John Bonham
Vocals
John joined Celtic Legacy in 2019. Although quite a bit younger than the other two spring chickens, he fit right in. Already being a fan of the band before joining, John was already familiar with Legacy’s output.
John has been performing on the metal scene since 2005. He is also the lead vocalist for Old Season, singing with them since 2013 and now running concurrent with his role in Celtic Legacy, And if that’s not enough, he also performs the Bruce role in a Maiden tribute band from Northern Ireland. So it’s pretty clear that John makes full use of his talent.
As far as influences go, you can take your pick from Bruce Dickinson, Rob Halford, Ronnie James Dio, Blaze Bayley, Steve Perry, Chris Cornell, Mike Patton, Chuck Schuldiner, Andi Deris and Tony Martin.
John was the guest vocalist on Extreme Rhythm‘s Grammy shortlisted album Saturn’s Shadow and appeard on both The Voice UK and The Voice of Ireland (where he reached the semi-finals). He is a former mentee of ex-TNT/Skid Row singer, Tony Harnell.
Fun Fact: John claims to know each and every line from the 1st Bottom stage show. So far he boasts a perfect score in backing up this claim.
Dave Morrissey
Guitars, Keyboards
The only constant member throughout the band’s existence, Dave founded Celtic Legacy with Dave Boylan back in 1998.
Dave’s focus on Legacy meant that he doesn’t have an extensive portfolio of previous bands aside from the usual selection of cover bands he played in prior to co-founding Celtic Legacy. Since then its been pretty much his only musical project, taking up a lot of his off-hours.
It’s fair to say his main influences are from the old-school style of guitar playing – Ritchie Blackmore and David Gilmour would be his obvious draw-upons, but you’ll also hear shades of Adrian Smith, Brian Roberton and Gary Moore thrown in for good measure. Dave prefers melody rather than flash and hates ‘all that tapping shite!’
Aside from the musical side of things, Dave also looks after most of the engineering and producing of the band’s output, to say nothing about the visual and graphical side of the work. He maintains that it’s all still fun to him… usually while doing a spot-on William Shatner impression.
And he says he’s doing no more bloody backing vocals!
Fun Fact: Dave claims to know each and every line from the Bottom TV show. So far he also boasts a perfect score.
Dave Boylan
Bass, Vocals
Dave, a.k.a. “Slim” (or “DerSchlimm” in German) is the other co-founder of Celtic Legacy, born in Dublin sometime during the last century.
Apart from his solid bass playing, Slim has a knack for coming up with catchy melodies and most of the vocal melodies, along with the lyrics, on the first 3 Legacy albums came from his cranium.
In demand with plenty of Dublin bands over the years, Slim has been active with numerous cover outfits where his backing vocals usually give him the edge over other contenders.
Influences range from Steve Harris, Geezer Butler, Bob Daisley, Cliff Burton, Stuart Adamson and of course the late, great Philo.
Always quick with an amusing anecdote, Slim is definitely the joker in the pack and you fall asleep in his presence at your peril (although Dave M has also been known to be quick with the Sharpie pen in similar circumstances)! A full-time father and now a grandfather, Slim says he nevertheless still manages to enjoy life to the full. Ah, the crosses we bear!
Slim has recently undergone chemotherapy for lung cancer. The prognosis is good. He may have lost his hair, but not his determination. As he always says “I GOT THIS!”