The recent passing of Lemmy Kilmister has gotten me thinking about how much his music has influenced me. I grew up listening to punk rock music. I wasn’t a fan of glam rock bands mostly because it’s a bunch of shitty ballads and ridiculous looks that you would see all day on MTV. It was trying and redundant. When Motörhead came along, they were the first ones out of that era to raise my eyebrow. I was like, “Wow, these guys are fucking cool.” They sounded punk, but looked like bunch of rockers. As years went on, Motörhead wrote a bunch of hits that would eventually become the soundtrack throughout my life and for a lot of my friends too. I’m sure a lot of you could agree with that.
If you lived in the Hollywood area it wouldn’t be uncommon to cross paths with Lemmy. He seemed just like a regular dude, but just a little different looking. His sense of style was like no one else. The hats he wore and the western looking jackboots were a natural fit for Lemmy—he looked like a badass. If anyone was going to pull this style off it was definitely Lemmy. I didn’t know him personally, but I was lucky to see him at random times around the city, usually when I was out for a nightcap with friends. A lot of times you would find Lemmy at the Rainbow Bar and Grill, playing his favorite video game at the end of the bar, chain-smoking, drinking whiskey, and minding his own business. We would joke around and say, “Hey, let’s go see if Lemmy is at the Rainbow,” and sure enough, he would be there in the exact same spot.
Back in 2008 when I was working at jackassworld.com, I had the opportunity to go and film a One Bourbon One Scotch One Beer web series with Lemmy. The interview took place at the studio where Motörhead was finishing up their 19th album Motörizer. I remember being really excited that day, and so was Johnny Knoxville. We first gathered in the parking lot before going into the studio and Knox mentioned that he was a little nervous and he never gets like this. It was only because we were getting ready to hangout with a rock ‘n’ roll legend. We entered the studio and were greeted by management, said our hellos, and I looked over and saw Lemmy sitting in a small room smoking a cigarette and watching a World War II documentary. We shot the interview and everything went really well. The only thing that was hard for me was Lemmy’s chain smoking, but I wasn’t going to say anything and just dealt with it. After the interview, we all went into the studio and listened to some of the new songs. I also checked out Lemmy’s signature Rickenbacker bass guitars with hand-carved relief of oak leaves. They were beautiful and he even let me pick one up and try it. Lemmy seemed really happy that day and all of us left the studio on cloud nine.
The thing I liked most about Lemmy is that he gave 100-percent to writing music and he didn’t give a fuck what anybody thought. He did exactly what he wanted and nothing was going to stop him—that’s what made him so unique and really stand out from the rest. The Motörhead legacy will live on forever and continue to inspire new generations to come, and Lemmy Kilmister will go down as one the greatest rock stars of all time.
RIP, Lemmy. —Rick Kosick
(Photos by Rick Kosick)
Rick, that was awesome. What a great memory. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Posted by: Margie | 01/04/2016 at 01:03 PM
Dang that was a fantastic interview, pretty funny to hear them talk back and forth. Also a bit suprised lemme even knew who Johnny was!
Posted by: Andrew marsh | 01/05/2016 at 09:16 PM