 "His spirit will always live in us." |
Metallifreak 
RESPECTED MEMBER
Registration Date: 27.05.2005
Posts: 5,172
Herkunft: Köflach
 |
|
| "His spirit will always live in us." |
     |
FROM ALL OF US...
Lemmy, you are one of the primary reasons this band exists. We are forever grateful for all of your inspiration. Rest In Peace.
Endless Love & Respect,
Metallica
FROM JAMES...
Lemmy IS rock and roll and will forever be.
FROM LARS...
When I heard Lemmy had died, I was home at the tail end of a family Christmas celebration. I was speaking to a friend of mine who knows Motörhead's manager very well and he told me that things were not well and maybe I should consider going down to L.A. to see him and pay my respects; the cancer was very aggressive, and it was end stage and there probably wasn't a lot of time left. That was at 1 p.m. and then I guess I heard the news around 6 p.m. That was crazy.
Lemmy is probably one of the absolute primary reasons that I wanted to be in a band. It's that simple. I got introduced to Motörhead's music in 1979, when Overkill came out. I was in a record store, the double bass intro to "Overkill" started, and I never heard anything like that in my life. The subsequent ride that this music took me on was to a place I had never been. It was really exciting and really invigorating. It felt fresh and different.
I became pretty obsessed with them for the better part of the next few years after that. The first time I saw them was in the spring of 1981, when they were supporting Ozzy, who was kind of breaking as a solo artist. So this was obviously an incredible bill, plus I got a chance to finally experience Motörhead .
Me and my friend Richard Burch — whose name is immortalized on the back of Kill 'Em All for saying "Bang the head that doesn't bang" — followed Motörhead around California on that Ozzy support slot tour: San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and they also played one of their own shows at the Country Club in L.A.
Getting a chance to see them that often was an amazing thing, but more so, we actually got really close to them, got a chance to meet them and hang out with them. And that's because of Lemmy and his graciousness.
He was so open and approachable, so the antithesis of a rock star; he wasn't full of shit or unapproachable, hiding behind masks or whatever. None of that existed. He had this presence and aura of all the great rock stars of the Sixties and Seventies, but at the same time, he was this incredible down-to-earth, easygoing, easily approachable guy. So me and my friend Rich ended up in the back of the bus drinking beer, hanging out, listening to tall tales & wild tour stories and being a part of all the shenanigans that followed a rock & roll tour around at that time. It left a deep impact on me, because rock stars up until that time seemed to come from someplace else. They were larger than life; you weren't on the same level as them. You weren't worthy. You couldn't even picture yourself even engaging with Robert Plant or Paul Stanley, Elton John or Rod Stewart.
It was the first time I really experienced that. Me and Rich were driving behind Motörhead's tour bus, following them up and down Interstate 5 for the better part of a week. They'd pull into a truck stop, and me and Rich would pull into a truck stop. Should we go up and say hi to them? Should we keep clear? It was all funny and weird, but over the course of that week, we got to know Lemmy and realize that we didn't have to try and act super cool and hide our fanboy nerdism. He opened up the door and let us in, and that was just a mindfuck because it wasn't how the rules were at that time.
A couple of months later, I got sick of being in California and went back to Europe where all the music and all the metal and all the stuff that I was into was happening, and I ended up in England and spent a little bit of time with Diamond Head. The biggest show in England in the summer of 1981 was the Heavy Metal Holocaust at a place called Port Vale Football Stadium. It held 40,000 people and Motörhead was headlining. They had just put out their No Sleep 'til Hammersmith album, which had entered the British charts straight at Number One. They were the biggest thing in England that summer.
So me and one of the guys in Diamond Head went to Port Vale to try and see the show, but it was sold out. Long story short, I told someone working there that we were friends with Lemmy (we knew some of the road crew). Within 10 minutes, me and my friend were backstage in the Motörhead compound at this stadium gig. I'm telling you, you've got to understand the mindfuck. Every single person in music in England knew who Lemmy was there, and still, this fucking snot-nosed, acne-infested fucking 16-year-old kid from Denmark via California found his way into the Motörhead compound. It was a total mindfuck.
I stayed in England and Europe for another month or two, and I went back to Denmark, where I made some money to fly back to California. My flight was leaving out of Heathrow, so I had two nights in London. I checked in with my friend who had gotten to know Motörhead's management. Once again, to put this into perspective, I'm 16 years old and I don't know my head from my ass. He said, "Motörhead are rehearsing so if you want to catch up with them, go down there and see if you can find any of them." It was a loose tip.
So I got down to this studio, and within another half an hour, I'm sitting in their rehearsal room and it's Lemmy, Phil Taylor, their drummer who just passed a month ago, and Eddie Clark. It was the three of them in a room the size of, like, jail cells put together — a hotel room — and it was just them and me, and they're writing songs for their next album. I'm just sitting there watching them write. I remember they were talking about this new song called "Iron Fist" that they were working on, which became the title track from the next album. This is the biggest band in England, and I'm just sitting there with them in the fucking rehearsal room writing songs for their next record, just put that in fucking perspective.
The point I'm trying to make is there was this openness and embrace, not only of this fucking lost 16-year-old who was just so high on what they were doing, but this openness to let people into their inner circle, and it motivated me.
About six months before all this I had met this kid, James Hetfield, and we spent 24 hours together. I could tell he was a super cool guy, but nothing much came out of that interaction. But when I went back to California later that week, I called him up and said, "We've got to form a band together. I just hung out with Motörhead. I got a chance to meet these guys in Diamond Head. I'm feeling it, this otherworldly calling."
So when I say that Lemmy is the primary reason that I'm in a band to this day, and that Metallica exists because of him, it's not some cheap exaggeration. It really was. They took me in, they let me be a part of what they were doing, and it inspired James and I to form this band based on that kind of attitude and that kind of aesthetic of engaging with your fans and being open and transparent and letting people in and sharing the experience. We were all just a bunch of lost fucking kids who wanted to belong to something that was bigger than ourselves.
That was what Motörhead represented: you were a part of a gang. If you were a Motörhead fan, you were called a Motörheadbanger — the Motörheadbangers is the name of their fan club — and we all had a common connection where we felt like we belonged. We felt like we were belonging to something that was greater than ourselves. But there was no separation between band and fans. There was no separation between anybody; we were all just in it together. It was so fucking inspiring. And that comes directly from Lemmy and from how he let me into his inner sanctum for that summer in 1981. I'll forever be indebted to him and forever grateful.
Even after I first met him, we stayed friends. I was the first one in the building and the last one out of the building every time Motörhead came within traveling distance over the next few years. I would find them at their hotel and I would end up in Lemmy's hotel room. I would hang out with them. There's an infamous picture on the inner sleeve of the record Orgasmatron where I'm basically sitting with barf all over myself. I’d been so excited to see Lemmy that we’d been drinking from the same vodka bottle, and obviously I wasn't quite as experienced in that as the people that were in that room, so pretty soon I was wearing most of that vodka that I was drinking. I passed out in his hotel room and he took that picture and forever immortalized me on Orgasmatron, which was obviously a badge of honor. It didn't matter what the circumstances were, I was on the inner sleeve of one of the Motörhead records in full force.
Metallica had just started breaking at that time, and Lemmy was like a godfather, a parental figure. He was someone you felt completely safe with. You were never judged. You were never intellectualized. You were never questioned. You were always just welcomed in to whatever level that you were capable of. It made you feel alive and it made you feel important. It gave us a purpose.
|
|
01.01.2016 19:51 |
|
|
Metallifreak
RESPECTED MEMBER
Registration Date: 27.05.2005
Posts: 5,172
Herkunft: Köflach
Thread Starter 
|
|
At Lemmy's 50th birthday, we came out and played. We were basically the house band; we played six Motörhead songs all dressed as Lemmy. Playing his songs had always been something that's been a pretty effortless thing for us. We do it proudly.
He just wrote so many great songs. Off the top of my head, "Motörhead" was just such a calling card to rock & roll back in the day: The immortal line, "I should be tired, but all I am is wired/ Ain't felt this good for an hour." That was the most rock & roll thing I had ever heard in my life. That's probably still right up at the very top. "Overkill" is the reason I wanted to play double bass; that song was a big part in shaping Metallica's sound. "(We Are) the Road Crew" probably has some of the best lyrics describing road life. The song "Bomber" is one of the most energetic hard-rock songs ever. Then there's "Capricorn," which I can relate to, since my birthday is two days later than Lemmy's, so I'm a Capricorn too. Then you have the little gems, like the B-side "Over the Top," which was the flip of I think the "Bomber" single. It was still a live staple of theirs, years later. The list just goes on forever.
I was down at the 70th party two weeks ago, and I got a chance to sit with him for about 10 minutes, just him and me. I told him it was his obligation to the rock & roll community to live forever, because he was the reason we could all get together and celebrate hard rock and celebrate Motörhead and see familiar faces because we're all so scattered now. His birthday party was like a hard-rock class reunion. Everybody was there because Lemmy's one of the few people we can all agree on who is just the coolest guy ever. We would all show up.
Obviously I could tell that he was in deteriorating health but we had a close bond, one that didn't necessarily need to be reaffirmed or articulated. The less we said the more we knew the connection was there.
Whenever Metallica played L.A., he would always come and watch us, and whenever Motörhead was up here, we'd always go and see them play. We probably crossed paths 50 to 100 times in the last 20 years, and he came and played with us onstage multiple times. It was a bond that deep, and it goes back to the crazy summer of 1981.
I will always appreciate, and forever cherish, all the great times we had together, but especially those early days. We were so vulnerable, so moldable because a significant part of who we've become, both in the band and as people, is directly due to not just him but all the rest of the people who were inspired and drank from the same bottles and shared the same stories and same space as he did. His spirit will always live in us.
FROM KIRK...
Lemmy was the finest of gentlemen.
Back in 1979 when I was 16 years old, I heard Overkill for the first time. I thought it was the fastest thing I'd ever heard, and I declared to all my friends that Motörhead were the fastest band in the land.
When I had first seen pictures of what these guys looked like, I noticed a certain authenticity about them. I imagined they lived the way they looked and looked the way they lived.
And I remember very distinctly having a realization that moment — I realized that it was OK to be an outsider and that it was OK to not feel like I had to conform to anything that I objected to in my teenage life because clearly the Motörhead guys in this picture looked like they didn't conform to anything at all and boy it sure looked and sounded like they were enjoying themselves as a result.
So I got a lot from that pic and that massive sound and that attitude.
And I have to thank Lemmy, Fast Eddie and also the recently departed Philthy Animal for the inspiration, spark and fire that I felt so strongly from that night in 1979.
That inspiration will always be there with me and may the music of Motörhead live on!
FROM ROBERT...
One of the last true outlaws has left the building.
|
|
|
01.01.2016 19:52 |
|
|
|
