The metal act Lemmy called “one of the greatest bands ever”
When looking at the grand scope of rock and roll history, Lemmy Kilmister deserved a place among the greatest ever to do it. Although he never claimed to be the best in his field, Lemmy’s way of living the lifestyle of a rock and roller throughout every period of Motörhead’s career made for one of the most exhilarating stories of the modern age, influencing countless rock bands. Although the frontman could be brutally honest about his opinions of rock bands, he thought one metal band deserved a place among the finest acts on the planet.
Although it would be easy to categorise Motörhead as a metal band, Lemmy never claimed to be in the trenches with the genre. Regardless of the speedy nature of the band’s music and his previous stint with the psychedelic outfit Hawkwind, Lemmy always maintained the fact that he was a rock and roller, never mincing words that he was following in the footsteps of old-time rock troubadours that came before him.
It’s not hard to see why the bass player thought of it that way, either. When listening to the first few Motörhead releases and the sounds of bands like the MC5 or even Little Richard, Lemmy followed in their footsteps, putting his gravelly vocal chops to good use on albums like Ace of Spades and Overkill.
While the first wave of metal was being formed around the same time that Lemmy was starting in his new outfit, one metal band saw the way forward when listening to Lemmy’s hymns of destruction. Becoming enamoured with Motorhead from an early age, Lars Ulrich was blown away by what he heard and wanted to start a band, drafting in a fellow Motorhead freak named James Hetfield to create Metallica.
Across the band’s first record, the band practically have their rock and roll heroes’ names tattooed on their forehead, with tracks like ‘Motorbreath’ and ‘Whiplash’ bearing a passing resemblance to Lemmy’s signature songwriting style. Although Lemmy was more than happy to keep chugging along with the latest incarnation of the band, he could acknowledge that Metallica was hitting the nail on the head in terms of rough and ragged rock and roll.
When talking about the bands that he liked, Lemmy would consider Metallica among the greatest bands that he had ever seen, telling Louder, “There’s always been something special ever since Lars and Cliff Burton came to my hotel room before Metallica even existed. But Metallica are a great fucking band, man. They’re truly one of the best bands ever, ‘Some Kind Of Monster’ aside. Every band has problems”.
Thanks to his famous fans, though, Lemmy would get numerous accolades after the fact. After covering a majority of Motörhead tunes on the album Garage Inc., Lemmy would return the favour and earn a Grammy for a jaw-dropping cover of Metallica’s ‘Whiplash’, which sounds like the original hopped up on steroids.
Even after he passed away, Metallica was still reverent towards their rock and roll hero, penning the song ‘Murder One’ in his memory. Lemmy may not have been in the music business for fame and fortune, but Metallica’s influence over generations of musicians has led to Motörhead becoming a more prominent household name than ever before.
