SLASH On LEMMY: 'The Planet Is A Lesser Place Without Him'

Slash has paid tribute to Lemmy, saying "the planet is a lesser place without him." The GUNS N' ROSES guitarist told Revolver: "Lemmy was such a fucking awesome individual. We were good friends since we met in 1987, which is when GUNS first went to London. MOTÖRHEAD was doing a record. We went down to meet them for the first time and we all hit it off. Lemmy and I kept in touch and became good friends over the years.

"He was such a great example of what rock and roll was all about," Slash added. "You can put on all kinds of labels — heavy metal, hard rock, whatever — but he embodied the spirit of what rock and roll is. For years and years, I could be anywhere in the world and somehow Lemmy was there. The planet is a lesser place without him. I really miss him a lot."

Lemmy was the featured guest on the song "Doctor Alibi", which appears on Slash's 2010 self-titled solo album.

In a March 2010 interview with Ultimate-Guitar.com, Slash stated about the experience of recording "Doctor Alibi" with Lemmy, "That was another great moment; having Lemmy come down. Because Lemmy was one of those guys that I so looked up to and I still do. When I was a kid, I was one of those Lemmy fans that would bow in his presence. And we got to be friends and he's always sort of taken me under his wing kind of thing and he's always been really cool.

"Lemmy is one of those kinds of guys who can have a real serious attitude if he wants to," he continued. "He's actually a really nice guy in general. I always thought he was sort of intimidating but he was always really nice to me. And I've had a chance to work with him; I've played on one of their records ['March or Die'] and I've done a lot of gigs with 'em. I asked him if he'd be interested and I sent him the thing and he got it right away and he came down to the studio... We had bottle of Jack Daniel's and a couple bags of potato chips and it reminded me of when I used to show up at sessions. It was great."

Lemmy, who celebrated his 70th birthday on December 24, 2015, learned two days later that he was afflicted with an aggressive form of cancer. He died two days later, on December 28, 2015, at his home in Los Angeles.

The MOTÖRHEAD frontman had dealt with several health issues over the past few years, including heart trouble, forcing him to cut back on his famous smoking and Jack Daniel's habits.