Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister Has Died at 70 … Rest in Peace to a Heavy Metal Rock Legend (Video)

SAYING GOOD MY TO A TRUE ROCK AND ROLLER …

Lemmy Kilmister, the founding member and frontman of Motörhead, has dies at the age of 70. Sadly, Kilmister passed away today after a short battle with an extremely aggressive cancer. The WAPO described Lemmy as follows, “a voice like shrapnel and a bass tone to match. A steady diet of rock ‘n’ roll and rebellion, fueled by, until not so long ago, a bottle of Jack Daniels per day and sexual escapades too numerous to count. Plus: muttonchops.” Yeah, and your point? Lemmy Kilmister did it his way and I have to admit, Motörhead was one of my guilty pleasures. When you want to blow off some steam, hear some serious rock and crank the music at 11, Motörhead was on that playlist. Rest in Peace Lemmy Kilmister.

WWE pays tribute to The Ace of Spades

Lemmy Kilmister, the founding member and frontman of Motörhead, and a leading figure in hard rock’s resurgence in the late ’70s and its endurance since, has died of cancer, according to the band’s Facebook page. He was 70 years old.

“There is no easy way to say this…our mighty, noble friend Kilmister passed away today after a short battle with an extremely aggressive cancer,” the band wrote on Facebook, adding that the rock veteran had just learned of his condition on December 26th (two days after his birthday), while at home with his family, “sitting in front of his favorite video game from The Rainbow… We cannot begin to express our shock and sadness, there aren’t words.”

The man known to most as simply Lemmy was born Ian Fraser Kilmister in Staffordshire, England, and founded Motörhead in 1975. In his long tenure as the group’s singer, bassist and primary songwriter — he was its sole remaining original member — Lemmy became a heavy metal icon; though the group’s hard-charging approach also nodded to punk, and appealed to its fans.

Kilmister, whose gruff vocals and pummeling bass were central to that sound, cut a distinctive presence offstage as well, with his mutton chops and prominent facial moles. He appeared in a number of films and video games, and inspired a titular 2010 documentary that featured such admirers as Dave Navarro, Alice Cooper, Nikki Sixx and Slash.

Ace of Spades

Motorhead Frontman Lemmy Dies at 70.

A rock and roll hellraiser par excellence, the British musician was a member of Hawkwind in the early 1970s before founding Motorhead. The band’s biggest hit was “Ace of Spades” in 1980.

Always cutting a distinctive figure with his giant mutton-chops, large facial moles and low-slung Rickenbacker bass, Kilmister was born Ian Fraser Kilmister in Staffordshire, England. A rock and roll lifer from the moment he saw the Beatles at Liverpool’s Cavern Club as a teenager, Kilmister played in a variety of British bands during the 1960s, briefly served as a roadie for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and played bass in space rock outfit Hawkwind from 1972 to ’75 (when he was fired after being arrested for drug possession at the U.S.-Canada border). But it’s as the founder and lone constant member of Motorhead that most of his legend relies.

The rare group to be revered by metalheads and punks in equal measure, Motorhead’s compulsion to push rock music to its fastest, loudest and most primal form left a profound influence on thrash and speed metal, though Kilmister himself always insisted that the band should be described purely as rock and roll. Famously laying out his ambitions for the group to become “the dirtiest rock and roll band in the world; if we moved in next door, your lawn would die,” Kilmister sang with a guttural yet surprisingly melodic growl, and played bass in the style of a rhythm guitarist, heavy on distortion and power chords.

Motörhead – The Game / Live at WWF Wrestlemania XVII, 2013