McKagan writes about “Lemmy,” the movie, and Lemmy, the icon, in his latest blog for Seattle Weekly.
Here’s a taste:
When I moved down to L.A. in 1984, it was the influence of guys like Lemmy, Phil Lynott, and The Clash's Paul Simonon that steered me to choose bass, back when I was still a somewhat able drummer and guitar player. I was going to Hollywood to sort of "invent" myself, and I chose bass playing as the coolest of the rock-instrument triumvirate because, hell, it was the baddest choice back then (to me at least).
And it wasn't just my choice of playing bass that Lemmy and Motorhead influenced. Dare I say that without Motorhead, there would have been no Metallica, GN'R, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, NIN, or everything between and after. Yeah, they mean that much.
There is a moment in the documentary where Dave Grohl states very eloquently what Motorhead means to him and the rest of us in the audience. To paraphrase, Grohl talks about the "human-ness" of Lemmy. Boils and all, Lemmy lets us know that you don't have to be perfect and beautiful and polished to a shine to succeed in this life. Go see the movie to get the full poignancy of Dave's quote.
Motorhead makes me both exceedingly happy and somehow ashamed. The happy part is obvious in that Motorhead helps us all to exorcise some demons through the art form of balls-out rock and roll. But also, watching the movie and seeing Lemmy progress throughout the film, it dawns on me that this guy has always just stuck to his guns and never bit in to a trend or a new technology recording-wise. Most of us just sort of naturally change with the times; our style of dress, our take on life and love, the bars we go to and all. Lemmy has changed nothing, bringing to the fore the fact that he just had it right from the beginning.
Check out Duff’s full column at Seattle Weekly here.
Motorhead – Ace Of Spades (1980)
See also:
Motorhead: Metallica rave about new film, "Lemmy"
No Slash, Lemmy statues in U.K. hometown…yet
Motorhead bassist, Sex Pistols guitarist rock New Year’s Eve with Camp Freddy
Motorhead announce 2011 North American tour
