Phil Lynott was born in England and was brought up in Crumlin, Dublin by his grandmother, Sarah. His parents reportedly kept in touch for a number of years after his birth, and Philip did meet his father in the late 1970s.. He was the front man of the band Thin Lizzy. some say the son of a black Brazilian father, named Parris, and an Irish Catholic mother, Philomena (aka Phyllis) Lynott, whose surname he took. In the mid-1960s, Lynott began singing in his first band, the Black Eagles. It was around this time that he befriended Brian Downey. He formed Thin Lizzy around 1969 in Dublin after a short stint in Skid Row with Gary Moore. Lynott was the main songwriter for Thin Lizzy, as well as the lead singer and bassist. Lynott was half black, and was inspired by Jimi Hendrix as an example of how a black man could be successful fronting a hard rock band. Their first top ten hit was in 1973 with the traditional Irish song "Whiskey In The Jar". In 1978, he was featured in Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds, singing and speaking the role of The Parson. In 1980 he married Caroline Crowther, with whom he already had a child, Sarah. She later gave birth to their second daughter, Cathleen. Caroline is the daughter of British comedian Leslie Crowther. Lynott's last years were dogged by drug and alcohol dependency, and the night of December 25, 1985, he had a health breakdown caused by a heroin overdose, collapsed and was sent to Salisbury Infirmary, where he died of complete system failure on January 4, 1986 at the age of 36.