the Fox and Jimmy the Weed – they were real people. They were from the Manchester area, where Phil's mom had her hotel… They were part of a gang of cultured thieves… They weren't drug dealers, like it says in the lyrics for the song… But they were pretty heavy guys, yet they were real funny, so you couldn't help but like them." Backing musicians Phil Collins of Genesis was brought in to contribute some percussion to one or more tracks, seemingly because he was a friend of Lynott's. Robertson later said, "Collins was just a mate of Phil's... I think Phil probably just wanted to get him on the album to name-drop." Neither Robertson nor Downey was able to remember which songs Collins played on. Irish musician Fiachra Trench provided string arrangements, for example on "Sweet Marie", on which he used one bank of violins and two viola sections. Trench also contributed a brass arrangement to "Johnny", while Kim Beacon of String Driven Thing sang backing vocals. Again, none of the band members could recall which song(s) Beacon appeared on. Robertson claimed that Beacon was only used because Frankie Miller was unavailable. Album cover Thin Lizzy used their usual cover artist, Jim Fitzpatrick, to design the sleeve for Johnny the Fox, but he was asked to provide the finished design before the album was given a title. When Lynott asked him for something Celtic, but not the usual kind of Celtic rock design, Fitzpatrick drew a complicated neo-gothic Celtic border with a disc in the centre, left blank for the title and central design. When the deadline was approaching and he grew desperate to finish it, he asked Lynott for any idea of a title to inspire him. Lynott replied, "Ah, call it Johnny the Fox, that'll do." Fitzpatrick reminded him that there was no track with that title on the album, and Lynott replied, "No-one will notice, Jim. The album will be massive." Fitzpatrick subsequently drew the fox design and added the title. An idea of a cut-out with the fox's head showing through was rejected by the record company. An earlier Fitzpatrick design had the same border with the figure of a warrior in the centre, but both Lynott and Fitzpatrick felt that the fox represented a sort of "outsider" character, much like the panther on the cover of Thin Lizzy's 1974 album, Nightlife. Album release and