When Life Was Hard And Fast

Born in Newtownards, County Down, Northern Ireland, singer/songwriter/guitarist Ricky Warwick was cut from the cloth of a mill workers' jacket & raised on a diet of Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Thin Lizzy, Stiff Little Fingers, Motown and everything in between. Writing and practicing every free moment he wasn't working on his father's farm, Ricky got a call to join acclaimed U.K. Punk/Folk band New Model Army as rhythm guitarist on their 1987 'Ghost Of Cain' World Tour. Afterward Ricky went on to form The Almighty in Glasgow who enjoyed ten top forty singles and four top twenty albums in the U.K. during the late 80's/early 90's, touring worldwide with such iconic bands as The Ramones, Motorhead, Megadeth and Iron Maiden.In 2002, after relocating back to Ireland, Ricky recorded his first solo album 'Tattoos & Alibis' in Joe Elliott of Def Leppard's studio with Joe also handling production duties. Warwick would go on to release two more solo albums between 2002 -2010 and tour globally opening for the likes of Def Leppard, Cheap Trick, Bryan Adams and Lynyrd Skynyrd. In 2010 Ricky received a call from Scott Gorham who was spearheading a reformation of Ireland's favorite sons Thin Lizzy and wanted Ricky to front the new line up. In late 2012, with a necessity to write and perform new material, out of respect for the Thin Lizzy name, Black Star Riders were born. Black Star Riders have now released four critically-acclaimed and commercially successful albums, the most recent being 2019's 'Another State Of Grace'. They have achieved two U.K. top 15 albums and one U.K. top 10 album as well as mainstream radio play which includes claiming two "singles of the week" on BBC Radio 2. Following 2016's lauded 'When Patsy Cline Was Crazy... And Guy Mitchell Sang The Blues', Warwick is getting ready to unleash his 5th solo album in 2021. Titled When Life Was Hard And Fast, it was recorded in Los Angeles and produced by Keith Nelson (ex-Buckcherry), who also co-wrote the majority of the songs on the record with Warwick.