{"id":612622,"date":"2026-09-26T18:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T18:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/612622\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T18:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T18:00:12","slug":"how-duff-mckagan-became-on-honorary-member-of-motorhead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/612622\/","title":{"rendered":"How Duff McKagan became on honorary member of Motorhead"},"content":{"rendered":"

You did a \u2018Lemmy Forever\u2019 dedication ceremony at Download, where some of his ashes were enshrined in a fruit machine. How did you meet Lemmy?<\/p>\n

\u201cGuns N\u2019 Roses were playing our first gigs ever in London, like four or five nights at the Marquee. We had this flat on Kensington High Street and everything seemed to be going our way. Especially so when we got this invite to go hang out with Mot\u00f6rhead at their studio. We walk in and there\u2019s a pool table \u2013 at least that\u2019s how I remember it \u2013 and Lemmy looked at me first and goes, \u2018You\u2019re the bass player, aren\u2019t you? I\u2019m Lemmy. Nice to meet you.\u2019 So very nice! We had no idea what to expect, whether they were going to fuck with us or whatever. Lemmy took us under his wing and we played Donington a year later. He came up just to hang out with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to imagine you guys being starstruck \u2013 even then. <\/p>\n

Latest Videos From Louder<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, man. Ace Of Spades to me \u2013 and to everybody else my age \u2013 was one of those place-setter records that changed the scope of what you could do in rock\u2019n\u2019roll. It was truthful, badass and, look at me \u2013 I play bass! When Ace Of Spades came out I was playing drums, guitar, a bit of bass in different bands, but I started to lean more towards bass because of Lemmy.\u201d<\/p>\n

It seems everyone who met Lemmy has a wild story about him. What\u2019s the story you\u2019d tell people at parties?<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, look, man, the party story I\u2019d have with Lemmy\u2026 I wouldn\u2019t remember! Ha ha ha!\u201d<\/p>\n

Away from drinking, what memory with Lemmy means most to you? <\/p>\n

Sign up below to get the latest from Metal Hammer, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

\u201cI got to get up and play with Mot\u00f6rhead and that was incredible. Loaded [one of Duff\u2019s former bands] did a tour with them up in Germany \u2013 they\u2019re huge over there. I\u2019d get up and play Overkill with them, every night. They made me an honorary Mot\u00f6rhead member \u2013 I\u2019ve got a plaque. I\u2019d like to think I\u2019m the only one, but I bet there\u2019s others.\u201d<\/p>\n

You\u2019re the first we\u2019ve heard of, at least.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, there we go!\u201d<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

Speaking of legends, last year you played the final Black Sabbath gig at Villa Park. GN\u2019R had played the venue
the week before, so was it weird returning to do a quick set?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat gig was just ultra-special. Those guys have been my family since the 80s, you know? There were roadies there I\u2019ve known since the start. This one guy comes up, he\u2019s like, \u2018You won\u2019t remember me, but I was on the crew for M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce during Girls, Girls, Girls.\u2019 Everybody was there, man. Trying to get side-stage to watch a band, it\u2019d take you 45-minutes because you\u2019d run into everybody on the way. The mood was killer. Everybody was in it for Ozzy and Sabbath. It was cool \u2013 more than cool, it was epic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duff McKagan – Longfeather (Official Music Video) – YouTube
\n\"Duff<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

You mentioned playing Donington earlier \u2013 what are your strongest memories of playing?<\/p>\n

\u201cMan, I have played so many times. That first time [in 1988] was so special. We were playing at 1pm but we\u2019d blown up by that point, so in between us being booked and playing, everybody had heard about us. It felt incredible at the time, but the crowd started pushing forward and I remember it was the first time Axl had to do crowd control, getting everyone to take a step back. Unfortunately, a couple of guys didn\u2019t make it and that was such a wake-up call. We took a step into the big leagues, but we had to be careful. Now it was like, \u2018We need to take care of people.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Are there any up-and-coming bands who you think who could become legends?<\/p>\n

\u201cI really like James And The Cold Gun. They\u2019re great songwriters and I\u2019ve seen them play a bunch. They have got everything you need. But in this day and age, it\u2019s just so hard to break through so I don\u2019t know how you could.\u201d<\/p>\n

A lot of people keep Lemmy\u2019s ashes in special places. Do you have some and, if so, where are they?<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course! I\u2019ve got them in a little Lemmy hat thing. It\u2019s on my mantelpiece at home. He lives with my family, he\u2019s safe with us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You did a \u2018Lemmy Forever\u2019 dedication ceremony at Download, where some of his ashes were enshrined in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-612622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}