Revolver has teamed with Motörhead for a special fan bundle featuring a silver vinyl variant of 1979's Bomber plus an exclusive 8x12 hand-numbered Lemmy photo print. Get yours before they're gone!
December 28th, 2015, was a shitty day for rock & roll. That was the date Motörhead bassist, vocalist and all-around mastermind Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister left this earthly plane — just four days after his 70th birthday. And while Motörhead were obviously one of the greatest bands of all time, Lemmy was so much more than a musician or frontman. With a Jack-and-Coke in one hand and a smoke in the other, he could hold forth on anything from the Beatles (whom he actually saw live) and Jimi Hendrix (for whom he roadied and scored acid) to World War II (he was something of an expert on the subject) and life in general. All with incisive wit, humor and zero fucks given.
To commemorate the passing of this one-of-a-kind human, we reached out to folks who knew and/or admired him. One such admirer is pro skater and Warish frontman Riley Hawk — son of skate legend Tony Hawk — who did a sneaker and apparel collaboration with Motörhead and Lakai in 2018.
HOW DID YOU DISCOVER MOTÖRHEAD?
RILEY HAWK I think it was from my dad's game, honestly. I think "Ace of Spades" was in one of the early ones. So I probably heard it when I was, like, nine or something.
MOTÖRHEAD MIGHT BE AN ACQUIRED TASTE FOR A NINE YEAR OLD. DID IT TAKE A WHILE TO GET INTO THEM?
No, I was into it right away. I was really young, but I just think Motörhead is one of those bands that is universally loved, even if someone's not necessarily into that genre.
DID YOU EVER SEE MOTÖRHEAD LIVE?
Yeah, I saw them open up for Slayer at this outdoor festival I was at in Riverside [CA]. It was pretty intense, and it was a pretty eclectic group of people that were there. [Laughs] But I also saw his band Head Cat play at the Roxy. It was sold out, but the Roxy is a small place, so seeing him up close and personal like that was pretty wild
DID YOU EVER GET TO MEET HIM?
I actually met him that night, briefly. It's not like we sat down and shot the shit, but I got to meet him in the green room for a couple seconds.
WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT LEMMY?
His whole life journey is insane, from the stories I've read. And just the fact that he was in Hawkwind, which is one of my favorite bands of all time. To go from that to another band that is one of my all-time favorites is kinda crazy. He was a badass dude who did things his own way, and obviously it worked out. When he got kicked out of Hawkwind, he said he was gonna start a band that was the sleaziest, greasiest band there is — and he did it.
DID YOU GET INTO HAWKWIND AFTER YOU'D ALREADY BEEN LISTENING TO MOTÖRHEAD?
Yeah. What's funny is that I don't think I even knew Lemmy was in Hawkwind when I started getting into them. Around the time I was discovering these bands in my early teens, it was still somewhat of a pre-Internet information era. It was a little harder to track down all this stuff, so it took me a while to learn that Lemmy was in Hawkwind—and then I liked them even more.
DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE MOTÖRHEAD RECORD?
That's tough. Ace of Spades is super good, but I like Overkill and Iron Fist, too. I don't know — they're all amazing. I listen to their whole discography all the time, so I sometimes forget which songs are on which albums.
WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE SONG?
I like "Love Me Like a Reptile" a lot. That's a good one.
BEYOND THE MUSIC AND HIS VOICE AND HIS BASS TONE, IT SEEMS LIKE WHAT PEOPLE APPRECIATE MOST ABOUT LEMMY WAS HIS ATTITUDE.
Yeah, man. He was the ultimate rock-star badass.
