MOTÖRHEAD's LEMMY On Touring: 'Not As Many Girls Want You When You're 61 As When You Were 24'

The Age caught up with MOTÖRHEAD last week before their killer, ear-splitting shows at the Forum in Melbourne, Australia with ROSE TATTOO and AIRBOURNE. Frontman Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister said the band were thrilled to return for their own show so soon after supporting MÖTLEY CRÜE in 2005.

"We were hoping to come back sooner. We hadn't gotten any offers until the MÖTLEY CRÜE tour and people realised we could still walk about and play. We were never that well known anyway," Lemmy said.

He was enjoying playing with AIRBOURNE. "They're cocky motherfuckers, it's great. One of them came up to me with a bottle of Jack Daniel's and said, 'Mother's milk.' Inspired."

Such is Lemmy's iconic status he even has his own action figure.

"I said to the guy, 'Are you going to put a dick on it?' He said no. I said, 'It's not really an action figure then, is it? It's not going to get much action."

Does he think it will be a bad influence on kids? "Probably, if you eat it. I hope so."

Plenty of musicians have had the big balls but burnt too brightly and died before their time. Lemmy has survived the test of time, thanks to big balls and an even bigger heart. But what does he think is more important in this business, heart or balls? "You're fucked without either of them, cause the heart's got to be beating for the balls to be any good. And what's the use of the heart beating without any balls, right? They work together like salt and pepper."

Fans who attended last week's gigs may have discovered the band when it blasted out their signature song, "Ace of Spades", on an episode of 1980s British comedy series "The Young Ones".

The infamous shared house wasn't nearly as much fun as it appeared, Lemmy revealed.

"Those guys are really boring when they're not in character," he said of the cast of student misfits that included Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, Nigel Planer and Christopher Ryan.

"They're all artsy and (self) important, but they turned out to be all right."

But Lemmy admitted that MOTÖRHEAD tours are "a lot more boring" than in their heyday. "Not as many girls want you when you're 61 as when you were 24. It's really sad, but we've learnt to live with it. But I'm not complaining. I've had a great time out of rock'n'roll, and it's had a great time out of me."