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
‘I’ve always been healthy aside from the drugs and the booze’ – I’ve been telling my wife the same thing for years.
Gotta love Lemmy!!
Gotta love this fukr’s resilience. Metal-to-the-core. Praise Lemmy!! I applaud him on moving from brown liquor to white…it’s clear, so it’s gotta be healthy, right?! \MMM/
Lemmy’s idea of getting healthy is most people’s idea of losing control and/or falling off the wagon. He’s probably the only person who can responsibly handle drug and alcohol use. I hate drugs and have never done any. I don’t even like taking aspirin or doctor prescribed medicine. I’ve never smoked or used any tobacco products ever, not even just to try it once like a lot of people that I grew up with did. I love drinking high quality beers and some hard liquor (rarely ) but I only do it on days off surrounded by great music and friends and I try not to get too crazy, except on special occasions. Coffee is probably the only vice in life I can’t live without. That all being said, if a doctor told me “No more alcohol and coffee ever again” I’d never touch either again and not have a problem doing so. But I think Lemmy’s health would go downhill even faster if he went 100% drug, alcohol and tobacco free. I don’t think his system would know how to handle it! He’ll end up out living everyone! If the end of the world comes, all that’ll be left is cockroaches and Lemmy!
You think he’ll out live the Ozzman?
I forgot about Ozzy. He’s probably had enough booze and dope travel through his body over the decades to cause the entire population of a medium size city to OD! He, Lemmy and Keith Richards are three of the toughest humans to ever pick up a bottle and ingest any kind of drug. Those three guys can keep all the cockroaches company after Armageddon happens. Talk about a real SUPERGROUP!
Thanks for all the details about your health, but I was wondering…how is your cholesterol level?
Looking forward to the new album Friday.
These new Friday release dates are pissing me off. Tuesday’s were better. Seems the initial discount or sale only lasts til Saturday, then the price jumps back to regular. You gotta act fast. Last Friday, I picked up the new CDs from Disturbed, Buckcherry, and The Sword from Best Buy. Got them all on sale, but now on Sunday, all back to full price.
So the new Motorhead CD comes out this Friday. It’s priced at $9.99 at Best Buy. There is a coupon/code from the single that will save you $2 on Bad Magic. You enter MOTORHEADSAVE2 in the promotional code section of the online checkout. This code is not active until the release date Friday 8/28. I tried to pre-order, but it wouldn’t take the code. So this Friday, use the code at Bestbuy.com and get the CD for 8 bucks! I use in-store pickup to save shipping costs.
Also, there are codes for the new Disturbed & Buckcherry CDs too:
DISTURBEDSAVE2
BUCKCHERRYSAVE2
Save 2 bucks with these promotional codes at Bestbuy.com