Iron Fist - Motörhead - Headphones

"I'm sure half the people who wear Motörhead t-shirts have no idea who the fuck we are"

"We used to throw acid on the crowd with bottle droppers because if it gets on your skin you're tripping"

Motörhead mainman Lemmy Kilmister has been living the rock'n'roll dream for over 40 years. From Hendrix's roadie, to having a film of his life made, he's one of the few who can claim the mantle of legend.


Where and when were you born?

I was born on the 32nd of October 1943.

Actually, Sir, it was December 24 1945 in Stoke-On-Trent.

Yeah, I was born in Stoke-On-Trent. You can't get more English than that!

Being born at the end of the war seemed to temper the rest of your life in that a lot of your songs are about war.

Well yeah, because that's the most important thing that happened in the 20th century. The Second World War changed everybody's life, mine, yours, everybody's. The Second World War was a very important thing, it changed my mum's life and my father's.

Your dad was a preacher, did that affect your view on religion?

Yeah, but I never knew him. The thing is, there's all these mealy mouthed motherfuckers who talk about religion, but religion is evil. It's the most evil thing there has ever been. Organised religion. If you want to speak to your god, whoever you conceive that to be, you don't need an organisation to tell you which building to go and worship in.

What was your first band?

The first band was when I was still at school and they were called The Sundowners. We didn't really do a lot, just rehearsed, and then I was in a couple of local bands, one called The Sapphires for a couple of months. Then when I moved to Manchester I was in The Rainmakers. Then the first good band I was in was called the Motown Sect; we called it that to get shows because Motown was all the go at the time, but we played like, Pretty Things and stuff like that. We'd be like, "here's a song for all the James Brown fans...it's by Chuck Berry!" After that it was the Rockin' Vicars and then Hawkwind and Sam Gopal was in there somewhere.

You roadied for Hendrix, what was that like? Were you in awe?

Everybody was in awe of his music. I'd watch all the way through the show and never knew how he was doing any of it. You be like, 'I'll sit here and just watch the left hand...' It was incredible, you'll not see the like of him again. But people always say it's a shame when these people die young, but all of them were going towards lounge music. Eddie Cochran was doing the same shit! They'd all be in Vegas now in the clubs.

You joined Hawkwind in 1971. How did you get the job?

Me and Dik Mik (Hawkwind keyboards) started hanging out. He'd left the band because he was going to India to study at the feet of the holy, but he only got as far as Gloucester Road. When he ran out of money he went back to the band and took me with him because I was his new best friend. I went for guitar player, but the bassist didn't show up and he'd left his bass in the van! Bass was a great thing for me because I was good at rhythm guitar, but that went out of fashion and I couldn't play lead to save my fucking life.

Do you think it pissed them off that their biggest hit, "Silver machine", was the one you sang on?

I think it pissed them off when a magazine stuck me on the cover on my own. I'd only been in the band about four months!

That was your first hit with a band. What sort of impact did it have on you?

Well, we started working a lot more and we got to take a big stage show on the road, which was great! We used to throw acid on the crowd with bottle droppers because if it gets on your skin you're tripping! We'd spike all the food and drinks backstage too and people would be like, 'I'll be safe, I'll just have some orange juice...

That sense of community seems to be gone too.

Yeah, it got beaten out of us in the 70s and 80s and it became just impossible to carry on like that. Hawkwind are still like that, there's still an edge to it.

You were kicked out of Hawkwind in 1975 for doing the wrong drugs...

Yeah, the Canadian government thought it was the wrong drugs too so I got away with it. They said it was coke and it wasn't so they had to let me off and drop the charges. I was just in jail overnight and they had to bail me because my replacement couldn't get there in time.

After getting fired from Hawkwind you formed Motörhead straight away.

I formed it in a hurry just to show them... Well, it was to keep the publicity thing going so people knew I was still around. That was with Larry Wallis and Lucas Fox. The first lineup was very unsure of itself and it was all covers anyway. Then we got Phil Taylor in and it was me, him and Larry for about three weeks: Phil had offered me a lift to the studio and we thought we'd try him out because we were getting rid of Larry anyway. We put the drums in the boot of this old Cortina and it had no windshield in it, and this was the middle of fucking January, so we got this chick with a big fur coat to sit on my lap all the way down there! We got Fast Eddie (Clarke) because Phil knew him from when they fixed up a houseboat or something and Larry wanted to go back to the Pink Fairies.

As early as 1977 you were opening for the Damned and you were probably the first "Metal" band to cross over and be accepted by the early punk scene. Why do you think that was?

Probably because we played very fast and they liked that. But we were punk in attitude, we weren't heavy metal. I always thought we had a lot more in common with The Damned and the Pistols than Judas Priest and Black Sabbath.

The Clarke, Taylor, Kilmister era seem like they were the wildest time for Motörhead.

Yeah they were because the first time is always the biggest. We still have our moments, but it's not going to be like the first time. I was 30 and I didn't give a fuck. The other two were younger than me so they really didn't give a fuck. Phil Taylor still doesn't give a fuck!

You must be proud though, that a lot of people see Motörhead as a lifestyle more than just a band?

It's the attitude. I think we'll be remembered more for the attitude than the music, although the music stands up alright, but I'm sure half the people who wear Motörhead t-shirts have no idea who the fuck we are. If everybody who bought a t-shirt bought an album we'd be laughing!

Joe Petagno's artwork on your t-shirts and albums always went hand in hand with the band. How come he's not still doing your covers?

Somebody got in his ear about how he should be getting royalties for stuff we bought outright. You could tell somebody was in his ear, probably that lawyer, and poor old Joe tried to sue us and shit, and of course, he didn't have a leg to stand on because we'd paid for it. We bought them off him lock, stock and barrel every time for a decent price and he never complained. Then some lawyer comes along and fucks it for everybody! You don't get royalties for a picture! Even Rembrant never got that!

No computer.

The more I see of the internet the more I think it's a terrible mistake! It's the greatest communication tool ever, but we forget it's for the human race who use it to rob people and for child porn, which is really fucking savage isn't it? If that's all we can do with this thing then maybe it should be taken away from us.

Do you really hate playing "Ace Of Spades" now?

No I don't and I never said that. People just assume things and if you don't say them then they'll put them in anyway because it makes better copy. I don't hate "Ace Of Spades" and as I've always said, we got lucky, we got famous for a good song! We could have been the Bay City Rollers, stuck doing that shit for the rest of your life wearing tartan shorts!

Do you find it weird that you're considered a living legend?

This 'legend' thing is funny. I've seen a lot of people fall for their own publicity and I'm not about to do it. Sid turned himself into Sid Vicious and John Richie disappeared altogether. He needed to keep John Richie sitting on his shoulder and so many people can't do that, especially when they're young. And these days it happens more and more because you're famous instantly so you've got no chance of building up the psyche to deal with it because you're just in a whirlwind. I know what it's like: I remember when No Sleep Til Hammersmith went to number one, we never stopped for about two years! We didn't know where we were or who we were working for, it was all chartered planes and you never get a chance to put a foot on the floor.

There's a movie due about you, cunningly titled "Lemmy: The movie". How did that come about?

These two geezers came and said, 'Can we do a movie?' so they came on tour with us for a couple of days and filmed some stuff, then they cut it up and the trailer looked great so I said, 'OK, go ahead.' But it's like when I put that book out ("White Line Fever"), at least if my life wasn't vitally important, it was fucking amusing!

And it's not everyone who gets their own action figure as you have.

Yeah, it's quite well done isn't it? I said, 'Are you gonna put a dick on it?' and they said no so it's not gonna see much action. Still, you can't have everything. And I've tried!

Well, you've tried everything apart from getting married and yet you've written a lot of love songs.

I know, but I wanted to stay being in love and you lose that when you get married. Love walks out the door as soon as you walk into it and it's all knickers on the towel rail after that. I was in love a lot, but I never met anybody that could stop me looking at all the others.

Favourite clothing

Tight trousers! I couldn't stand them fucking baggy trousers. I used to have to wear them to school so I certainly wasn't going to wear them after school. There's something wrong with trousers you can wear boxer shorts under.

Favourite crafts

I like blades because it's the last form of craftsmanship. There is craftsmanship in guns, but it's different. And you can teach a fucking orangutan to fire a gun, but if you had to stick a knife in somebody to kill them there'd be a lot less murder.

Favourite albums

The first Stones albums and all the Beatles albums. The Stones weren't the bad boys y'know? The Beatles came from the tough part of town and the Stones came from the suburbs of London. But it was Little Richard that changed my life altogether.

Favourite drink

Bourbon. It's not particularly Jack Daniel's, although I do like Jack and it tastes a lot better than most, particularly with coke. When I first came over here I was going to try a bottle of every kind of bourbon there is at the Rainbow, but there's a lot. We got a bottle of this shit that was like Everclear, this clear liquid, that said 'old factory recipe: one toot and you're out for the day!

Fave character trait

You've got to have a sense of humour, especially with yourself and so many bands these days have no fucking sense of humour at all! It's like you've lapsed into a forigien language! Especially over here, they're all so fucking serious! It's like "no, no, it was a joke you daft bastard!