I lost 1.5 stone to look like Phil Lynott for new musical – I'd love for his daughters to see it, says Dublin singer

The Irish Sun

29-04-2025

SINGER Peter Smith has told how he shed a stone and a half to play iconic singer Phil Lynott in a stage musical.
And the actor also revealed that his dream would be to have the two daughters of the
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Singer Peter Smith shed weight to play iconic singer Phil Lynott in a stage musical
Credit: Supplied
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Music icon Phil Lynott performing on stage with Thin Lizzy
Credit: Getty Images - Getty
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Pete landed his big role after he first found fame in 2002 on an ITV talent show
The
Pete landed his big role after he first found fame in 2002 on ITV talent show
Now 47, he had to slim down to play super-skinny Phil who was known to millions before he passed away at the age of 36 in 1986.
Pete told
Read more on Phil Lynott
The singer/actor ended up looking so like Phil that former bandmate, guitarist Eric Bell, who performs the hit Whiskey In The Jar in the show, kept mistakenly reminiscing about their days on the road often forgetting he wasn't his real Thin Lizzy pal.
Peter said: "Whenever we are in the same room, Eric gravitates towards me like a magnet on my shoulder. It's a muscle memory because he had such a brotherly relationship with Phil."
Another old pal of Phil, singer Brush Shiels, had been in to see the musical and was moved by Pete's performance.
However the actor himself said his dream would be to have Phil Lynott's widow, Caroline, and two daughters, Sarah and Cathleen, in Vicar Street watching him.
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Peter said: "I know they're playing close attention to the reviews and they would have had people in (the theatre), so they would have seen that the reviews have been positive.
"I hope they would be warming to us because we are not delving into anybody's personal business, we are just celebrating a great artist, portraying a legend as he should be seen. We may not have known Phil like they did but this is what we took from his life."
Dublin artist who created iconic statue of Phil Lynott on Harry Street shares unseen clip of bust in making
The show opens with the late Brendan Behan, played with gusto by Padraigh O'Loinsigh, waiting to welcome Philo into heaven, and another cast member, Riley Clark, as Oscar Wilde, sings a requiem for the Thin Lizzy singer when he passes away, aged 36, from pneumonia and heart failure.
Peter explained: "John (Merrigan) the show's co-creator sees a common thread of creativity between Oscar Wilde and Brendan Behan and Phil, which would mean they were peers in the afterlife."
But the show really takes off with Pete fronting musical director Gerry Hogan's live band, blasting through Thin Lizzy covers like The Boys Are Back In Town, which took the roof off Vicar Street, where the show returns to in June, with an extra date in Limerick.
MOVIE HOPES
So ecstatic has the reception been, Peter thinks it could kick-start interest in a Lynott biopic, which had been attempted by directors
Peter said: "The script would certainly lend itself to a screenplay, and Jason Figgis, who directed the show, is a very gifted film maker.
"He would have the capability to it, if a big studio came on board."
But the lead actor admits he has been down this road before.
FEELING LIKE PHIL
Peter said: "I remember when I auditioned for Jim Sheridan to play Phil, I didn't sing, I just read lyrics of the song Dublin.
"I stopped dead. I recall Jim shouting out, 'Stop everything. Tell everyone to go home, we have him.'
"No fault of Jim, but the movie never happened, but I love playing Phil on stage. Getting into his clothes every night, you already feel the part, so when you open your mouth you want to get it right.
"You're depending on everyone in the venue suspending disbelief, and when I looked out into the audience one night and saw older people crying with emotion. I knew I had something.
"Whenever we are in the same room, Eric gravitates towards me like a magnet on my shoulder. It's a muscle memory because he had such a brotherly relationship with Phil."
Peter Smith
"This isn't The Vibe for Philo, it's something far more daring that the writers and producers have put their heart into."
Moonlight - The Philip Lynott Enigma is on in Vicar Street on June 20-22 and UCH Limerick on June 24.
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Thin Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell performs the hit Whiskey In The Jar in the show
Credit: Supplied
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It took Peter about seven weeks to lose the weight needed
Credit: Supplied
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Peter thinks the success of the musical could kick-start interest in a Phil Lynott biopic
Credit: Supplied