Johnny the Fox is the seventh studio album by Irish hard rock band Thin Lizzy, released in 1976. This album was written and recorded while bassist/vocalist Phil Lynott was recovering from a bout of hepatitis that put him off the road halfway through the previous Jailbreak tour. "Don't Believe a Word" was a British hit single. Johnny the Fox was the last Thin Lizzy studio album on which guitarist Brian Robertson featured as a full member of the band, as the personality clashes between him and Lynott resulted in Robertson being sacked, reinstated, and later sacked again. Recording Once Lynott had returned to the UK from the aborted US tour in June 1976, when the band had been scheduled to support Rainbow, he spent time in hospital in Manchester recovering from hepatitis. He had an acoustic guitar with him and wrote the songs for Johnny the Fox during June and July, with one outing to play a gig at Hammersmith Odeon on 11 July. After his release from hospital, Lynott joined the other members of the band and travelled to Munich, Germany in August to record the album at Musicland Studios with producer John Alcock. Alcock has said that the decision to record outside the UK was for tax reasons. Early in the recording process, it became clear that neither the band nor the production team was happy with the studios or the recording process, and they experienced particular trouble obtaining a satisfactory drum sound. Lynott was still finishing the songwriting and, according to Alcock, the band were arguing about musical direction. On 6 August, they abandoned the sessions and returned to Ramport Studios in Battersea (where the previous Jailbreak album had been recorded), and Olympic Studios in Barnes, London. Brian Robertson has said that there was plenty of material from which to choose for the album, up to eight or nine tracks apart from the ten that appeared on the final release. However, Alcock claims that the album suffered because Lynott needed more time to finish the songs, and that some tracks, like "Boogie Woogie Dance", were not strong enough to make the album. Songs Lynott and Robertson clashed over musical differences, such as the composition of "Don't Believe a Word". When Lynott first played the song in a slow 12-bar blues format, Robertson claimed it was "shite", and Lynott reacted badly, disappearing for a few days. Robertson then