This memoir tells the story of the first twenty-one years of my life, growing up and coming of age in the working class Dublin Corporation housing estate of Crumlin. Although humorous when telling my tale, the book also includes stories of abuse, death and loss. The chapters unfold from my unlikely birth – the youngest of fifteen children – to Crumlin life, the death of my brother Paddy in a London road accident and the abuse I suffered through a 'Christian' Brother at school. From a little boy priest in Blackrock College and then as an apprentice projectionist in the Kenilworth Cinema and a year as clapper/loader in Ardmore Studios. The story goes on through my difficult teenage years of alienation from my father and his death at the age of seventy, a month before my 21st birthday and a few months before my marrying my pregnant 18-year-old girlfriend. That marked the end of my life in 147, Leighlin Road and the start of my life as a married man and father-to-be. This book will be of interest to anyone of a Dublin/Irish heritage who will understand my journey. Back in my day emigration, particularly to England, was part of Irish life and that is reflected in my story. I am an experienced storyteller and now I am finally telling my own story of the years that formed the man I am today.

'The truest measure of the man we have thus far' - Mojo 'Affectionate, impeccably researched biography' - Mail on Sunday 'Head and shoulders above the usual rock hagiography' - Sunday Telegraph The first biography to be written with the cooperation of the Lynott Estate, Cowboy Song is the definitive authorised account of the extraordinary life and career of Thin Lizzy guiding spirit, Philip Lynott. Leading music writer Graeme Thomson explores the fascinating contradictions between Lynott's unbridled rock star excesses and the shy, sensitive 'orphan' raised in working class Dublin. The mixed-race child of a Catholic teenager and a Guyanese stowaway, Lynott rose above daunting obstacles and wounding abandonments to become Ireland's first rock star. Cowboy Song examines his key musical alliances as well as the unique blend of cultural influences which informed Lynott's writing, connecting Ireland's rich reserves of music, myth and poetry to hard rock, progressive folk, punk, soul and New Wave. Published on the thirtieth anniversary of Lynott's death in January 1986, Thomson draws on scores of exclusive interviews with family, friends, band mates and collaborators. Cowboy Song is both the ultimate depiction of a multi-faceted rock icon, and an intimate portrait of a much-loved father, son and husband.