The Man Behind The Myths

The legend of MOTÖRHEAD is one that was first forged 40 years ago with the release of their timeless albums OVERKILL and BOMBER. No one embodied that reputation more, though, than the band’s leader, LEMMY. A friend of the man born Ian Fraser Kilmister for the best part of three decades, Kerrang!’s Mörat celebrates the wit, charm and humour of a rock’n’roll lifer...

July 28, 1981. The following day, Prince Charles and Diana Spencer were due to be wed, and the streets of London were awash with flag-waving tourists. At 1am, though, I was roaming these streets looking for slightly less regal entertainment, when I happened to stumble past a place called the Venue, in Victoria. Unfortunately, who was due onstage that night is information seemingly lost to history, but there in the foyer, larger than life and twice as badass, was Lemmy; drink in hand, of course, with a couple of Hells Angels lurking nearby. As luck would have it, I was wearing an Ace Of Spades shirt, and I ducked inside to ask for his autograph.

“Sure,” he rumbled. “Have you got a pen?”

I didn’t have a pen. “Drink this, you look like you need it,” he said, handing me something that both looked and tasted like Ribena, but which delivered a weighty kick of alcohol. And with that, he disappeared into the club to find a pen. To this day, I can’t think of any rock star who would go to so much trouble for a fan, and to add some perspective, this was only a month after the release of the mighty No Sleep ’Til Hammersmith live album, which had reached number one in the UK album charts.

The band had a justifiably fearsome reputation – the dirtiest and loudest rock‘n’roll band in the world – and Lemmy didn’t need to go out of his way to sign shirts for anyone. And yet, he always did, never turning a fan like me away.