed. When Phil Lynott came calling in 1974, already five years into Thin Lizzy, Moore accepted his invite to replace departing guitarist Eric Bell and re-joined his old bandmate. Although his initial tenure with Lizzy was history in three short months, Moore would join forces with Lynott again in 1977 when he [Moore] filled in for guitarist Brian Robertson on a US tour opening for Queen, and yet a third time in 1979, when he appeared on what was arguably the finest studio album of Thin Lizzy's career, Black Rose: A Rock Legend, which featured such classics as "Waiting for an Alibi" and "Do Anything You Want To."
Lynott and Moore would hook up again on Moore's second solo release, Back on the Streets, which spawned a surprise Top Ten hit in the UK in 1979 with the bluesy ballad, "Parisienne Walkways," featuring vocal contributions by Lynott. The childhood friends scored again in 1985 with the single "Out in the Fields," one of Lynott's last recorded works before his death in 1986 at age 36.
Gary Moore returned to his blues roots in the '90s, scoring his biggest US hit with the gold-certified Still Got the Blues, an album that featured Albert King, Albert Collins, and George Harrison. He continued to collaborate with other musicians, including Cream's Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker in 1994 in the short-lived group BBM, and toured with B.B. King in 2006. Moore's last solo album, Bad for You Baby, was released in 2008.
Metallica's Kirk Hammett contacted Rolling Stone magazine to pay tribute to a fallen hero saying that, "Gary Moore is definitely in my list of top five guitar influences, right up there with Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Michael Schenker. His influence is strong to the point that the opening lick of the guitar solo of "Master of Puppets" is a variation of a lick that Gary Moore played a lot. He just blew me away from the first time I heard him."
"His playing was exceptional and beautiful," Sir Bob Geldof told the BBC. "We won't see his like again."
