Tim Hughes blows the dust off his old guitar after taking a few lifestyle tips from rocker Gary Moore.

MORE than 40 years after jumping into the world of rock, Gary Moore has got the blues.

Not in any kind of sad way, you’ll understand. The virtuoso axeman, considered by many one of Britain’s finest ever guitarists, has simply decided that, for him, the blues is where it’s at.

Since the ’60s the former Thin Lizzy guitarist has tried most things – from rock to jazz and country to metal. But the blues was his first love – and is still what interests him most now.

“It’s human music,” he says talking to The Guide from his home in Brighton. “It goes way back to the cotton fields – back to the earth.

“At the end of the ’80s I was sick of rock. I felt like a fish out of water, and that’s when I went back to playing the blues.”

Gary’s career has been remarkable by anyone’s standard. As well as starring with the late Phil Lynott’s Thin Lizzy, the fretboard wizard has graced the line-ups of Skid Row, Colosseum II and Travelling Wilburys, and has played alongside former Beatle George Harrison, The Beach Boys, Ozzy Osbourne, Greg Lake, Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green, Cream’s Ginger Baker, and the great bluesman BB King.

And it all started, like so many others, on the streets of his native Belfast – picking up a battered guitar at the age of four, listening to Elvis and, years later, watching The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers playing live.

“Elvis was the first singer I heard,” says the Still got the Blues artist. “It was after that that I got my first guitar – a little Elvis one.

“I was 10 when I got my first real guitar, which was taller than me.”

And it was then, he admits, that he realised the real benefits of being in a band. “Every girl fancies a guy with a guitar,” he says seriously, as if passing on a piece of ancient wisdom.

“If you look the part, it does something. It’s very sexy; it must be something to do with the hips, or having something hanging around your neck.

“I’ve certainly had my share,” he laughs. “And a few other people’s share too. Though you have to be selective; I have even had a few stalkers.”

So did he indulge in any other rock ’n’ roll diversions? “No!” he says definitively. “When I was on tour with Thin Lizzy I’d drink little cans of lager and that was it. Scott Gorham and Phil Lynott were drug addicts taking smack, but I didn’t want to know. I didn’t even smoke anything.

“Phil was only 36 when he died, and I’m still not sure what happened to him. I think they tried to cover his death up.

“I loved him a lot. He was a great guy. I knew him from when I was 15 and in Skid Row, and we were very close, but he was much worse than me. I was like an altar boy compared to him.”

Gary, 57, is now a solo artist, playing electric blues-rock and with a new album Bad For You Baby under his belt.

The album gets an airing tomorrow when Gary kicks off a UK tour right here in Oxford.

“I used to live in Henley, which is not far from Oxford,” he says.

It was there that he found himself neighbours with one of the town’s most famous residents – George Harrison. “He was great fun – and he could call anyone up and get a helicopter to pick us up from his garden!”

“I went to see The Beatles when I was 11, and had to jump up and down to see them,” he recalls. “So it was great to know and play along with George later in life.”

The tour follows a series of international dates, which included a private party for Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin. “Putin was drumming,” he sniggers. “They were asking us to play requests. I told them that they’d paid for us to be there so we’d do whatever they want.”

And what did Russia’s most powerful men want to hear? “Still Got the Blues - of course!”

Gary Moore is at the New Theatre, Oxford, tomorrow. Support comes from Otis Taylor. Buy tickets at ticketmaster.co.uk or by calling the credit card hotline on 0871 2200 260. Bad For You Baby is out now on Eagle Records