It’s 34 years since Ian Kilmister was thrown out of Hawkwind and formed a new band, Mot?rhead, which would become heavy-metal royalty. Not that Kilmister, aka Lemmy, has ever taken himself seriously: cameos in The Young Ones and ads for Kit Kat and Walkers are testament to a willingness to send up his barbed-wire persona. “You’ve got to have a sense of humour about yourself, otherwise you’re going to cut your own throat,” the singer and bassist wheezes . “Anybody who shaves himself every morning and thinks, ‘Hey I’m an icon!’ is in an awful lot of trouble.” The disarmingly high voice still has hints of a youth spent in Staffordshire and North Wales, despite the fact that Lemmy has been living in Los Angeles for two decades. He’s 63 now: gone are the days when he would go for two weeks without sleep, surviving on only two individual fruit pies and two pots of yoghurt. So what can we expect from the band’s current UK tour? “You can expect f***ing Mot?rhead my boy! We can’t afford elaborate stage shows. We just come on and possibly steal your girlfriend. Or these days maybe your auntie.”
...rock gods
Led Zeppelin They were the be all and end all of metal, really. They were beyond everyone. Deep Purple were probably the first, but Zeppelin crystallised it. It was Jimmy Page’s vision and Robert Plant’s voice, basically, and they had a hell of a rhythm section, too.
The Beatles They outstripped anybody, then and now. I saw them at the Cavern a couple of times, and in Llandudno because I lived in North Wales then, see? We used to hitchhike 60 miles to see them — quite a long way in those days. You don’t even know if you’re going to get a lift. So it was quite an adventure to go and see them. But we did it, and they were f***ing great.
AC/DC They’re one of the best rock’n’roll bands in the world. What did they do differently? They had a guitar player dressed as a schoolboy! Mind you, I’ve seen guys with dresses on: did you ever hear about Spirit? Their bass player, Mark Andes, used to wear a red calf-length dress on stage — completely formal job. Would I? No. I’ve got the legs but the moustache kind of ruins it.
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...survival tips
Not dying That’s the most important thing.
Perseverance Not giving up. I never was a good giver-upper.
Have the constitution of an ox That didn’t do me any harm at all.
Don’t accept everything that’s offered Because everything is offered. You have to be careful. The only thing I haven’t done is heroin because that’s the only thing I ever saw that killed people. Ergo, I didn’t die.
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Be nice to people I’m a great live-and-let-live geezer. I don’t really have any prejudices against what people do on their own time. Just don’t do about half of it to me!
Make good music I think Mot?rhead make good stuff. We’re certainly the last of something, I’m not sure what it is. When we’re gone, you won’t find a replacement.
...possessions
Luftwaffe sword It’s probably worth about $15,000 now. There was one half-Jewish person who came over to my house and said, “No, I can’t go in there.” I said, “Well I’ve had black girls come over who haven’t had a problem with it, what’s the matter with you?” Why do I collect Nazi memorabilia? Why do you collect anything? We used to have a drummer whose house was full of elephants. It just caught my eye. Obviously, I’m not a Nazi.
...movies
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Somewhere in Time (1980) With the guy who played Superman [Christopher Reeve] and Jane Seymour. It’s about time travel, and romantic time travel at that.
The Ruling Class (1972) Amazing movie with Peter O’Toole as an aristocrat who thinks he’s Jesus Christ.
Braveheart (1995) Had nothing to do with actual history, but a great movie.
...hellraisers
Keith Moon He was a great character and a hero of mine. It was the attention to detail: he’d get dressed up as Long John Silver to go down to the post office. I went out drinking with him, twice, in London in the late Sixties. I should have known better after the first time. Where did we end up? [Incredulously] In the bar.
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Oliver Reed I love that story about him arriving at Keith Moon’s place in a helicopter. Keith immediately dressed up as one of the Three Musketeers, ran out with two swords and they had a sword fight all over the house. And then started drinking.
Mot?rhead are touring until Nov 29 (www.livenation.co.uk)