10 fascinating stories from Lemmy's life!

This British bassist and vocalist has forever gone down in the history of world music as one of rock's most recognisable, enigmatic and iconic personalities. In the minds of millions of listeners from around the world, his colourful stage persona, raw, penetrating vocals and the extraordinary, sometimes highly entertaining incidents that the legendary genius encountered on his career and life paths are vividly stamped on the minds of millions of listeners.

In December 2015, the indomitable rock'n'roll genius passed away. This was not only due to the musician's advanced age (Lemmy passed away after celebrating his seventieth birthday), but also to the consequences of all sorts of stresses: physical, musical, chemical... However, the immortal hero of the performer continues to live on in the colourful stories that Lemmy shared in his countless interviews, as well as in his fascinating and entertaining autobiography "White Line Fever". Today, we decided to recall the most interesting of these stories and share them with you.

"Coming into the world."

If we believe the words of the cult genius, his appearance in this mortal world was as follows:

"At birth, falling on Christmas Eve 1945, my name was Ian Fraser Kilmister. I came into this world a month and a half ahead of schedule. I had lovely golden curls which, to the delight of my crazy mum, fell off after five days. I was all scarlet coloured, without any hint of eyebrows or nails. The very first memory deposited in my mind was me bursting into tears from screaming. Why I was screaming so wildly, I don't remember. Maybe it was hysteria, or maybe I was just rehearsing."

History of the nickname

When the man we all know today as the legendary "Lemmy" was ten years old, the boy moved with his family to North Wales. It was there, within the walls of one of the local schools, that the now world-famous nickname was born. Where it came from - even Lemmy himself could not explain. However, the rock genius assumed that it was attached to him because, as a schoolboy, he was not averse to "shooting" everyone for change: "Lemme a quid!" ("Borrow a pound!").

Guitar is like a sure-fire tool in the fight for a lady's heart!

Lemmy first took up the guitar as a school pupil. Love to music, of course, played not the least role in this decision, but as the guitarist himself later admitted, beautiful girls contributed a lot to it! One of Lemmy's classmates brought a guitar with him to class. To tell the truth, he was not a very good guitarist. But he was immediately surrounded by all the girls in the class, and more! "This is a cool theme!" - decided the young rock icon. Soon Lemmy came to the class, as they say, not empty-handed. The guy brought with him an old Hawaiian guitar, which hung on the wall at home as a kind of decoration. His playing at that moment was also far from ideal (or at least from the classical norm), but the instrument worked! Lemmy immediately became an enviable beau for any girl! Here's how the musician later commented on it: "The guitar is the only thing in my life that has ever worked so effectively and instantly. It's the most effective weapon in the fight for the heart of any pretty girl!"

Familiarity with the beautiful...

Lemmy earned his first musical experience performing as a member of the rhythm and blues band Rocking Vickers. They were produced by the renowned Shel Talmy, who had worked with The Who and The Kinks. Rocking Vickers didn't have a single hit, but the listeners of northern England perceived the band with furious enthusiasm. This was especially true for the fairer half of the audience. Sometimes fans dragged their adored idols right off the stage, literally! It was at one of these performances that Lemmy first felt what it was like to have your jeans ripped off... Lemmy:

"Have you ever had your jeans ripped off? Straight up hard so that you can feel the seams tearing against the inside of your leg? It's not the most pleasant feeling, believe me."

But ripping your jeans off can be tolerated. But the band's vocalist - Harry - had to experience something much more unpleasant... Once before the beginning of the performance, he joyfully "jumped" on stage to say hello to the audience. At that very moment the female fans pulled the cord lying on the floor... It is clear that poor Harry, flying at full speed to the microphone, did not have time to notice it and got caught. The flight was beautiful... As the vocalist later recollected, falling from the stage into a huge crowd of screaming beauties, he felt the pleasant joy of approaching meeting with numerous young female fans... However, according to Lemmy's memories, seeing the vocalist diving at them, the female fans culturally parted aside "like the Red Sea before Moses", thus providing Harry with a beautiful view of the approaching floorboards. As a result, the vocalist got a serious fracture of his nose in several places, as well as a finger, which was given to him by crazy fans trying to take off his ring....

Favourite rock idols

In the mid-sixties, Lemmy often attended concerts of his favourite bands in London. The guitarist's favourite rock band was the early Beatles. Lemmy was even once lucky enough to see his idols in concert in Liverpool. Later, he said:

"The Beatles were pretty tough blokes. Yes, Brian Epstein certainly trained them well for mass consumption, at least they didn't look like typical brats. They were from Liverpool and that said it all. It's like being from Hamburg or Norfolk, they'll kick the shit out of you if you blink the wrong way."

Besides the Beatles, Lemmy admired the Rolling Stones, although he often referred to them as mama's boys: "They were basically snotty art college students from the London suburbs. Yeah, I really liked the Stones, but them and the Beatles were like heaven and earth. They were nowhere near those Liverpudlian guys, neither in their creativity, nor in their manner on stage, nor in their sense of humour. Their only thing was Jagger dancing, and that was it. Yes, they recorded amazing stuff, but once they got on stage, it was complete... The Beatles, on the other hand, were always just right. Always on top of their game."

That's an arrogant lie!

In the early seventies Lemmy joined Hawkwind as a bassist, however, the musician had never dealt with bass before. Funnily enough, he created his own unique style by successfully merging bass with the old rhythm guitar techniques... And what's even more interesting, it was thanks to Lemmy that the band released their main smash "Silver Machine". It was a live recording, which was very, very strange: on that momentous night for Hawkwind, Lemmy was in a terrible state. The musician could hardly stand on his feet, and had to be almost forcibly leaned against the amplifiers. As the guitarist himself later commented: "It's all a blatant lie!". According to him, he just had some difficulties with his mobility and could not see the action around him. This forced the technician to lift the woeful bassist to his feet and put the bass on him himself. Lemmy only enquired about the direction of the audience and the distance to the edge of the stage. Having received all the necessary information, the musician played the show with dignity, carefully measuring each of his steps.

But the one who was really out of shape that night was Bob Calvert. The vocalist's sound was so bad that later on they had to re-record the vocal parts in the studio. All the members of Hawkwind contributed to the live recording, but only one of them was brilliant - Lemmy!

Crazy inspiration

As it happens, the last song Lemmy wrote for Hawkwind was called "Motorhead" (Biker), which was very symbolic for the author. The musician composed it during his stay at the Hyatt, a Los Angeles hotel on Sunset Boulevard. Just together with Hawkwind, Wizzard - quite popular at that time glam-rock band - stayed in the same hotel. And one morning, at 7:30 to be exact, a wave of incredible inspiration came over Lemmy... That's when Wizzard's leader Roy Wood kindly lent his acoustic instrument to his rock colleague, and moving with it to the hotel balcony Lemmy started screaming a song that had just been born in his head!

The guitarist later recalled how police officers on the street watched him with particular suspicion:

"...They stopped their cars, got out of them and watched me, or rather my inspired solo, intently. Afterwards they shook their heads, something like "Gee..." jumped back into their cars and drove off. As it seemed to me, they thought it was a hallucination...".

Lemmy was soon expelled from Hawkwind for trying to smuggle illegal substances across the Canadian border, which was a serious set-up for the whole band. When the bassist decided to form his own band, he didn't have to think about the name....

Master and apprentice

Yes, Lemmy did teach Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols how to play bass guitar. Though teaching is a bit of a mouthful. It's more like trying to do it. But a few days later, he told his unlearned pupil:

"Sid, you and the bass are things not comparable to each other." "I know," Vicious replied.

Travelling in Russia

In 1997 Lemmy and his Motorhead band visited Russia for the first time. As the leader himself told later, he was extremely impressed by the warm reception of the audience, but the organisation of the performances left much to be desired... One late evening the band together with technicians and concert equipment had to fly from the capital to Rostov-on-Don. They drove for a long time along a deserted dark road, as suddenly guard booths and a high deaf fence became visible... The musicians immediately understood that they were brought to a military airfield. The flight had to be cancelled before the arrival of the general, who arrived in a service car, took (as it seemed to Lemmy) his fee and left for his own land. Finally the team was allowed to fly.

The first to inspect the aircraft was drummer Phil Taylor. After spending about twenty minutes scrutinising the aircraft Taylor returned to his mates and declared: "I'm not flying this!". To this, Lemmy told him with a mocking "Don't you drift!" and left the machine to conduct his own inspection. Soon the guitarist returned and said, as if cut off: "I'm not flying that!" According to him, the plane waiting for them was a prehistoric twin-engine trough, completely gutted from the inside, completely unsealed and open to the elements. The passenger compartment was located at the rear of the cargo area and was fitted with a garden set. Without much thought, the Motorhead members turned down the "tempting" flight, sending a team of technicians instead. Later, Lemmy commented:

"Well, we figured they'd have something to talk about. They can't go a day without whining about their troubles!"

Rock 'n' roll blood

It's no secret that Lemmy has never been an advocate of a healthy lifestyle. Moreover, he was always not averse to some interesting chemistry or good alcohol. But in the eighties the guitarist reflected and decided that it would be a good idea to have a blood replacement operation - the same one that Keith Richards used to do (curiously, but the British guitarist himself stubbornly denied this fact). According to the rock musician, once his veins are filled with pure fresh blood, he will no longer need to go through the hellish tortures that abound in the drug clinic.

Lemmy took all the necessary tests and went to see a doctor, but was met with disappointment:

"Unfortunately, you have no human fluid left in your veins. Pure blood would kill you," the doctor concluded, adding that Lemmy would definitely not be able to become a donor, as his blood would kill a normal human being.

But none of this upset Lemmy in the slightest! He later said:

"It's very busy: what's perfect for me is fatal for other people, and what's perfect for others is fatal for me. I am quite comfortable with that fact. I may have already gone into some kind of medical thesis. I'll keep my body for all sorts of experiments! I think it's really fun."