MOTÖRHEAD's LEMMY On Touring: 'Not As Many Girls Want You When You're 61 As When You Were 24'

October 15, 2007

The Age caught up with MOTÖRHEAD last week before their killer, ear-splitting shows at the Forum in Melbourne, Australia with ROSE TATTOO and AIRBOURNE. Frontman Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister said the band were thrilled to return for their own show so soon after supporting MÖTLEY CRÜE in 2005.

"We were hoping to come back sooner. We hadn't gotten any offers until the MÖTLEY CRÜE tour and people realised we could still walk about and play. We were never that well known anyway," Lemmy said.

He was enjoying playing with AIRBOURNE. "They're cocky motherfuckers, it's great. One of them came up to me with a bottle of Jack Daniel's and said, 'Mother's milk.' Inspired."

Such is Lemmy's iconic status he even has his own action figure.

"I said to the guy, 'Are you going to put a dick on it?' He said no. I said, 'It's not really an action figure then, is it? It's not going to get much action."

Does he think it will be a bad influence on kids? "Probably, if you eat it. I hope so."

Plenty of musicians have had the big balls but burnt too brightly and died before their time. Lemmy has survived the test of time, thanks to big balls and an even bigger heart. But what does he think is more important in this business, heart or balls? "You're fucked without either of them, cause the heart's got to be beating for the balls to be any good. And what's the use of the heart beating without any balls, right? They work together like salt and pepper."

Fans who attended last week's gigs may have discovered the band when it blasted out their signature song, "Ace of Spades", on an episode of 1980s British comedy series "The Young Ones".

The infamous shared house wasn't nearly as much fun as it appeared, Lemmy revealed.

"Those guys are really boring when they're not in character," he said of the cast of student misfits that included Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, Nigel Planer and Christopher Ryan.

"They're all artsy and (self) important, but they turned out to be all right."

But Lemmy admitted that MOTÖRHEAD tours are "a lot more boring" than in their heyday. "Not as many girls want you when you're 61 as when you were 24. It's really sad, but we've learnt to live with it. But I'm not complaining. I've had a great time out of rock'n'roll, and it's had a great time out of me."

Find more on
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).