Larry Getlen of The New York Post:
For the past 40 years, Lemmy has lived up to his reputation as a hard-rocking, hard-living metal god. As frontman for the British band Motorhead, he counts among his die-hard fans Dave Grohl and Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan.
But now, at age 69 and living with diabetes — not to mention a heart defibrillator installed in his chest — the English bassist and singer, who famously used to drink a bottle of Jack Daniel’s a day, has had to abandon his beloved whiskey in the name of health.
His substitute? Vodka.
“I gave up whiskey ’cause it had Coke in it,” says Lemmy, referring to his regular whiskey and Cokes, which his diabetes would no longer allow.
He’s also cut down from two packs of cigarettes a day to one pack a week, and he says his drug use is “not half as much” as it used to be. He even bought an exercise bike that he swears he uses regularly.
“I’ve always been healthy, aside from the drugs and the booze,” he quips.
Despite his hard living, Lemmy says his avoidance of one particular drug is a big reason he’s still with us.
“I never did heroin. That took care of a lot of my generation,” he says. “I knew what I was doing . . . I learned a bit more every time somebody else died.”
One such friend was icon/Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious, whom Lemmy calls “a nice man.” He once tried to teach Vicious, who famously couldn’t play his instrument, to do just that.
“It was impossible,” he says. “Then, three weeks later, he comes up to me and says, ‘Lemmy, I got a job with the Pistols.’ I said, ‘What, [as a] roadie?’
“He said, ‘No. Playing bass.’ I said, ‘You can’t play bass, Sid.’ He said, ‘Yeah, I know. But I’m in the Pistols.’ ”
Talking to The Post about the release of Bad Magic — Motorhead’s 22nd album, which drops on Friday — the man born Ian Kilmister in Staffordshire, England, swears his aggression hasn’t lessened a bit in spite of his cutbacks.
“I still feel the same,” he says. “There’s so much to be angry about.”
Any advice for younger rockers? “Nothing, I’d tell ’em nothing,” he says. “It’s all luck. I’m not dead and [other rockers] are. It’s a weird thing.”
source: nypost.com
10 Responses
You probably wouldn’t want to follow Lemmy into the mens room. Something tells me he’s not a Salad-Guy 😉 . I can’t picture him working out, wearing a terrycloth headband as he puts in a solid 7 minutes on his exercise bake (while smoking).
I always respect what he’s done though. (just not in the mens room) He is a true original and kept his integrity throughout nearly half a century in a very shady and fickle industry.