By his own admission, White was more suited to playing blues than heavy rock and he quit by mutual agreement the following year.

The previous album Chinatown having been released in October 1980, Thin Lizzy travelled to Compass Point Studios, Nassau, in early January 1981 to start work on the follow-up.

"In the Delta" ultimately remained unused, but "It's Getting Dangerous for Us"[2] became the first song earmarked for the as yet untitled Thin Lizzy album.

More time was spent on "The Act", while Lynott recorded an eight-minute demo of a tune called "Mexican Girl".

[3] Also in July, the band recorded two covers: "Trouble Boys", written by Billy Bremner of Rockpile (who was present in the studio at the time), and Percy Mayfield's "Memory Pain", suggested by White and featuring his bluesy lead guitar.

"[4] Wharton remembered, "Everyone hated the damn song,"[5] while British music newspaper Record Mirror described it as "dinosaur stuff".

[4] Between touring and festival dates, Thin Lizzy also began work on "Disaster", co-written by Lynott and Wharton.

This was never considered for the Renegade album, although possibly as a Lynott solo track, but it ultimately appeared on a flexi disc given away with Flexipop magazine in the UK in August.

"[2] Young producer Chris Tsangarides was working at Morgan Studios at the time, and he met with the band and reviewed their progress, agreeing to help them finish the album.

Gorham expressed his dislike of the title, and the song: "I thought "Angel of Death" was too heavy metal for words, and I hated it.

"[2] Also recorded at this stage were "The Pressure Will Blow" and "No-One Told Him", as well as a reworking of an idea of White's from earlier in the year with the title "If You Save Souls".

[5] Next was "The Pressure Will Blow", co-written with Gorham, which Lynott explained was about a man who discovered his partner's affair, and who told her to leave before he became violent.

On hearing Gorham play the riff, Lynott later said, "Immediately I sort of ripped off ZZ Top for all their worth.

"[2] The album closes with "It's Getting Dangerous", one of the first ideas Lynott brought to the sessions at Compass Point in January, with a lyric describing friends drifting apart.

[3] However, Phonogram / Vertigo were unwilling to provide funding for an outside artist, and the final cover was photographed by Graham Hughes, a cousin of Roger Daltrey.

The record company said the layout of the back cover dictated that there was only room for four photos, which angered Wharton: "It was a horrible excuse and it hurt me a great deal," he said.

[4] Greg Prato of AllMusic claimed that Renegade is Thin Lizzy's worst album, with "blatant pop leanings and a production too similar to British heavy metal bands of the early '80s", blaming Snowy White's incompatibility with the group, Lynott's "flat vocals" and the band's drug problems.

[9] David Fricke in his review for Rolling Stone stated his disappointment for Lynott's performance as singer and songwriter on the album, writing that "only the rousing chorus of "Hollywood (Down on Your Luck)" and the poignant sense of loss in "It's Getting Dangerous" hint at the sensitive yet anthemic writing and hard-rock smarts that usually separate Thin Lizzy from the lunkheads".

[11] On the contrary, Canadian journalist Martin Popoff praised the album for its superb production and the professional state-of-the-art sound, calling Renegade "an absolute masterpiece of deeply soulful and richly textured hard rock", whose "fullness and maturity tend to emerge only when played repeatedly".