The #43 Guitarist of the Rock Era: Gary Moore

Up next, a guitarist who could rock with the best of them but when he kicked off his solo career, be became known as a blues rock master that could make his guitar sing with passion:

#43:  Gary Moore, Thin Lizzy, solo

43 years as an active guitarist

(solo on "Empty Rooms")

Robert William Gary Moore was born April 4, 1952 in Belfast, Northern Ireland.  He did three different stints with Irish groups Thin Lizzy and Skid Rowe, shared the stage with such guitar greats as B.B. King, Albert King, George Harrison and Greg Lake, and then had an amazing career as a blues rock guitarist and singer.

Moore began playing acoustic guitar at age 8 and learned how to play right-handed despite being left-handed.  Gary's early influences were the Beatles, Elvis Presley, the Shadows and Albert King.  After having seen Jimi Hendrix and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Moore developed the blues-rock style that would be his trademark sound. 

Peter Green became a huge influence and a mentor to Moore.  Moore later paid tribute to Green on his 1995 album Blues for Greeny, playing Green's 1959 Les Paul Standard which Green had first lent him and then later asked that he purchased it so the guitar "would have a good home".

At the age of 16, Moore moved to Dublin to join lead singer Phil Lynott, Noel Bridgeman and Brendan "Brush" Shiels in the group Skid Row.  Moore began to develop respect in the music industry and in 1973, he began his long solo career.

Moore's first solo release was Grinding Stone.  People were beginning to take notice--KTAC-FM in Seattle, Washington praised the release as Album of the Year.  Then, with Thin Lizzy bandmate Lynott, Moore released Back on the Streets in 1978, which produced a Top 10 song in the U.K.--"Parisienne Walkways".  Moore and Lynott joined Thin Lizzy for their album Black Rose:  A Rock Legend, which reached #2 on the U.K. album chart.

Moore left Thin Lizzy mid-tour and moved to Los Angeles to make an impact on the rock and roll scene.  It was there that he was invited to open for Van Halen on a tour of the United States.  Moore recruited Motown session bassist Tony Newton, vocalist Willie Dee and percussionist Mark Nauseef to form G-Force.  The tour was a huge success and G-Force produced a self-titled album and opened for Whitesnake in 1980.

After disbanding G-Force, Moore recorded the album Dirty Fingers and released it in Japan, where he was extremely popular, in 1983, and in Europe in 1984.  Victims of the Future followed in 1984 and then the album that is considered his breakthrough, Run for Cover.  The album hit #12 in the U.K. and featured a remake of "Empty Rooms" that reached the Top 20 in the U.K., and "Out in the Fields", a song about religious turmoil in his native Ireland that peaked at #5 in the U.K.  

After a trip back to Belfast, Moore recorded several songs about his native country to include on Wild Frontier, an album with rich Celtic tones.  Moore wrote the title track intending to have Lynott sing it, but after Lynott's death in January, 1986, Gary dedicated the album to him.

In 1987, Moore performed a guitar solo on the cover of the Beatles' song "Let It Be" for the U.K. charity group Ferry Aid, which raised monkey for the survivors of the MS Herald of Free Enterprise disaster.

More recognition came when Gary was included on the compilation called Rock Classics, Vol. 1 with the tracks "Run to Your Mama" and "Dark Side of the Moon".

After the War was Moore's final rock album until 1997 and by this time, he was able to get vocalists like Ozzy Osbourne and Chris Thompson to help out with lead vocals.

In 1989, Moore released not only the finest album of his career but one of the best of the Rock Era--Still Got the Blues.  Moore's project featured the blues rock that he had become so fond of when he started out; in effect it was a return to his roots.  If you haven't yet checked out this album, you owe it to yourself to listen to it.  Gary collaborated with Albert Kink, Albert Collins and George Harrison on the LP that was well-received by his growing fan base.  

Moore stayed with the blues-rock format on 1992's After Hours and the aforementioned Blues for Greeny.  In 1997, Moore released Dark Days in Paradise, a return to harder rock that also included power ballads.  Then, Moore showed his versatility when he experimented with modern dance beats on A Different Beat.

Moore once again returned to blues on Back to the Blues in 2001, Power of the Blues in 2006, Old New Ballads Blues in 2006, Close as You Get in 2007 and Bad For You Baby in 2008.

In 2005, Moore recorded "Grief Never Grows Old" for the 2004 Asian Tsunami relief effort called One World Project. 

In 2011, Moore was on vacation at the Kempinski Hotel in Estepona, Spain with his girlfriend, who made an emergency call at 4 a.m. on February 6.  Moore had consumed large amounts of alcohol and died of a massive heart attack at age 58.  The world had lost one of the all-time greats.

Moore experimented with many genres, including rock, blues, jazz, country, electric blues, hard rock and heavy metal.  He worked with Phil Lynott, George Harrison, the Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Roger Daltrey, Andrew Lloyd Webber, the Travelling Wilburys, Albert King, Albert Collins, Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce, Jim Capaldi, B.B. King, Paul Rodgers, Keith Emerson, Ozzy Osbourne, Rod Argent and Cozy Powell.

Since his death, many musicians have praised him including Brian May of Queen, Bryan Adams, Roger Taylor of Duran Duran, Ozzy Osbourne, Eric Singer of Kiss, Bob Geldof and Henry Rollins.  Twitter was flooded with tributes from thousands of fans for several days after the news hit.

Although he was less popular in the United States, Moore's work brought much acclaim and commercial success in most other parts of the world.  Many guitarists, including Kirk Hammett of Metallica, Vivian Campbell of Def Leppard, Paul Gilbert, Slash of Guns 'N Roses, Adrian Smith from Iron Maiden, Zakk Wylde, Randy Rhoads and John Sykes cite Gary Moore as a major influence.

Many guitarists nowadays think that speed is what matters.  Gary Moore could play with speed when the music called for it, but he understood the beauty of the guitar sound as well, and his heartfelt emotion and passion could make the instrument sing like few others have been able to.  At #43 for the Rock Era*--Gary Moore.