Motorhead drummer Mikkey Dee says the band is done following the death of leader Lemmy Kilmister in Los Angeles on Monday.
“Motorhead is over, of course. Lemmy was Motorhead,” Dee tells Sweden’s Expressen newspaper. “We won’t be doing any more tours or anything. And there won’t be any more records. But the brand survives, and Lemmy lives on in the hearts of everyone.”
Motorhead manager Todd Singerman revealed Lemmy had not been feelling well in recent weeks and went to the emergency room when he complained of chest pains.
Rolling Stone reports doctors found no heart trouble but Singerman and others decided he needed a brain scan "because his speech was getting bad." There were concerns that he'd had a stroke.
"We took him for the X-rays and they said, 'Oh, my God, there's stuff all over his brain and his neck,'” said Singerman on Monday. “On Saturday, two days ago, the doctor came by the house, brought the results and told us all that he has two to six months to live."
It was cancer, and Lemmy reacted calmly. "He took it better than all of us. His only comment was, 'Oh, only two months, huh?' The doctor goes, 'Yeah, Lem, I don't want to BS you. It's bad, and there's nothing anyone can do. I would be lying to you if I told you there was a chance.'"
"Here's the shocker for me and everyone else: He's been to a thousand doctors and hospitals throughout the world, but nobody caught this," adds Singerman. "To be told you have terminal cancer with all the blood tests he's taken in his life and everything else? It's very hard to grasp that. It's not like he had an F-ing chance here. This was outright: 'You got no more than six months.'"
Following his firing from Hawkwind over drug issues, Lemmy formed Motorhead in 1975.
After a few personnel changes, the group moved forward with the lineup of Lemmy, guitarist “Fast” Eddie Clarke and drummer Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor for their first six albums.
Former Thin Lizzy guitarist Brian Robertson replaced Clarke in 1982 before leaving a year later, with Phil Campbell and second guitarist Michael “Wurzel” Burston added to the band.
A few drummers came and went before Dee joined in 1992; Burston left in 1995 and the trio of Lemmy, Dee and Campbell remained in place for 20 years until the bassist’s passing this week.
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