{"id":368027,"date":"2025-12-24T19:09:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T19:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/368027\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T19:09:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T19:09:09","slug":"lemmys-personal-assistant-looks-back-at-life-with-motorhead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/368027\/","title":{"rendered":"Lemmy’s personal assistant looks back at life with Mot\u00f6rhead"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was Lemmy<\/a>\u2019s personal assistant and Mot\u00f6rhead<\/a> road manager for six years\u2026 and I lived to tell the tale! From 2005, I spent 24 hours a day with Lem and the band for 11 months of each year. I loved every moment, the ups and the downs. No two days were alike. Lemmy was so funny and intelligent. He became a father figure to me \u2013 albeit a pretty maniacal father figure! \u2013 at a time when I might have ended up in the morgue. He took me under his wing.<\/p>\n

I got lucky. I had been working with Nick Oliveri from Queens Of The Stone Age<\/a> when they supported Mot\u00f6rhead, and we kind of clicked. When the job was offered to me, I had a flashback to seeing Mot\u00f6rhead on The Young Ones<\/a> and thinking: \u2018Fuck me, that\u2019s a band\u2019.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I was the only member of the crew to travel on the band bus with Lem, Mikkey and Phil. It was my responsibility to check the driver knew our destination and that the band got to the gig. It was also my job to call around the strip clubs and say: \u2018Hey, Lemmy is in town. Can we come along after the show?\u2019 Nobody ever said no.<\/p>\n

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I became very close to Lem. It was like being someone\u2019s best mate, but also their designated driver. He was such a decent guy. He insisted on good manners.<\/p>\n

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\"The\n<\/p>\n

The final Mot\u00f6rhead lineup: (l-r) Phil Campbell, Lemmy, Mikkey Dee (Image credit: Pep Bonet)<\/p>\n

In the 10 years since he passed, the legend of the Lemmy persona has grown. What\u2019s been lost a little is Ian Fraser Kilmister. He was unique; funny, cantankerous and chivalrous. But the slightly cartoonish Lemmy from Mot\u00f6rhead character has taken over, and the man behind it was so much more than that. What I loved most about Lemmy was that he could be both.<\/p>\n

He was so intelligent. You could have an in-depth conversation with him about almost anything. He was very opinionated, without a doubt, but he could back up those views. And he wasn\u2019t a hoodlum; Lemmy was an old-school gentleman. I\u2019ve seen him in huge crowds of fans waiting for autographs, and he\u2019d yell, \u2018Stop!\u2019 and open the door for some old lady. Those little traits of his have become mislaid, and it\u2019s a shame.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve still got the scars from trying to keep up with Lemmy in the \u2018recreational\u2019 stakes. Waking him could be difficult. At first, I set several alarm calls: three hours, two hours, one hour and so on. But as we got to know each other, that became less necessary. Going into his room, there\u2019d be a Jack and Coke and a line of speed by the bedside. Lem drank a lot, but I never saw him drunk, and he was always in control chemically. I knew when he had taken a little too much speed because he\u2019d ask for chewing gum before going on stage.<\/p>\n

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Lemmy was one of the most resilient and motivated people I ever met. From getting kicked out of Hawkwind<\/a> to the frustration over having the first album shelved, he developed a real attitude of: \u2018Fuck you, I\u2019m going to prove you wrong.\u2019<\/p>\n

Also, remember that Mot\u00f6rhead had a career lull. He told me that there was a time when they couldn\u2019t get a show, and nobody wanted to work with them. But they stuck it out, came through it and became icons. He was very proud of that.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve so many road memories with Mot\u00f6rhead. For instance, we arrived knackered for a gig in Germany. I went up to Lemmy\u2019s room for a quick drink, but he was really tired and wanted to go to sleep. Right on cue, somebody began using a road drill outside, and he sighed: \u2018Could it get any worse?\u2019<\/p>\n

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Well, it did. A marching band came down the street and stopped right outside the hotel. So Lemmy called down: \u2018Hey, mate.\u2019 When the band leader looked up, Lem hollered: \u2018Do you know the theme from Dambusters?\u2019, then closed the window and hid behind the curtains like a little kid who\u2019d done something naughty.<\/p>\n

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\"Lemmy\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Kevin Nixon\/Classic Rock Magazine)<\/p>\n

When Lemmy died, I disappeared to the pub all day. I had a few beers and laughs, and I played his tunes on the jukebox. I think that\u2019s what he\u2019d have wanted. And at last, he could finally put his feet up.<\/p>\n

Now there\u2019s a statue of Lemmy in his home town of Burslem. Honestly, I think he considered himself an anti-statue, but there are two sides to that statement: Lemmy from Mot\u00f6rhead would have fucking loved it, though Ian Kilmister would have hated being put on a pedestal \u2013 quite literally. His mindset would have been that there were far better people to have statues of. The plans for a local music venue, Kilmister Halls? That\u2019s something he\u2019d have bought into. Anything to do with live music, because that was Lemmy\u2019s lifeblood.<\/p>\n

Dan Hawcroft was speaking with Dave Ling. His book, Wasted Opportunities: Tour Tales And Stories From The Road, is available now<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I was Lemmy\u2019s personal assistant and Mot\u00f6rhead road manager for six years\u2026 and I lived to tell the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88],"class_list":{"0":"post-368027","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}