Lemmy Kilmister once named the best songs of his career: “I’m glad we got famous”
When you look at Lemmy, what do you see? It can often be hard for people to see past the hard rock exterior; after all, he did live and breathe rock music, and it showed. You have the cowboy hat, cigarettes, alcohol, and hardened face; it’s difficult to see anything other than a rock star. While that may be the case, the Motörhead lead singer was equally obsessed with various cultures and his fans.
It was no secret how sick Lemmy was towards the end of his life. While he was on the road, it became clear that he wasn’t in great health, and his fellow bandmates told him to stop touring. The bassist and vocalist had no interest in doing such a thing. His commitment was to the road, his fans, and the genre of music he had dedicated his life to, so the shows continued.
His bandmates conceded, saying that if Lemmy was going to refuse to stop touring, their aim should be not to get him off the road but to make his time on the road as comfortable as possible. This meant they started to help him more in everyday life and changed the setlist so that it was more user-friendly.
“Instead of arguing with Lemmy, trying to get him off the road, let’s just help him instead,” said Mikkey Dee. “I remember shows where we had to adjust a lot of stuff, but I think we, and he, did fantastic. Our last show was December 7th in Berlin, and then a couple of weeks later, the man is gone. Trust me, me and Phil put in 150%, Lemmy must have put in 300% to get through the sets.”
Lemmy’s commitment to music didn’t just stay on the road but also went into everything he wrote. He was incredibly proud of the music he put together for Motörhead, to the extent that when he was asked to name his favourite songs, he struggled to single any out. He eventually went with ‘Ace Of Spades’ because of how well-known that song became and how much it helped the band propel to stardom. “Obviously ‘Ace Of Spades’ because it did so well,” he said, “You never know what people are going to catch up on.”
Lemmy admitted that he didn’t know the song would become as big as it did at the time of writing. “I never knew it was such a good song. Writing it was just a word-exercise on gambling, all the clichés,” he said, “I’m glad we got famous for that rather than for some turkey, but I sang ‘the eight of spades’ for two years and nobody noticed.”
Of course, Lemmy wrote a lot of other songs that he was proud of. One was his collaboration with Ozzy Osbourne, ‘Mama I’m Coming Home’. He also listed other Motörhead songs that he felt deserved as much credit as their classic, but that never seemed to get it. “There were a lot of songs as good as ‘Ace Of Spades’, which didn’t do so well. Also, ‘Bomber’. I love ‘Bomber’.”
