Working with Scorpions...
"I played bass on all of Love At First Sting with Bobby Rondinelli on drums. We were in Abba's studio which was the most expensive at the time and it just wasn't working with Herman. I hate to be mean, but he was just awful, playing on the same kit he had when he started way back. He'd never change the heads on the drums. He couldn't get anything right and it was taking us forever, and I knew Bobby Rondinelli from touring with Rainbow so we got him in and we had three or four tracks done in two days. That band was all Rudy's rhythm playing. Also, Dieter Dierks had those guys by the short and curlies. We had to demo the whole record before we even recorded it. Otherwise, I know they had other bass players in all the time, I know about up to Blackout, but it was usually a buddy from Hanover. That's normal for them; it's a German thing. Francis didn't seem to mind or think it was weird at all. But I couldn't play with a bunch of Germans like that. The only guy I could communicate with was their English roadie. I've never done any other ghosting work; I was credited all the time. But on that one, when I got that album and wasn't credited, I didn't care. They paid me a lot of money to do it."

Jimmy drains a pint or two with Brian Robertson...
"Oh yeah! And he's from Scotland as well. I met him when I was in my band Harlot, before Rainbow, and I stayed pretty close to him. After I got the boot from Rainbow I went straight back to England the next day. And he had been in some kind of skirmish and he couldn't play with Lizzy for awhile so they were using Gary Moore. So him and I got together and we kind of clicked and wrote some songs and went in and demoed them. He was with Thin Lizzy's management and my best friend was Phil Lynott as well. So I kind of had this idea that him and Robo had had this head-to-head thing that was never really going to be sorted out. It worked out good for me because Phil was basically telling me that 'if you're going to work with that creep, good luck to you!' But I kind of liked it. It was craziness, but we managed to get a record deal and put out a couple of records, one of which was produced by Trevor Rabin. I liked it because I got to sing and we wrote all the stuff. But you know, at that time when we were in London, you couldn't get arrested if you were playing anything heavy. It was kind of punky and rebellious and we were playing the wrong kind of music at the time."

The late, great Phil Lynott...
"Oh, Phil Lynott was just unbelievable. I was on tour with Dio and I came back that Christmas that he got sick. He's my daughter's godfather. We were really tight. I was born the same day as his eldest daughter, Sarah and our wives were really tight, close together. We lived like, I don't know, three or four miles away from each other in London. Actually, I worked and wrote on a couple of his albums, Solo In Soho, and his second one. I wrote 'Girls' with him, 'Dear Miss Lonelyhearts', and on the second one, The Phil Lynott Album, 'Old Town' and the one that Mark Knopfler played on, 'Ode To Liberty'. And I played on all that stuff, keyboards, bass, everything. That was a real buzz because he was a real talent and a really a nice guy. Like I say, I was on tour with Dio, and I came back and saw him at Christmas, actually stayed at his house, and I had to leave on Boxing Day. I took his two kids over to see my daughter for Christmas Day and I never saw him again because he was taken to hospital that day. And I had to leave the day after Christmas and actually fly to Vancouver to pick up the tour again and I didn't get to go to his funeral. And I was really kind of destroyed by that. But these things happen. You never know when you're going to get taken. Pretty amazing."

Jimmy Bain Story Page 4