Keith Mullin, lead guitarist of Liverpool band The Farm, has opened up about receiving an ADHD and autism diagnosis later in life, and how music has always been a way for him to understand the world.
The 65-year-old musician spoke to the ECHO about his childhood in Seaforth, a working-class area between Bootle and Waterloo, where he grew up surrounded by music thanks to his father and uncle's record collections.
A Musical Upbringing
Mullin recalled that his father was a joiner and a huge record collector, while his uncle Arthur, a merchant seaman, brought back jazz and skiffle records from America. "He was one of the Cunard Yanks," Mullin said. "When he’d be docked in New York, he'd get off the boat and go to buy whatever vinyl that you couldn’t get in England and bring it back home."
Music was a household affair, with family parties often involving instruments and singing. However, it wasn't until Mullin was 12 that he got his first guitar—a Höfner President given to him by his father as partial payment for carpentry work. "He came in and just gave it to me and said 'that's yours' and I was mesmerised," Mullin said. He learned to play by ear, watching others and memorizing chord shapes, never learning to read music.
Late-Life Diagnosis
Mullin was diagnosed with ADHD and autism later in life, which caused him to reflect on his youth. "I’m 65 now, so you get to the point where you think, 'Oh, well, you know, I’ve got this far, I’m not really that bothered,'" he said. "But I think the first thing you go through is acceptance. You have to begin to look at yourself and understand yourself in a slightly different way. You're no longer continuously feeling like you’re hiding stuff."
He added that music became a refuge: "Music became a place where I could make sense of the world and my place within it, music made complete sense to me."
Joining The Farm
Mullin left school at 16, but it wasn't until 1985 that he joined The Farm. The band had been going for three years, and a mutual friend suggested him to frontman Peter Hooton and Steve Grimes. "They came down to mine, and I just played them a load of stuff on the guitar, and talked about the music. And they liked me," Mullin recalled. His first gig with the band was at Merlin's Cave in London.
The Farm went on to achieve significant success, with top 10 singles like "Groovy Train" and the number one album Spartacus in 1991. Mullin said: "It has to be that one moment, that period, that one year, when we released Spartacus. That was a culmination of all of the years work that we did."
Return to Music
After a hiatus, The Farm returned in the mid-2000s and have continued touring. In 2023, they released their first album in decades, Let The Music (Take Control). Mullin remains passionate about music, which he credits with helping him navigate life.
