Lemmy, the original ‘Ace of Spades,’ has died at 70

Rock fans have lost one of the greats. Lemmy Kilmister, the frontman for Motörhead and heavy metal icon, has died.

The scratchy-voiced, bass-playing, hellraiser turned 70 on Christmas Eve. Two days later, he was diagnosed with cancer, according to his band’s Facebook page. He died on Monday.

“There is no easy way to say this…our mighty, noble friend Lemmy passed away today after a short battle with an extremely aggressive cancer,” the statement read.

Tributes to the rock legend that quickly emerged on social media begin to show just how influential Lemmy was. 

The British culture secretary, John Whittingdale, revealed himself as a longtime Motörhead fan. Whittingdale said he attended the show that was later released as the live album, “No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith.”

“They were certainly loud,” Whittingdale told the BBC. “I was right down the front, but it took me several days before I could fully hear properly again.”

There’s one school of heavy metal that’s all about glam, classically inspired melodies, and music school chops. Lemmy came from a different school.

“He was the rock star that everyone else in that business tries to be,” said Greg Oliver, who spent three years with Lemmy making a documentary about his life.

“Every living rock star looked up to him in some way or another, whether it was for the looks or the sound or the attitude. He sort had everything you could possibly want in a rock star.”

“And it was entirely a hundred percent real,” Oliver told BBC radio. “It wasn’t an act. It wasn’t a schtick. It was real.”

The wild mutton chops. Handlebar mustache. Black cowboy hat. Giant moles on his face and bad teeth. Lemmy’s look didn’t change a whole lot since he formed the band Motörhead, 40 years ago.

Lemmy told him that he would have been bored doing anything else for a living.

“The love of his life was music,” he said. When Motörhead finished its latest tour, Oliver says Lemmy would go right back on the road with The Head Cat, a rockabilly band.

“He really never slowed down. It always amazed me, like he just had no desire to relax. He just always wanted to be out there [touring],” Oliver said.

Lemmy had a reputation for doing plenty of drinking and drugs over the years, which will make it a surprise to some that he lived to be 70.

In 1945, he was born Ian Fraser Kilmister in the English city of Stoke-on-Trent. Lemmy saw the Beatles play in their early days. He worked as a roadie for the Jimi Hendrix Experience. And he got his start playing with a 1960s band called The Rockin Vickers.

Lemmy told the BBC years later that he’d started off on the wrong instrument.

“I was a terrible guitarist. I was getting away with murder, you know? Just turn it up and put a lot of fuzz tone on it and move your fingers,” Lemmy said. “Nobody was fooled for long. So, then I got hold of this bass. I’d never played one before and it was great. I went straight into it.”

Lemmy sang and played bass with the British space rock band, Hawkwind for a time in the early 1970s. Then he formed Motörhead in 1975 and went on to record at least 22 studio albums with the group. They had a tour booked for 2016 that had to be cancelled.

“Motörhead is over, of course,” the band’s drummer Mickey Dee was quoted saying. “Lemmy was Motörhead. But the band will live on in the memories of many.”

Motörhead’s most recognizable hit is probably Ace of Spades, recorded in 1980, in which Lemmy sings, “Baby, I don’t want to live forever.”

Here’s how Lemmy himself was quoted describing the band’s music: “Loud, fast, city, raucous, arrogant, paranoid, speed-freak rock-and-roll. It will be so loud that if we move in next door to you, your lawn will die.”