“Every bad decision I’ve made, I’ve made when I’d been drinking. Waking up with a hangover, wasting a day, the bulls**t you talk”: How Ricky Warwick got sober and reconnected with his Northern Irish roots on new album Blood Ties

You can take the boy out of Northern Ireland, but you can’t take Northern Ireland out of the boy. After 20 years of living in the US – and before that Scotland, Bradford and London – Ricky Warwick has returned to the country of his birth. “I’ve still got a house in LA, but we’ve got this place here in Belfast too,” he says, speaking via Zoom from the latter. “There’s always been a pull for me. I always knew I’d end up back here.” The notion of family and roots are woven into the Black Star Riders and The Almighty frontman’s new solo album, Blood Ties.

What does the title Blood Ties refer to?

It’s about family. It encapsulates the big extended family I have around me, and what that means to me. And as you get older, you gravitate back to the people who love you and made you.

Did you get on with your parents when you were growing up?

I got on okay with my mother, and I loved her, but I had a brilliant relationship with my father. I really looked up to him. I’m an only son from a farming family, so it was mapped out that I’d leave school and work on the farm. Which I did for four years, until the music took off. But my dad said: “If you get a record deal, get your backside out of here, son, and go for it.”

On the album’s first track, Angels Of Desolation, you sing: ‘I’m on the road to rack and ruin, I’m on the path to self-destruct.’ Is that autobiographical?

I dug deep on this record. Angels Of Desolation is about me quitting drinking three years ago and the effect it had on me. I was never the guy who would wake up and have to pour a vodka or open a beer in the morning, I was more of a binge drinker. But every bad decision I’ve made, I’ve made when I’d been drinking. The waking up with a hangover and wasting a day, the bullshit you talk when you drunk, getting nasty and slagging people off… I thought: “I’ve been on this road since I was fifteen, I’m going to try this other road, see what it’s like.”

And what is it like?

I wish I’d quit ten years ago. There’s a clarity, positivity, no anxiety, you lose weight, you feel good, you don’t talk as much crap. Well, that’s debatable in my case.

Guitarist Billy Duffy from The Cult is on the track The Hell Of Me And You. Where do you know him from?

God, I’ve known Billy since the early days of The Almighty. I remember him and Ian [Astbury, The Cult singer] coming to see us at the Marquee. We bonded over music and football. He’s been a good mentor over the years. Billy’s just Billy – he doesn’t bend for anybody, he doesn’t acquiesce, he does it his way. That single-mindedness has been a big influence.

Charlie Starr from Blackberry Smoke appears on Rise And Grind, which namechecks Northern soul mecca Wigan Casino. Did you have to explain to him what Wigan Casino was? Or even what Wigan is?

He never asked me! I’ve always loved Northern soul. It was Justin Sullivan from New Model Army who got me into it when I was in the band [in the late 80s]. I was proud of getting Wigan Casino into a song.

A lot of people who have been doing it as long as you have started to slow down in terms of releasing records, but you keep on doing it. What keeps you at it?

The songs keep coming. It’s that simple. As long as they keep coming, I’ll record them. I love writing and recording and playing. My hunger for that stuff has never decreased. I like being able to be creative. I don’t think I’d be the person I am without that. I’d be a very frustrated individual.

Do you ever think: “I should be bigger and better known than I am”?

Yes and no. If I analyse it, I could probably get a bit miffed about it: “Why don’t I sell more records?” But then I think: “I’ve been doing this for almost forty years, and doing it on my own terms and being successful.” I’d rather take that.

The Almighty played successful reunion shows in 2023 and 2024. Are there any plans to make an album?

I don’t think so. I’m not feeling it – I don’t know if I’ve got any ideas. The shows have been great, there’s a nice vibe, and the patter and the jokes from thirty years ago have all resurfaced. But I’m not waking up and thinking about making a new album. But then if you’d asked me five years ago if The Almighty would get back together I’d have said no, but here we are.

Ricky Warwick - Don't Leave Me in the Dark (feat. Lita Ford) [Official Video] - YouTube

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You’re still making a living in rock’n’roll after all this time. What’s the trick?

Perseverance and hard work. I’m up every day at six-thirty, I’m in the gym for two hours, check the kids are alright, and then I’m straight to work. I make sure I’m always putting in the hours and hustling and being creative. It’s a fucking job, and if you want to get paid you’ve got to treat it like one. That’s something my dad instilled in me: if you want anything, you’ve got to work for it.

Are you going to be that guy out there at seventy-five dragging an acoustic guitar around?

I hope so. Who doesn’t get sick of this? Playing to twenty-five, thirty people in a club when I’m seventy-five… it’s all good as long as I’m enjoying myself.

If it does all go wrong with music, can you still milk a cow or shift a bale of hay?

It’s funny, I’ve got a little bit of land and I have some sheep and chickens now. I’ve gone full circle. That stuff never leaves you.

Blood Ties is out on March 14 via Earache