Lemmy: In the fullest lived, no regrets – Hamburger Abendblatt

  12/30/15
 

  Culture
  Lemmy: lived to the fullest, regret nothing
 

 

By Holger True

 The frontman of the metal band Motörhead is shortly after his 70th birthday, died

He must please never donate blood, had a Doctor Lemmy said decades ago. The blood that flowed in his veins would other people poison. At that Lemmy had his toughest days behind it, had so many times disoriented been a member of the space rock band Hawkwind-onstage and pretty much inveigled with the exception of heroin each drug. Also known as the frontman of his band Motörhead he slowly took his foot off the gas. All the alcohol serves to preserve it, Lemmy used to say with a grin when he reached between two tilting the beloved Jack Daniel Cola mix. And indeed, it seemed as if the man immortal. The world of rock ‘n’ roll without Lemmy? Unthinkable! And yet four days after his 70th birthday, two days only after he got the cancer diagnosis, Lemmy has died at night on Thursday in Los Angeles.

Sure, you could have guessed it. Already in 2013 he had to cancel a concert Wacken, subsequently fell again times of performances, diabetes forced him to a radical change in diet (vodka / orange juice instead of whiskey / coke). On the last tour, which led Motörhead in the sold-out gymnasium Alsterdorf yet on December 9, Lemmy saw for the first time really pale and fragile. Nevertheless, probably everyone hoped this Rock ‘n’ Roll Outlaw would show the death of the middle finger again. Finally, he had the magazine “Deaf Forever” declared in the summer, he was full of energy and not “cleansed”. Religion? “Everything horseshit!” A life after death? “No idea, maybe running the party of the century I do not mind to be possibly surprised -… But I can wait”

The 22 studio album climbed straight to the top of the German charts

It was an amusing, sometimes sarcastic Lemmy, who presented himself as. Just Motörhead had delivered the 22 studio album with “Bad Magic” and sat down at the top of the German charts the same times.

But there were other phases: Especially in the 90s, Motörhead was in a commercial crisis. Not that the album would have been worse than before, at the times of “Overkill”, “bomber” or “No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith”, probably the best live album of all time, but the trend wind blew straight in a different direction. And when Lemmy was not something, a trendsetter. With merciless obstinacy the man went with the cowboy boots and the iron cross around his neck on his way -. And lived at this time especially of the loyalty of his German fans

After the turn of the millennium, however, was Motörhead suddenly everyone’s favorite. The feature pages celebrated Lemmy’s intransigence and its cool lines, and generally it was just comforting that there was someone out there who could be bent under any circumstances. The collection with its World War memorabilia did not give up, because they might not be politically correct. The not played quieter because it was too loud for the many actually deafening Motorhead concerts. And which certainly did not let reinreden in his music. Where Motörhead it was until last Motörhead was inside. Uncopyable, wild, rough.

life to the fullest, regret nothing that was Lemmy’s motto. “I do not wanna live forever”, a line from “Ace of Spades” he growled at every concert into the microphone. He also did not have to.