“You would have been dead”: The shot of amphetamine that almost killed Lemmy
The late Motörhead frontman Lemmy lived one hell of a life. Whether it be watching the pre-fame Beatles at the Cavern Club, acting as Jimi Hendrix’s roadie, or pioneering space rock with Hawkwind, his list of exploits is lengthy and significant. While his life was comprised of many astounding moments, one thing he became synonymous with was hellraising.
So many famous musicians have built their image around sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, when in actuality, it’s something of a fallacy, or on the other hand, sadly leads to a short career with their life carting off the rails because of it. However, Lemmy was one of the only figures who was the real deal, and it is almost certain that his working-class upbringing in the hard industrial town of Stoke had something to do with it. When you think about it, it was only really he, Ozzy Osbourne and Keith Richards who pushed life to the absolute brink in rock’s golden age and lived to tell the tale.
Just like his most notorious contemporaries, Lemmy’s position as one of his era’s most remarkable survivors was not without its truly fraught moments, where it looked like his voracious penchant for hellraising could have ended his life far too early. If it weren’t for nothing but pure chance, he would have become another example of death by misadventure, prompting decades of laments of ‘What could have been?’
One of the most insane Lemmy stories occurred in 1969, two before he joined Hawkwind in 1971. One day, a friend of his convinced his nurse girlfriend to get them some amphetamine sulfate from the dispensary she worked at. However, she flubbed the order and accidentally brought them a jar of atropine sulfate. Lemmy ingested a teaspoon’s worth, which he later recalled was “200 times the overdose,” which led to everyone going “berserk”.
In his 2002 memoir, White Line Fever, Lemmy remembered talking to a TV he held under his arm before passing out and waking up in the hospital. “If we got you in another hour you would have been dead,” the doctor told him. However, even after treatment, he had intermittent hallucinations for two weeks. He said he’d be “sitting, reading a book, and I’d turn to page 42 – but there was no book”.
While amphetamine nearly ended Lemmy’s life, ironically, it played a key role in his success. Firstly, he was invited to audition as bassist for Hawkwind by their keyboardist, Michael ‘Dik Mik’ Davies, a fellow speed freak and friend of his. Despite never having played the instrument, he passed with flying colours.
Sometime later, Lemmy and Dik Mik stayed up for three days taking Dexedrine, a form of amphetamine. To counteract its effects, they took the depressant Mandrax, to take the edge off. However, Lemmy got bored, so he decided to drop acid and mescaline and then take more Mandrax. While this might have been fine on another day, they were actually set to play a benefit for the Greasy Truckers at The Roundhouse, which eventually was heard on the 1972 live album, Greasy Truckers Party.
Dik Mik drove them to the venue, and when there, both took cocaine and eight Black Beauties each – the latter another form of amphetamine. Despite the pair being so smashed that their roadies helped them on stage, the gig was one of their best ever. Their jamming during the show led to ‘Silver Machine’, the band’s only hit, and signature song.
