The nearest and dearest of Motörhead legend Lemmy have discussed his final days in a special new interview celebrating the life and career of the rock 'n' roll icon.
Asked how Lemmy took the news that he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer in December 2015, former Motörhead manager Todd Singerman gives an unsurprisingly robust response.
"How did he face death? Like a champ," he reveals to Metal Hammer. "When the doctor was at the house and told us, I cried right there. I couldn’t help it. And Lemmy was the one who fucking consoled me."
Upon receiving the cancer news, Lemmy's crew arranged to have his favourite arcade machine sent over from the Rainbow in Los Angeles, the Motörhead man's famed favourite hangout. Lemmy passed peacefully in his sleep on December 28, 2015, just two days after the cancer diagnosis and four days after his 70th birthday.
"Literally his whole goal was to drop at the last show of the last gig of the last tour," Singerman adds. "He missed it by two weeks. Same with Ozzy. They both died exactly 17 days after their last show.”
"I believe that he wanted to kick the bucket on the road," agrees Saxon frontman and Lemmy's old touring buddy Biff Byford. "But he won’t have been too disappointed by the way things panned out. Playing a fucking videogame. He died as he lived. It was quick, at least."
Lemmy's former Motörhead bandmates speak fondly of the man when discussing the way he chose to live his life and what he might be doing today if he was still with us.
“In interviews people would say, ‘It’s such a tragedy.’ I’d say, ‘It’s not a tragedy,'" argues drummer Mikkey Dee. "It’s sad, but look at it this way: Lemmy lived 70 years on his premise, his way."
“What would he be doing if he was still here? Same thing he always did," adds guitarist Phil Campbell. "We’d be playing in Motörhead. We never talked about the end, we always talked about the next album, the next tour, the next gig, the next song. We’d still be blasting away, like it or not.”
A decade on from his death, Lemmy's legacy stands as tall as ever; last month, a Motörhead tribute album featuring a host of punk rock heavyweights was released. Rancid, Anti-Nowhere League, Pennywise, The Casualties and GBH were amongst the names who contributed to Killed By Deaf: A Punk Tribute To Motörhead - Lemmy et al were widely credited with uniting the punk and metal scenes of the 70s and 80s with their speed metal/dirty rock 'n' roll stylings.
Read the rest of the interview as part of a special, feature-length tribute to Lemmy in the latest issue of Metal Hammer. Order your copy here.
