Snowy White is best known for the two albums he made with Thin Lizzy in the early ‘80s, Chinatown and Renegade. He also wrote himself into Pink Floyd folklore by participating in an Animals sessions – and the band’s live album, Is There Anybody Out There?
A host of solo albums soon followed, and by 1994 he was readying his sixth LP, Highway to the Sun. It's notable for its impressive cast of co-guitarists, with David Gilmour and Thin Lizzy alumni Gary Moore taking guest spots.
One could easily look at White’s resume and draw the conclusion that this was a case of him creating a fantasy line-up with some old friends for the thrill of it. Discussing the album in a new career-spanning interview with Guitar World, he paints a slightly different picture.
“I only asked them to play on my album because the record company thought a few well-known names would be a good selling point,” he confesses. “I didn't really mind either way. It was very nice of them to agree to appear.”
Slide guitar maestro Chris Rae also starred on the record alongside then Mike + the Mechanics frontman Paul Carrack. But it was Gilmour and Moore's spots that stole the spotlight.
Moore offers bags of flair during the latter stages of the nine-minuter Keep On Working, and Gilmour delivers his signature, slow but lyrical sensibilities on Love, Pain & Sorrow. From the first note, it's clear who is icing White's slinking groove there.
“Gary came to the studio where I was working to do his part,” White explains. “I just asked him to blow over the end of a slow blues.
“With Dave's contribution, I took the tapes to his boat studio, on the Thames near Hampton Court, and just said, 'It's a really simple track, just do a few takes and I'll sort it out later'.
“He used his whammy pedal, which I hadn't heard before. I chose the best bits when I mixed it. It was all pretty simple really. I guess the obvious difference is that I was telling them what I wanted as opposed to the other way around.”
Throughout his career, White has been in and out of bands, weaving solo records around stints with Pink Floyd, as well as in Phil Lynott and Roger Waters’ respective solo bands, and featuring on Peter Green's In The Skies among others.
“Both situations have their plusses and minuses,” he says, diplomatically, of the differences between being a solo artist and a band guy.
“For instance, the nicest thing about being in Roger’s band, apart from being involved in all those great shows, was that all I had to do was walk on stage, pick up my already-tuned guitar, and start playing...
I just asked Gary to blow over the end of a slow blues
Snowy White
“In contrast, when I was touring Europe with my own three-piece band, The White Flames, I was doing almost everything at first: driving, booking the hotels, sorting out the travel, collecting the money... But, the reward for doing that was that I was up on stage doing my own thing with musicians who were really loyal.”
White released his latest solo venture, Unfinished Business last year, and as the name attests, he's got plenty more music yet to write.
The guitarist's full interview with Guitar World will be published in due course.
