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"No to politics and religion. They are the ones who send young people to die. Rock'n'roll, on the other hand, never betrays." Ian Fraser Kilmister, known as Lemmy.
November 15, 1982, I went to check the date. My older friends Claudio and Agostino told me they wanted to take me to a concert. So I organized one of my first lies-escapes from my mother. I can't remember what excuse I came up with to surely stay out very late at 15 years old without saying I was going to a concert with those two. Because it wouldn't have been great for a parent to know their teenage son was hanging out with two twenty-year-old "notorious" drug addicts. However, "Babbo" and "Ago" were the first ones to want me far away from that stuff that was ruining them, but obviously, my mom wouldn't have believed it. Anyway, the only things I remember are that we met in a bar and went to the arena in Reggio where these "Motorhead" were playing; not many people, maybe a few hundred, but endlessly fanatical. "Sorry, but what kind of music do they play? I just heard an immense racket" these, more or less, were my words to the two guys at the end of the concert. Claudio is doing well, Agostino left us a few years later (rip).
If the first approach with Lemmy wasn't exactly thrilling, this man eventually became one of the people I admired most in the musical field and beyond.
Lemmy has the "right face", expressions are always spontaneous, and when he speaks, he is very clear and direct. One can understand a person from the face: it can be "normal", therefore needing in-depth decoding, sly and deceitful (unfortunately more and more are like this) of someone who will always want to screw you over brilliantly, or it can be the "right face", the true one, that doesn't lie, which you know you can always trust (unfortunately becoming fewer and fewer). Lemmy has the right face!
"...eats all these terrible vegetarian things, vegetables, fruit, and nuts. That crap isn't good for you! Human beings are carnivores: just look at our teeth! Our digestive system isn't made to digest vegetarian food. It makes you fart continuously ruining your intestinal flora. Being vegetarian is not realistic: that's why cows have four stomachs and we have only one. Think about it. And don't forget: Hitler was a vegetarian!"
Here, to say; whether one agrees or not, it's fairly clear what he thinks.
If already his face reassured me, his book confirms how "beautiful" Lemmy was.
In this hypocritical, false, selfish society, tied to vile money and power, indifferent to everything and everyone, a person like him becomes, unfortunately, an exception. Those values that should represent normality for a human being have become a rare, wonderful virtue to preserve in those who possess and manifest them naturally and with conviction.
Impossible to recount the book in a few lines because Lemmy's life is worth remembering and highlighting in every detail. This man lived more than fifty years immersed in rock'n'roll. It was his life, his family, his passion as happened to few others, perhaps to none.
He practically had no real family, he started roaming from a young age and wanting to live a life as it then was; it could have been without success, it would have been fine just the same. The strength and uniqueness of Lemmy lies in having taken this life in the only way it should be considered; a journey where it's pointless to be pissed off, get disheartened or have set goals to achieve, but live it as it comes and above all doing what you like. "There's a solution to everything", he loved repeating in the most critical situations he found himself in.
Immediately struck by rock'n'roll, from Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Johnny Kidd and The Pirates and the beloved Beatles (I won't reveal more), he lived as a "dosser" for a long time (but he really liked it!), played in first bands, worked as a "lifter and gopher" and not roadie, he clarifies, for the Jimi Hendrix Experience and played in an album with that strange character Sam Gopal. Then the first taste of success in the years with Hawkwind; the chapter with the space rock band is a continuous anecdote of characters and situations that Lemmy describes with usual spontaneity and in detail. The wonderful feature of this autobiography lies precisely in how Lemmy describes the most diverse and often scandalous and delirious situations he experienced; drugs, alcohol, sex, brawls are exposed with a naturalness typical of one who talks about everything without needing to give it special importance.
Some situations, like the relationship with his son and with, perhaps, the only girl he loved in a visceral way, are touched but not particularly deepened like the rest. Everyone must be granted the right to have something of theirs and only theirs. Susan Bennett is what his book is dedicated to, I would say that's enough.
"One thing I’m really glad about is having lived the Sixties. Those who didn't really don't know what they missed. We achieved a certain awareness, a lifestyle, and it was very exciting - there was no AIDS, people didn't die so often from drug abuse and it was truly a period of freedom and change. The only moments I've lived true rebellion were the Fifties, Sixties, and the early Seventies. The rest you can keep. Today’s kids resemble much more those parents we once tried to oppose. They'll probably end up raising a messed-up generation themselves. We raised a generation of estate agents, a brood of damned accountants. God knows how it happened. I think it's because many people gave up".
And then begins the forty-year story with his creature: those "Motorhead" (a blues and rock'n'roll band, he likes to clarify!) to which he dedicated soul and body, which will be his life. The memory of all his companions on the journey, the most beautiful or particular concerts, the albums but above all the life "on the road". Lemmy lived for the concerts, for the traveling, the band was his family, the bus his home. Women, drugs, and alcohol were, obviously, fundamental elements in this life of his.
Lemmy had a heart of gold, if he could help someone, he was happy. He was modest, loyal, a man of the people. The antithesis of the uppity rockstar. He adored his fans, they were part of him. The last thing he would have wanted was to disappoint them. That's why until a month before his death, despite a body that in the last two years had presented the (irreparable) bill of the previous fifty (Lemmy never had anything serious, practically a case to study scientifically!), as soon as he had a minimum of strength, he went on stage.
Homophobic, racist, Nazi, misogynist: the most slanderous lies occasionally associated with his person. Just read to understand what bullshit we're talking about; those who knew him already well knew the falsehood of these "accusations". If there was anyone who loved and considered women, it was him; of course, he would have slept with them all or almost, but he said it clearly, and in fact, they all adored this frankness of his. He couldn't care less about sexual orientations or skin color. A jerk was a jerk, black or white, gay or straight, clear right?!
And the Nazi story is really laughable (he loves Germany but for entirely different reasons and loves to collect everything from the second world war). But he "tells" you everything, while he recounts his adventurous life, he will talk about everything. Because then, behind that rascal face, there was a wise and astute man, "with a knowledge of world history that would have embarrassed most professors" (cit).
Obviously, in these 350 pages, you will have a good dose of rock history from someone who lived it on the front line, but really. You will read about many artists, musicians Lemmy dealt with on this splendid journey of his.
"If you think you're too old for rock'n'roll, then you are. This always happens to musicians: you see them on stage, and they look great and all, but it almost seems they're keeping an eye on the clock: "Aren't we finished yet? We have to get back to wives and children". The reason rock'n'roll is a young people's phenomenon is obviously because it was invented by young people. But then, those young people aged and their mentality changed: they became more anxious to be accepted and standardized. Personally, I don’t have these problems because I know I will never be accepted or standardized, not even in rock'n'roll! I've always been an outsider, right from the start. But I'm fine with that - someone has to do it"
Thank you Lemmy, respect, and love full throttle for you always!
Ps: Lemmy finished writing the book in 2002. In the reprinted edition translated into Italian in 2016, there is an account of the last years up to his death, written by Steffan Chirazi. Steffan is now an important music journalist who began his "career" at fifteen when he asked Lemmy for an interview for the school newspaper. Not only did Lemmy grant the interview (but who else would have cared about a 15-year-old kid?!?), but he made him stay all evening while recording, talking (and drinking). A friendship was born that would last until the end. This was Lemmy. The chapter of the former boy is beautiful and moving.
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