CHIEFTAINS CONFESS TO WILD NIGHTS OF SEX AND DRUGS

Captains of the best traditional music in any town, The Chieftains have
revealed that after 37 years on the road they, too, were tempted to indulge
in sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll.

Acknowledged as the grandpas of traditional Irish music, you don't get only
what you see with Paddy Moloney and friends.

Contrary to their clean, toe-tapping-performers-by-the-hearth image, the
Chieftains have unveiled that they were attracted by the temptations of
stardom. In an interview in Hot Press magazine, Bodhran player and singer
Kevin Conneff talked about partying with Thin Lizzy front man, the late
Phil Lynott, who died when a 10-year heroin habit took its toll.

Together they smoked dope, leaving Conneff stoned while performing on
stage. He also hung out with roadies and groupies, drank heavily and
admitted to feeling suicidal after the end of his marriage to his Dutch
wife, who was half his age.

"I remember one night me and a few roadies went backstage to meet Thin
Lizzy in Glasgow and Philip produced some pretty powerful stuff! Dope. And
smoking away, I'm thinking `I'll be OK, plenty of time before the gig.'
Indeed. I didn't smoke too much of it but I'll never forget the gig that
night. I kept ending tunes long before they were due to finish ... I
totally lost my sense of time. And then I became f*ing completely paranoid!
That put an end to smoking before a concert!" Conneff said.

He recalled an encounter in New York in the '70s with a beautiful woman and
two single beds in a hotel room. "The next day I couldn't even get my case
off the conveyor in the airport because of whatever I'd done to my back!"

Other band members, flute player Matt Molloy and Sean Keane on the fiddle,
talked about their struggle with drink and the gruelling pressures of touring.

Molloy said musicians walked a "tightrope" when it came to drink and drugs.
"There's definitely a belief that if you have a few nips, it gives you that
edge."

Candidly, he said: "I finished up in a TB ward as a result of it," and he
added that it was also a consequence of "the smoking".

"Like Kevin says, you can deliver some terrible gigs but you can also play
some great music when you're out of it.

"Whatever you use in that sense - be it drink or drugs - does break down
barriers, help self-expression, make you not so aware of the audience. So
you can, definitely at times, play better on drinks and drugs. Let's be
honest about it. But you get sick and tired of getting up sick and tired
every morning," Molloy said.

The Chieftains current album, Water from the Well, is Number One in the
American Trad charts.