Exploring Lemmy’s surprising love of ABBA
The late Lemmy Kilmister from Motorhead was truly a one-of-a-kind, unique character. On the one hand, he was the ultimate hard rocker, but Lemmy also preferred nothing more than headbanging to Swedish pop sensation ABBA.
Although he lived a reckless, hedonistic lifestyle and could drink anybody under the table, Lemmy had a softer side too. He was a tender soul and a nuanced character that couldn’t be pigeonholed into a singular box. At Kilmister’s funeral, Dave Grohl shared an anecdote that proved the late Motorhead frontman’s credentials as a great human.
Grohl explained a meeting at a festival and Lemmy coming to meet his family in his dressing room. Upon arrival, the Englishman spotted Grohl’s newborn daughter in a crib and discretely stubbed his cigarette into his whiskey without saying a word.
“To most people, that would seem like nothing, I suppose,” Grohl told mourners. “But to me, that was my hero putting out his cigarette into his drink and putting it aside because my daughter was there in the room. I think what everybody has always known or at least learned today is that Lemmy was not only that kind of whiskey-drinking rock and roll star, but he had the biggest heart and set such a great example because he was so kind to everyone.”
Lemmy had a heart of gold, as Grohl confirmed, and he was living proof you shouldn’t judge somebody upon their appearance. When Lemmy was interviewed in 2014 by The Huffington Post, he was asked to reveal the most surprising fact about himself, which prompted the musician to say: “One of my favourite bands is ABBA”.
While this may sound like a lie from Lemmy, it was verified by the actor W. Earl Brown in 2016. While speaking to Sirius XM, Brown recalled: “He turns to me at one point and goes, ‘Earl, have you ever listened to ABBA?’ And I think he’s pulling my leg, so I’m like, ‘F**k no.’ He goes, ‘Well, you missed out on the greatest sets of pop melody outside of Lennon and McCartney. Zach (Throne), do you know any ABBA?’ Zach goes, ‘Yeah. Fernando?’ So he starts playing, and Lem is singing. And I kind of have this [moment] like, ‘Holy s**t, it’s Sunday morning, I’m drunk, and I’m listening to Lemmy sing ABBA.'”
The only crying shame from this encounter is that no footage exists of Lemmy singing ABBA, and we’ll have to use our imaginations for that. Thankfully, Brown’s accounts confirm the Motorhead frontman was deadly serious when he declared his love for the Swedish popstars, and that’s enough to nourish my soul.
