Lemmy’s bizarre alien encounter: “It couldn’t have been some acid flashback”
Rock ‘n’ roll and outer space fit like a match made in extraterrestrial heaven.
Consider David Bowie’s androgynous alien alter-ego Ziggy Stardust, a figure of bright-red hair and sequins, crash-landing on an alternate Earth to spread hope to the masses. Or, the ‘Space Ace’ himself, the late Ace Frehley, whose belief in aliens was reflected in his metallic onstage persona with Kiss. Whether the product of a childhood love of science fiction or one too many experiments with hallucinogens, rock stars’ love of alien life forms has placed a bizarre stake in the genre since its inception.
Elvis Presley’s “spiritual advisor” and hairstylist (quite a combination), Larry Geller, has claimed that ‘The King’ shared telepathic visions with aliens at just eight years old, with one alien even showing him a vision of his future self, wearing his famous white jumpsuit. Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge is perhaps aliens’ biggest champion in the rock ‘n’ roll pantheon, declared in their 1999 hit ‘Aliens Exist’.
Growing from his middle school fascination with extraterrestrials and UFOs, he founded his company, To The Stars Inc, in 2017, focused on researching and promoting fringe science and the existence of alien life. Legends including Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards and John Lennon have all claimed to have had encounters with extraterrestrials, spotting UFOs circling above their homes.
“We are Motörhead and we don’t have no class… We bring you UFOs, saucers in the sky,” Lemmy Kilmister spits on ‘We Are Motörhead’, the heavy metal titans’ 2000 headbanger. As metal’s favourite madman, Lemmy’s existence, like that of an extraterrestrial, is something of a legend. His affinity for unbridled chaos, fueled by heavy drug-taking and drinking, resulted in a life lived on the edge, with no extreme being too far for him to attempt. Before his rasp-fueled voice defined Motörhead, Lemmy’s immersion into rock ‘n’ roll came as a roadie for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, where he gained a dual education in live music and drug use.
“Jimi taught me how to find drugs in the most unlikely places because that was part of my job for him,” he told Revolver. “That’s how I learned how to function on five hits of acid. But I also learned about the theatrics and performing.”
The stories that fill Lemmy’s 70 wild years of life are truly endless, and even as he was forced to slow down his partying in his old age, he never lost his penchant for chaos. It was with one of his first bands, playing guitar in Blackpool’s The Rockin’ Vickers, that Lemmy would experience the otherworldly, before he discovered other forms of debauchery.
Speaking with Inked magazine, Lemmy recounts a time when he claims to have encountered a UFO. “In 1966, we were coming back over the Yorkshire Moors, which, incidentally, was before I even drank beer, so it couldn’t have been some acid flashback,” he asserts.
Adding, “This thing came over the horizon and stopped dead in the middle of the sky. Then it went from a standstill to top speed, immediately. We don’t even have aircraft that do that now, never mind then. So that was pretty eye-opening for me.”
Whatever it was that Lemmy saw floating in the sky, whether it be an alien spacecraft or some other entity, its effect certainly took hold on the young musician. Ironically, he soon left the Vickers to join the space rock group Hawkwind, spending nearly four years as their bassist before being kicked out after his arrest for drug possession.
“If I was busted for acid, everything would have been fine,” he once said. “But they were all about the psychedelic experience. The most cosmic band in the world fired me for getting busted with the wrong kinds of drugs!”
Perhaps Lemmy was on a cosmic trip of his own, if his encounter with aliens is any indication, spurred to find a never-ending thrill.
