HENRY MCCULLOUGH will admit himself that he has a face that's 'well lived in'. Every deeply etched wrinkle is a reminder of a more hedonistic time – a war wound earned during his rock 'n' roll rampages of the 1970s. The Portstewart axeman didn't do things by halves. His life story is a testimony to excess – his alcoholism underscoring the most significant part of his musical career.

For those unfamiliar with the name, Henry McCullough is one of Ireland's legendary guitarists. The man's former bandmates read like a rock 'n' roll Who's Who.

He's shared a stage with Macca, jammed with Jimi Hendrix, and was part of Joe Cockers 'Grease Band'. What Henry McCullough didn't experience in the 1970s is probably too tame to mention.

Maybe as a former member of rock royalty, it's odd to find him headlining in a marquee behind a pub in rural Carrig-on-Bannow.

The genial 67-year-old doesn't think so.

In fact, standing alone on stage with just his acoustic guitar and a catalogue of songs that he penned with Horslips lyricist Eamon Carr is where he's happiest at the moment.

'I only started doing completely solo gigs in the last nine months. I'm used to having the security of a band around me.'

Recently the Phil Murphy Weekend in Carrig-on-Bannow welcomed McCullough with open arms – his set was heralded as one of the triumphs of the weekend.

It was a fun experience for McCullough, who normally likes to be in the background – the ace guitarist, standing behind the front man.

'It brings me back to my days when I was with Sweeney's Men,' he said, adding that his pleasure is found in performing his own material.

When performing on his own, he likes to imagine he's sitting and singing in his own front room.

'It always sounds better when you are sitting down at home playing, and I go into every gig with that attitude,' he said.

It's a far cry from when he stood on stage with Paul and the late Linda McCartney as part of their band Wings.

McCullough's back story is phenomenal. He first came to prominence in the early 1960s in the timid guise of a teenage guitarist with the Skyrockets showband from Enniskillen, and from there he joined Gene And The Gents, another show band fronted by the South African vocalist Gene Chetty.

It was only when he moved to Belfast in 1967 that his career began to take a more cutting edge direction. The blues boom that had hit Ireland appealed to McCullough's darker side and he formed the psychedelic band The People.

This outfit subsequently crossed the channel and on arrival in London were signed by Chas Chandler's management team who later renamed them Eire Apparent.

It was under Chandler's guidance that McCullough toured across the UK and America with groups like Pink Floyd, Amen Corner, The Move and the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

After experiencing visa problems in Canada McCullough returned to Ireland in 1968 and joined Sweeney's Men, who have since been labelled the innovators of the folk-rock genre.

One year later McCullough was back in London, where he immersed himself again in the blues scene. He rubbed shoulders with the greats of the genre, who were just coming to the attention of the British revivalists.

It was at this time he met a young Sheffield singer who would change his life.Working with Joe Cocker as a member of his backing group The Grease Band was Henry's first brush with the big time.

Through this association tours flooded in and albums were recorded. He again travelled the United States and performed at the famous Woodstock Festival. It was also during these halcyon days that he had a relationship with Janis Joplin.

In 1971 Paul McCartney asked him to join his new band Wings. His tenure with the band was short, and he left after two years due to musical differences with the ' headstrong' Macca. However, his graceful guitar solo on the single My Love is still regarded as an 'all time guitar gem' that eloquently showed his expressive power of the instrument.

His sojourn with Wings also saw him play lead guitar on Hi Hi Hi and Live And Let Die.

At one Wings session at Abbey Road McCullough also inadvertently ended up on a Pink Floyd album. Floyd were recording Dark Side Of The Moon when McCullough was caught on tape uttering the words: 'I don't know; I was really drunk at the time.'

He embraced session work after this period, but always maintained an amazing quality of work. His instinct for excellence brought him in touch with some of the most influential musicians of the time – people like Marianne Faithfull, Ronnie Lane, Frankie Miller and Donovan. In 1977 he temporarily joined Dr Feelgood, and also spent some time with progressive band Spooky Tooth.

Throughout this time, Henry embraced the excesses of his industry. Drugs and alcohol all played a part in his every-day life – and alcohol was his particular problem.

Indeed, it was the drink that nearly finished his career.

While on a visit home in 1984, and while seriously drunk, Henry severed all of the tendons on his right hand. It was then that surgeons told him he might never play again.

'For a while I kept thinking to myself not to worry. Maybe I could still play a bit of drums,' said the now sober sexagenarian. However, it wasn't long before the reality sunk in.

' That was a very bad time for me,' he said, adding that his relationship with the bottle was never stronger. 'Alcohol was also a large part of the accident... I gradually had to come to terms that I needed to change my whole life.'

However, he also realistically looks back on his life and doesn't harbour too many regrets. 'I did it all. The drink and the drugs – although I didn't do drugs when I was in Ireland. It was all part of the lifestyle. I was on the road from the age of 17,' he said.

Henry remembers having to dig deep emotionally and physically to

battle his addiction. 'I went to my mother's grave and asked her to help me,' he said.

The help came and for the last 20 years or more Henry McCullough enjoys a rock and roll lifestyle that is only fuelled on caffeine. His hand also healed well after a long recouperation period and he returned to sessioning.

Sitting in with some old friends, The Fleadh Cowboys, in the Lower Deck Pub in Dublin became the catalyst for getting his music career on track, and he later returned to Portstewart to put his own band together.

Now 67 years of age, Henry continues to enjoy gigging, and his willowy frame and now-greying ash-blonde hair make a striking portrait.

His life now revolves recording his own music, touring in Ireland with his own band, touring in Poland with a secondary outfit, and doing solo gigs.

Indeed his frontman popularity was underscored when he went to Poland in 1998 and rehearsed a band of Polish session musicians for a tour.

At the end of the tour they went into a studio and played ' live' for an afternoon, and the resulting CD, Blue Sunset, became an unexpected hit in Poland. This led to a follow-up tour in the country and many return visits to gig there over the last 12 years.

His last Irish album, Poor Man's Mouth, was recorded in Amberville Studios in 2008 and featured new McCullough compositions co-written by Horslips lyricist and poet Eamon Carr.

His gigs are a lot mellower now. It's a step away from his time in the spotlight of mega stardom. However, his contribution to that era is not forgotten.

Indeed, he attended Paul McCartney's last gig in the O2 in Dublin and was hailed by his former bandmate from the stage.

'It was great. I called McCartney's office and said I'd like to go to the gig. I hadn't seen him in nearly 30 years. But he was ever so generous,' he said.

'I was standing in the audience and he said ' Would you mind waving at me Henry',' laughed the affable guitarist.

Despite their differences of opinion in the same band 30 years previously, Henry has a huge admiration for the man he once considered headstrong.

'His show was brilliant, he did a three-and-ahalf-hour set,' he said, adding that he enjoyed catching up with Sir Paul backstage after the gig.

Much of Henry's own music is self probing, and in places harrowing. His song Failed Christian has also been covered by the equally dark songster Nick Lowe on his latest Demon album Dig My Mood.

However, Henry's life is pretty much a happy one at the moment – the only notable dark moment of the last decade being the loss of his beloved 1963 cherry-red Gibson ES335, the guitar that had accompanied him through most of his hedonistic career.

The guitar sadly went missing from a British Midlands flight between Warsaw and Heathrow. Luckily, Henry still has possession of his gold-top Les Paul that he once played at Woodstock.

Looking back, Henry smiles and thinks a lot of his mega stardom went by in a flash, and he didn't ponder too much on it at the time.

He does admit that it was a colourful life. 'I was there – and it was great'. HENRY MCCULLOUGH will admit himself that he has a face that's 'well lived in'.

Every deeply etched wrinkle is a reminder of a more hedonistic time – a war wound earned during his rock 'n' roll rampages of the 1970s.

The Portstewart axeman didn't do things by halves. His life story is a testimony to excess – his alcoholism underscoring the most significant part of his musical career.

For those unfamiliar with the name, Henry McCullough is one of Ireland's legendary guitarists. The man's former bandmates read like a rock 'n' roll Who's Who.

He's shared a stage with Macca, jammed with Jimi Hendrix, and was part of Joe Cockers 'Grease Band'. What Henry McCullough didn't experience in the 1970s is probably too tame to mention.

Maybe as a former member of rock royalty, it's odd to find him headlining in a marquee behind a pub in rural Carrig-on-Bannow.

The genial 67-year-old doesn't think so.

In fact, standing alone on stage with just his acoustic guitar and a catalogue of songs that he penned with Horslips lyricist Eamon Carr is where he's happiest at the moment.

'I only started doing completely solo gigs in the last nine months. I'm used to having the security of a band around me.'

Recently the Phil Murphy Weekend in Carrig-on-Bannow welcomed McCullough with open arms – his set was heralded as one of the triumphs of the weekend.

It was a fun experience for McCullough, who normally likes to be in the background – the ace guitarist, standing behind the front man.

'It brings me back to my days when I was with Sweeney's Men,' he said, adding that his pleasure is found in performing his own material.

When performing on his own, he likes to imagine he's sitting and singing in his own front room.

'It always sounds better when you are sitting down at home playing, and I go into every gig with that attitude,' he said.

It's a far cry from when he stood on stage with Paul and the late Linda McCartney as part of their band Wings.

McCullough's back story is phenomenal. He first came to prominence in the early 1960s in the timid guise of a teenage guitarist with the Skyrockets showband from Enniskillen, and from there he joined Gene And The Gents, another show band fronted by the South African vocalist Gene Chetty.

It was only when he moved to Belfast in 1967 that his career began to take a more cutting edge direction. The blues boom that had hit Ireland appealed to McCullough's darker side and he formed the psychedelic band The People.

This outfit subsequently crossed the channel and on arrival in London were signed by Chas Chandler's management team who later renamed them Eire Apparent.

It was under Chandler's guidance that McCullough toured across the UK and America with groups like Pink Floyd, Amen Corner, The Move and the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

After experiencing visa problems in Canada McCullough returned to Ireland in 1968 and joined Sweeney's Men, who have since been labelled the innovators of the folk-rock genre.

One year later McCullough was back in London, where he immersed himself again in the blues scene. He rubbed shoulders with the greats of the genre, who were just coming to the attention of the British revivalists.

It was at this time he met a young Sheffield singer who would change his life.Working with Joe Cocker as a member of his backing group The Grease Band was Henry's first brush with the big time.

Through this association tours flooded in and albums were recorded. He again travelled the United States and performed at the famous Woodstock Festival. It was also during these halcyon days that he had a relationship with Janis Joplin.

In 1971 Paul McCartney asked him to join his new band Wings. His tenure with the band was short, and he left after two years due to musical differences with the ' headstrong' Macca. However, his graceful guitar solo on the single My Love is still regarded as an 'all time guitar gem' that eloquently showed his expressive power of the instrument.

His sojourn with Wings also saw him play lead guitar on Hi Hi Hi and Live And Let Die.

At one Wings session at Abbey Road McCullough also inadvertently ended up on a Pink Floyd album. Floyd were recording Dark Side Of The Moon when McCullough was caught on tape uttering the words: 'I don't know; I was really drunk at the time.'

He embraced session work after this period, but always maintained an amazing quality of work. His instinct for excellence brought him in touch with some of the most influential musicians of the time – people like Marianne Faithfull, Ronnie Lane, Frankie Miller and Donovan. In 1977 he temporarily joined Dr Feelgood, and also spent some time with progressive band Spooky Tooth.

Throughout this time, Henry embraced the excesses of his industry. Drugs and alcohol all played a part in his every-day life – and alcohol was his particular problem.

Indeed, it was the drink that nearly finished his career.

While on a visit home in 1984, and while seriously drunk, Henry severed all of the tendons on his right hand. It was then that surgeons told him he might never play again.

'For a while I kept thinking to myself not to worry. Maybe I could still play a bit of drums,' said the now sober sexagenarian. However, it wasn't long before the reality sunk in.

' That was a very bad time for me,' he said, adding that his relationship with the bottle was never stronger. 'Alcohol was also a large part of the accident... I gradually had to come to terms that I needed to change my whole life.'

However, he also realistically looks back on his life and doesn't harbour too many regrets. 'I did it all. The drink and the drugs – although I didn't do drugs when I was in Ireland. It was all part of the lifestyle. I was on the road from the age of 17,' he said.

Henry remembers having to dig deep emotionally and physically to

battle his addiction. 'I went to my mother's grave and asked her to help me,' he said.

The help came and for the last 20 years or more Henry McCullough enjoys a rock and roll lifestyle that is only fuelled on caffeine. His hand also healed well after a long recouperation period and he returned to sessioning.

Sitting in with some old friends, The Fleadh Cowboys, in the Lower Deck Pub in Dublin became the catalyst for getting his music career on track, and he later returned to Portstewart to put his own band together.

Now 67 years of age, Henry continues to enjoy gigging, and his willowy frame and now-greying ash-blonde hair make a striking portrait.

His life now revolves recording his own music, touring in Ireland with his own band, touring in Poland with a secondary outfit, and doing solo gigs.

Indeed his frontman popularity was underscored when he went to Poland in 1998 and rehearsed a band of Polish session musicians for a tour.

At the end of the tour they went into a studio and played ' live' for an afternoon, and the resulting CD, Blue Sunset, became an unexpected hit in Poland. This led to a follow-up tour in the country and many return visits to gig there over the last 12 years.

His last Irish album, Poor Man's Mouth, was recorded in Amberville Studios in 2008 and featured new McCullough compositions co-written by Horslips lyricist and poet Eamon Carr.

His gigs are a lot mellower now. It's a step away from his time in the spotlight of mega stardom. However, his contribution to that era is not forgotten.

Indeed, he attended Paul McCartney's last gig in the O2 in Dublin and was hailed by his former bandmate from the stage.

'It was great. I called McCartney's office and said I'd like to go to the gig. I hadn't seen him in nearly 30 years. But he was ever so generous,' he said.

'I was standing in the audience and he said ' Would you mind waving at me Henry',' laughed the affable guitarist.

Despite their differences of opinion in the same band 30 years previously, Henry has a huge admiration for the man he once considered headstrong.

'His show was brilliant, he did a three-and-ahalf-hour set,' he said, adding that he enjoyed catching up with Sir Paul backstage after the gig.

Much of Henry's own music is self probing, and in places harrowing. His song Failed Christian has also been covered by the equally dark songster Nick Lowe on his latest Demon album Dig My Mood.

However, Henry's life is pretty much a happy one at the moment – the only notable dark moment of the last decade being the loss of his beloved 1963 cherry-red Gibson ES335, the guitar that had accompanied him through most of his hedonistic career.

The guitar sadly went missing from a British Midlands flight between Warsaw and Heathrow. Luckily, Henry still has possession of his gold-top Les Paul that he once played at Woodstock.

Looking back, Henry smiles and thinks a lot of his mega stardom went by in a flash, and he didn't ponder too much on it at the time.

He does admit that it was a colourful life. 'I was there – and it was great'.