MOTÖRHEAD's LEMMY: 'There Are No Bigger Bastards Than The Republican Party'

Sarah L. Myers of Stay Thirsty recently conducted an interview with MOTÖRHEAD mainman Lemmy Kilmister. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Stay Thirsty: You went back to Russia last year after a decade-long absence. How was that?

Lemmy: Great. It's in the ["Lemmy"] movie. The show's in Moscow, there's bits of it in the movie at the end.

Stay Thirsty: Why hadn't you guys gone back for so long?

Lemmy: I don't know, you know what I mean? To go over there, you really should work for the mafia, cause they're the only people who can afford to save their money over there to come for it, you know? Otherwise you're in the back of a van, temperature's — I mean, it was 30 below in Moscow. Fucking 30 below! I mean, spit froze before it hit the sidewalk, right? It's fucking, it's chilly. I mean, the Russian fans are doing better than the Bulgarian fans. We've only been there twice in our lives! And better than the Chinese fans, if there are any, because we've never been there. You just have to go where you can, you know what I mean? We always do Britain and Europe in the fall anyway, and we do festivals in Europe in the summer. So the rest of the year, it's like, if you're not doing an album which we do every other year really, then you try to do South America, where we go quite a bit as well. But Australia gets neglected because it's so fucking far away, you know? (And) if you go to Australia, you've got to go to New Zealand. And possibly Japan on the way back, you know.

Stay Thirsty: Why have you never played China?

Lemmy: Never had the offers, I suppose. It's only been a gig place for the last about five years, ten years. Before that there was nothing.

Stay Thirsty: You're coming up on the 35th anniversary of MOTÖRHEAD. What plans do you have?

Lemmy: None. Hopefully. I'm kind of tired of being celebrated for being old. I'd rather be, I'm sure if we put a record out anonymously under another name and see how that did. But you can't disguise these fucking vocals, you know? Actually, we did a new HEAD CAT album, do you want to hear it? And, you know, I don't care about celebrating for 35 years, what the fuck is that, you know? Who cares? Are they any good is the point. It's looks better in Roman numerals. XXXV.

Stay Thirsty: I watched this video of you from about 25 years ago, answering the question "What does heavy metal mean to you?" And you said it meant never having your actual music reviewed, just how loud you played it and what you look like. Do you think you've finally gained the respect that you didn't have before?

Lemmy: No. We've gained acceptance, but not respect. Because the Grammy we got in 2005 was for a cover of somebody's else's song. They'd never heard a MOTÖRHEAD song obviously, you know. They never thought it was worthwhile, which I think the lot of them are, you know. We've done three consistently really good albums, the last three. So that really pissed me off, you know. I'm standing there with a Grammy, what did I get this for? For a bad cover of "Whiplash"? And all the shit we've done over the years, you know, and not a single thing for that. So fuck 'em.

Stay Thirsty: Do you have any thoughts of why that is?

Lemmy: Yeah, you know, we're unclean as far as they're concerned. We're the fucking, we're the unmentionables aren't we? We're the real rock n' roll. Then you get poncers like BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, you know, gets all the awards innit? And he's not really, I don't hear him as rock n' roll. He's been lucky he's had a couple of good songs, that's all. You know most of his albums are filler. You know, I don't think he's good at all. But that's the sort of person that they latch on to. "Let's give all nine awards to this guy!" That's just fucking stupid, that's just obvious nepotism.

Stay Thirsty: He seems to attach himself to certain movements.

Lemmy: Idiot, I think is the word you want.

Stay Thirsty: The first time I interviewed you, you said the only newer band you liked was EVANESCENCE, which got a huge response.

Lemmy: Well, SKUNK ANANSIE reformed. They're back together playing again. They've done some really good stuff. There's only three new tracks on the album. They're really good.

Stay Thirsty: What else are you listening to right now?

Lemmy: Oh, I don't know, just stuff. I don't listen to a lot of music. I just put the TV on when I get in, you know. "Law & Order: SVU", that's me. I have a sneaking desire for Mariska Hargitay. Jayne Mansfield's daughter. She looks as if she has almost the chest her mother had. It's hard to tell under those clothes, you know. Being a hard-bitten police woman. And it's not the uniform, cause she doesn't wear one. She's plain clothes, you know.

Stay Thirsty: What else do you do to entertain yourself on the road?

Lemmy: I still occasionally chase women. We went out to that strip club last night. It's quite a good one, that one. We went to a couple of others the first couple of days and they weren't very good, you know. "Weight Watchers Weekly", you know? (laughs)

Stay Thirsty: Do you think at this point rock n' roll had begun redeeming itself?

Lemmy: Rock n' roll always comes back, you know. Ther's no fighting it. And these people think they can kill rock n' roll they might as well try and stop the flood, you know. There's no way. It always comes back because there's always people who want to hear loud, raucous music, you know. It's exciting, you know. And all the shit that these magazines like is not exciting. Like, Jesus, RADIOHEAD, you know. Fuck me, you know. COLDPLAY. Jesus. These are not rock bands. These are sub-emo, you know. I mean, they did some good stuff. Fair enough. But it's not rock n' roll. I know fucking rock n' roll when I hear it. I've been listening to it since I was 12, you know? So fuck off!

Stay Thirsty: Your music has been licensed for so many things, and the name MOTÖRHEAD itself just implies a type of lifestyle. Do you consider your band a brand?

Lemmy: No, I don't, you know. It probably is, you know, but I don't think of it like that. I don't think like that. All I think about is "my band, fuck you." You know. 'Cause I've often said that I only care about my band, the rest of you can go fuck yourselves, you know? (laughs)

Stay Thirsty: You told me before that you wanted MOTÖRHEAD condoms? Still doing that?

Lemmy: We used to have them! We used to do them! "Go to bed with MOTÖRHEAD!" In the 1980s we used to do them. Very funny. It was before AIDS, you know. I mean, you have a selection of condoms now. Then it was a sin, you know. So then it was more fun to sell them you know, cause people disapproved highly, you know. "Go to bed with MOTÖRHEAD!" That's good. Now we sell, now they have thongs.

Stay Thirsty: How do you feel about what's happening [in U.S. politics] today?

Lemmy: Well, Obama should have been a bit more subtle before he got the job, you know, cause he talked up a good talk, you know, and now he's not walking the walk really. I think he's trying, I can say that. I think he's trying very hard, but he's getting socked by the Republicans all the time and it's just fucking him, you know. And he hasn't got the balls to fire him. He should just clean house, you know. I don't know how desperate he's going to have to be before he does it. But it's going to be too late if he doesn't do it soon.

Stay Thirsty: People always say it's because he didn't have the right type of experience and that he was such a young Senator.

Lemmy: He didn't have the experience of being a bastard. That's what it is, you know. That's what it comes down to. And there are no bigger bastards than the Republican party, you know.

Read the entire interview from Stay Thirsty.

A trailer for "Lemmy" can be viewed below.