Black Star Riders

Black Star Riders share their roots with Thin Lizzy, having assembled in the wake of the Irish band's latest reformation in 2010 and steered by Thin Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham. Following a series of lineup changes, they settled on the crew of Ricky Warwick (vocals, guitar), Damon Johnson (guitar) and Marco Mendoza (bass), taking their band name from a gang of outlaws featured in the 1993 western Tombstone. In 2012, bassist Robbie Crane took over from Marco Mendoza and the group set to work on their debut album. Black Star Riders went to number 25 in the UK with their 2013 debut of leathery classic rock, All Hell Breaks Loose, and continued to hone their hard-meets-roots rock sound on 2015 follow-up The Killer Instinct, charting even higher in the UK at number 13. In 2016, they released "When the Night Comes In"—the first taste of their third album Heavy Fire (2017)— and in May 2017, Chad Szeliga took over from Jimmy DeGrasso on drumming duties. The band's fourth album Another State of Grace landed in 2019 and debuted at number one on the UK Rock & Metal Albums Chart. They welcomed another new member drummer Zak St John, for fifth studio album Wrong Side of Paradise (2013), while also recording their last work with guitarist/songwriter Christian Martucci who had replaced Damon Johnson as lead guitarist in January 2019. The album, which featured a collaborative single with Joe Elliott on "Better Than Saturday Night," was also notably the first to be recorded without founding member Scott Gorham.