METRO DETROIT, MI – Born Ian Fraser Kilmister in Dec. 24,
1945 in Burselm, UK. He was known to millions of metal and punk fans as Lemmy.
He was the lead vocalist, bassist, and founding member of Motorhead. This band
pulled no punches and delivered a high intensity metal sound. It was a band
that delivered a high rocking sound for other rockers. This band didn’t really
get a lot of airplay when I lived out in Virginia and I certainly cannot speak
for the Metro Detroit market back in the 1980’s but I doubt they paid much attention
to them either at the time.
Instead, Motorhead and Lemmy found an audience with the
hardcore rock and roll mindset. The heavy metal and punk community clung to
them tightly and Lemmy was pretty much regarded as a pop culture icon in the
likes of Sid Vicious and Johnny Ramone. He was at that level of rock’s elite.
In fact, he was often photographed with them in 1978. Lemmy was seen in the New
York rock scene as well as the fringes of the disintegrating punk scene.
During the heyday of Motorhead he was even featured on the BBC
punk rock comedy show, “The Young Ones”. The tune they did on that program was,
“The Ace of Spades”. You had a sense of reckless abandon meets sheer metal just
for metals sake. They were a musicians band and that sort of cult following
endeared them to a lot of extreme sports enthusiasts via the WWE. It was Lemmy
who performed the song, “The Game” for the popular wrestling show, “Raw” and “Smackdown”.
It was at that time I ran into Lemmy’s promotional camp at
the WWE. I remember in particular the crew was getting a bit uptight about
Lemmy being allowed to leave the hospital so he could go to a nearby Italian
pub. Apparently Lemmy had slipped off a stage and cut his head and had to be
treated while on tour in Italy. The wrestling program had to foot the bill. We
had to call into Lemmy’s Italian hospital room for an International
teleconference in the meeting room.
I remember the head promotions guy cussing and yelling and
saying, “When this world is over there will be three things left. There will be
cockroaches, rats and…… LEMMY BABY HOW ARE YA !!!” ( Lemmy had picked up the
phone). This was a nice save by the promotions guy and I tried my best not to
bust out laughing. It was a moment in bad taste. But that’s how we roll in the
brutal world of advertising.
What a lot of people out there might not know was that Lemmy
loved the whole spectrum of rock and roll music. It wasn’t just one type of
genre for this guy – I mean, he really loved it all. You will find him doing
covers of Chuck Berry, The Rolling Stones and even AC/DC. In closing, we are
going to honor the great spirit of this rock and roll juggernaut and play some
of his most defining tracks.
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