The first in our ongoing Call of the Wild 2022 Diary series, we sat down for a quick chat with Black Star Riders/Thin Lizzy/The Almighty/Fighting Hearts frontman Ricky Warwick. Check out below as we asked him a few questions before his set at the festival!

So what’s it like to finally be able to play (Call of the Wild) festival?

Great! It’s just great to be able to be back out playing. In the darkest days of the pandemic in the back of your mind you’re thinking when is this shit ever gonna end? Will we ever get back out there? So the fact that we’re completely outside and seeing everyone at shows and all the smiling faces. You’ve got people that you saw at gigs three years ago that are still well and healthy which is good!

Check out our review of the festival here.

What would you say the scene is like, post-covid?

I think the problem we have is that there is still so much wrong, as is always with the world. I think the cost of living is really hurting everybody. I also still think there’s a little bit of trepidation, a lot of people aren’t ready to go back out into a social situation because they’re a little nervous and I totally understand that. I think some people have embraced it and gone ‘great, get me back out there’, while others are wanting to wait a few months just to see how everything goes.

You put out an album last year that seemed to go down well?

It went down great! The only bummer was that I couldn’t tour it. You put out an album and you do all the promo and it did really well in the charts and then you just want to go on the road. We couldn’t do that, so it was like ‘yey!’ and then ‘no!’.

Are you only just touring now then?

We’re only just really getting round to it now/ We went out with the Fighting Hearts in March and did 20 dates around the country which again were postponed from the previous year. So was this, so we’re just playing catch-up really.

Are you already writing again?

I’m always writing! Got the new Black Star Riders written and recorded and the first single’s gonna drop next month (find it below). Then the album’s coming out in January. I’m already working on the next solo record.

Is it a different approach to the songwriting between the bands?

I mean Black Star Riders yes because obviously it’s a band. The solo stuff you get to be as narcissistic as you wanna be because it’s just you. But obviously with BSR you’re working with the guys and you’re listening to everybody’s input and everybody’s ideas, which I love. So it’s a very different situation, my solo stuff is very me me me. But I just love to write so I’m just happy that I have the outlet to do that!

And finally, if you could take one band out on tour with you, who would it be?

I think I’ve gotta go for the classic Thin Lizzy lineup. I’d go for the Black Rose lineup as that’s my favourite Lizzy album so I’d take that out. MC5 would be good. We just had the Virginmarys just come and do some shows with the Fighting Hearts, I thought they were phenomenal.

And there we have it folks, we hope you enjoyed the interview! Keep up to date on all of them, including all of our Call of the Wild coverage, from our Facebook here.