The metal song Lemmy Kilmister thought was a big “mistake”
If there’s one thing Lemmy lived and died by, it’s to be a risk-taker.
There were many reasons for this. One was that he always felt like Motörhead were the underdogs in the rock world who could never rest on their laurels or play it safe to get noticed. Another was that everything he loved in his life, he was always warned against.
As he once said, “If you didn’t do anything that wasn’t good for you, it would be a very dull life. What are you gonna do? Everything that is pleasant in life is dangerous. Have you noticed that? I’d like to find the bastard that thought that one up.”
He also once self-professed to be an “egomaniac” who chose a career in music because it “seemed to be the best of what was on offer”. But these standoffish remarks didn’t come from someone who was defeated by their own path. Rather, his attitude was often cut and dry because he preferred it that way, and the same goes for his music and how he wrote, too.
According to him, the best lyrics were the most simplistic ones, or the ones that wouldn’t become misconstrued whenever they landed among audiences. Most artists know well and good what it’s like to write a song and to have its meaning stretched out into more potential analyses than they can count. And a portion of them even know what it’s like to have listeners miss the mark entirely.
For Lemmy, writing lyrics was about entertaining a good balance between artistic liberation, or expression, and a constant awareness of how people might perceive them. He once discussed this with Louder in more detail, using Slayer’s ‘Raining Blood’ as an example of someone who did the complete opposite of this and then had to face the consequences.
“I don’t want to pass on bad messages,” said Lemmy. “I always thought Slayer made a mistake with ‘Raining Blood’. We became good friends on that tour and I remember saying to their singer, Tom Araya, ‘You realise there’s people in the audience who think you mean that? They think you wanna see blood.’”
His concerns materialised the following night when “half a chair came past his head and he lost it”. A development that cemented Lemmy’s view that “you should be careful what you say in songs because people ain’t there when you write it and they don’t know what you meant.”
Lemmy’s suspicions would have probably been brushed off as unnecessary criticism had Slayer’s audience not proved him right. But beyond the technicalities of why he felt ‘Raining Blood’ was a “mistake” in the broader sense, his attitude actually says a lot about Motörhead’s success and why they kept pushing for greatness. It was never about confusing audiences but creating a moment where they felt the music was for them, no tricks, no gimmicks.
And that was also why his mantra as a risk-taker paid off. It might have meant he faced sharp consequences every now and then, but it ultimately solidified his place in history as one of the biggest forces of rock. Someone who knew how to cut through it all with an attitude that didn’t quit.
