By Jeb Wright

Lemmy is one of only a handful of people in the entertainment industry recognizable by only one name, in fact most don’t even know that he has a last one. Unlike Madonna and Prince, Lemmy never used his one word moniker as a marketing tool. There was no simulated sex on an altar and no running around in a pair of golden underwear onstage. Nope, for more than 30 years Lemmy has worn a black cowboy hat, black shirt and pants, boots, sported two large moles on his face, had unkempt shaggy hair and pounded the hell out of his bass guitar.

As he gets older, he seems to be ignoring Neil Young’s advice to either burn out or fade away. Lemmy is defying the odds just as he did when he drove a van full of Jimi Hendrix’s gear across England wearing kaleidoscope glasses on his face. He doesn’t play by the rules, he doesn’t like rules, and he doesn’t like the people who make the rules.

(Love collecting Lemmy memorabilia? Learn more)

In this interview we chat about Lemmy the movie, Motörhead’s new CD and topics as diverse as drugs, Joan Jett and stealing from the poor.

It seems that every time we talk you are getting more and more famous. Now you’re a movie star.
Lemmy: [laughter] It’s not that kind of movie.

What was your first reaction when you learned that they wanted to do this film?
Lemmy: I thought it was very flattering. It is quite amusing because everyone says that I’m a nice guy. It is kind of painful in the end. As long as you don’t believe it then you will be alright.

You really are getting more popular.
Lemmy: It seems to be. It is good for the band too, you know. It’s just that I am too old now to chase all the woman involved; which just seems a shame. I think they did a really good job with the film. It wasn’t too showbiz and it wasn’t too ordinary. The guys who did the movie were all fans or at least they were when they started it. I don’t know if they still are now.

You also have a new album titled “The World is Yours.” You keep putting out genuine albums when a lot of your contemporaries are doing nothing, or, at least, nothing worthwhile.
Lemmy: We know what we are doing by now. Christ, we should know because we have had a long time to rehearse. We seem to make an album every 18 months or so and I think every band should do that. We’re not writing “Sgt. Pepper” every time; we are writing straight ahead rock n’ roll, do you know what I mean?

Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead autographs an eager fan in this movie still from "Lemmy." Photo courtesy Shore Fire Media/Lemmy Movie LLC.

You’re not outspoken, but when people ask you something, you tell them the truth.
Lemmy: I have done interviews in the past, and they cut everything out except for the outrageous line, and then they take it out of context. I think that is just about as dishonest as a person giving a bad interview. I despise people like that; they don’t get two tries. It’s all just sensation. It is always bullshit. How many times can a rock star go over the top on drugs? How many times can a rock star be unfaithful to his old lady? It is really fu**ing boring, and that is what they do over and over and over. They just print the same sh*t.

Lemmy Kilmister, better known as Lemmy from Motorhead, is the subject of the new documentary "Lemmy." Lesser known? He hates heroin, once climbed down the outside of a Holiday Inn to surprise a crew member and admits that Motorhead once stole music gear so the members could rehearse. Photo courtesy Shore Fire Media/Robert John.

You’re not anti-drugs, but you are anti-heroin.
Lemmy: I hate that sh*t. It killed off a lot of my generation. It killed off a lot of my friends. Now this generation is getting killed off again. I can’t believe it. How many dead bodies do we need to have piled up?

Did the music bring the drug culture or did the drug culture bring the music?
Lemmy: It just all happened. Music had been going on a long time before that. You have to remember that before rock n’ roll there were a bunch of jazz musicians all doing heroin. That sh*t has been around a long time. Every generation thinks they are stronger than the generation before it. They think, “It can’t happen to me.” In the past people have died making that same mistake. Maybe you should take note. People lose their lives in the drug wars and you don’t have to prove it to yourself because others have proved it for you.

At this stage of our life, looking back, was the drug use a positive or negative experience?
Lemmy: It was both, you know. Eric Clapton wrote “Layla” when he was coked out of his mind. Later on, it nearly killed him. You’ve got to try to figure out which is the bigger benefit and which is the bigger loser. It nearly killed him; he was in a very, very bad way for a long time, but he came through it. Most people don’t come through it because they don’t have the money to buy the people to look after them. Most people die a miserable and lonely death because they don’t have the people to nurse them and get them through it all.

Why have you survived?
Lemmy: Pure dumb luck. Also, I never did heroin.

What is the dumbest thing that you have ever done?
Lemmy: There are a lot of them, for sure. I climbed down the outside of a Holiday Inn once just to surprise one of my crew by getting on his balcony and knocking on his window.

Do you know what the odds are the Motörhead would still be together after everything that you have been through in both the industry and your personal life?
Lemmy: I should write a musical about it, shouldn’t I?

Lemmy on Broadway!
Lemmy: Yeah, yeah [laughter]. We could wear straw hats while dancing down the road, you know.

Legend holds that you woke up a guy out of a coma by just talking to him.
Lemmy: It became kind of a fad in the late ’70s to try to help people wake up out of comas by hearing things that they liked. I remember we sent out about six tapes. We heard that we were this one kid’s favorite band so we sent a tape that said, “Hey this is Motörhead. It’s time to wake up.” We sent out tapes to the others but they didn’t wake up. It was worth it just to have one kid wake up. I got to meet him after he woke up.

Last year a guy got killed after your show. How does that affect you?
Lemmy: A kid got killed, but it didn’t have anything to do with us. It was a gang thing that happened in the parking lot outside. One of the gang members set fire to his hair during the show. One of the rival gang members met up with him outside in the parking lot and killed him. It is a drag, really. You remember it, but sh*t, man … what can I do?

Your music is a release that is there to help people get rid of those feelings and not to promote that sh*t.
Lemmy: That is how I feel. It really hits home with you that it didn’t have any effect on these people. They were just as intent on f**king killing each other as they were before they came to the show. It was just fate, you know. I guess when you’re young you have tunnel vision on that sh*t.

Which was your favorite decade …the ‘60s, the ‘70s or the ‘80s?
Lemmy: Probably the ‘60s, because there were hardly any rules and heroin hadn’t shown up, so people hadn’t started dying. It was incredibly upbeat, and we almost did change the world. I guess that was the best one … the ‘70s were pretty good, too.

Even Lemmy loves The Beatles. Motorhead's bass player browses at an Amoeba record shop in the new documentary "Lemmy." "The Beatles had an influence on everybody," he said. Photo courtesy Shore FIre Media/Lemmy Movie LLC.

Did the Beatles really influence Motörhead?
Lemmy: The Beatles had an influence on everybody. You have to realize what an incredible explosion the Beatles were. They were the first band to not have a lead singer in the band. They were the first band to write their own songs in Britain because we always just covered American songs before that. Everybody was singing at the same time and the harmonies were great. Daily papers in England used to have an entire page of the paper dedicated to what the Beatles had done the day before. When George died the guards at Buckingham Palace played a medley of George’s songs during the changing of the guard; that sort of thing never happens.

Motorhead's Lemmy (far left) performs with Metallica. Photo courtesy Shore Fire Media/Jeff Yeager.

Motörhead were the support act for Ozzy back on the Blizzard of Ozz tour. I am a huge fan of Randy Rhoads. What was he really like?
Lemmy: He was really a good guy. I never could get over how incredibly little he was. Randy had small hands. Boy, could he play guitar. He became an even better guitar player after he died. It is a well-known mystery that guitar players suddenly get better once they are dead. Buddy Holly was the first. Stevie Ray Vaughan is known by a lot more people than had ever heard of him when he was alive.

Tell me about the early days of The Runaways.
Lemmy: The first time The Runaways played in Britain, Joan Jett wore my bullet belt onstage. The Runaways were really the first all-girl band to really strut their stuff and say, “F**k you.” “Cherry Bomb” was the best song for a girl band to sing. It was just outrageous at the time. There were American families sitting on the sofa watching television going, “F**k me.” It was great fun.

Lemmy credits his survival to 'pure dumb luck.' No word on whether that luck holds at the casino, though. Photo courtesy Shore Fire Media/Lemmy Movie LLC.

Girlschool never got much respect in America.
Lemmy: They couldn’t afford to tour over here. If I hadn’t been living here, do you think we would have gotten a Grammy? No chance.

I bet there are still people on the Grammy committee that can’t believe they gave Motörhead a Grammy.
Lemmy: I think so, too. It was just a mercy f**k, as it was our 30th anniversary. They gave it to us for a cover of somebody else’s song. It would have a lot more meaning if it had been for one of our songs. We were nominated once before for our album 1916. We were up against Metallica at the time and they had just sold a quarter of a zillion albums.

At least you didn’t lose to Jethro Tull.
Lemmy: That’s true.

While he's old enough to qualify for any number of senior-citizen discounts, Motorhead's Lemmy has no problem keeping up with rock stars half his age. Still from the movie "Lemmy." Photo courtesy Shore Fire Media/Lemmy Movie LLC.

You hit 65 years of age. Are there any goals that you have not achieved or is there anywhere you would still like to play?
Lemmy: We never played China, India or Africa. We also haven’t played Russia enough. I would love to play those places. I would love to have some sort of hit in America before we go.

You are proof that you can still rock your ass off at 65.
Lemmy: You can as long as you are not married.

You never got married.
Lemmy: I have never been married, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t mate. As you get older you get too many bad habits. Who is ever going to put up with me?

Last one: I have also heard that Motörhead stole music gear just so they could rehearse. Is that true?
Lemmy: Well, yeah. We never nicked stuff from other bands because that was a no-no because we were all in the same boat. You don’t steal from the poor because, let’s face it, they’re poor. There’s no sense in that.

By Pat Prince

There may be no bigger personality in heavy metal/hard rock. Eddie Trunk’s name is known and appreciated by all those who love this type of music. His vast knowledge of these genres — coupled with his television shows, radio broadcasts and Web sites — have enlightened many of the hard ‘n heavy flock. His has an ear for talent and a solid interest in all the music news and debates listeners crave.

This year, he has put out a welcomed book, “Eddie Trunk’s Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal” which describes the impact heavy music has had on him as a music lover and an individual. Part guidebook and part diary, it’s hard not to love all expressed in the book’s pages. As any dedicated fan, Trunk shares his passions and experiences in a musical universe that matters so much to him. If you understand this kind of passion and commitment to a particular type of music, you will love everything about this new Eddie Trunk book.

“The rewarding thing about it is that I’ve gotten unanimously amazing response from it,” says Trunk. “From fans and critics alike. It’s really cool to see it connect with so many people who love this music on so many different levels.”

As mentioned above, “Eddie Trunk’s Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal” (buy it now) is a nice combination of music history and personal anecdotes, formatted into different chapters on significant bands of the hard and heavy genre. One of the forefathers of Heavy Metal, Judas Priest’s Rob Halford, called Eddie Trunk “the living, breathing backstage pass” and the book does add a real backstage experience that many music fans would never get the opportunity to know about.

“That’s exactly where I was going with it. I would still like to do an autobiography some day. Maybe that will come at some point but I find that when you still need to work in this business — as I do — it’s kind of hard to write the way you want to write it because you have to be brutally honest and say the negatives,” laughs Trunk.

“I never shied away from that,” he continues, “in all the things I do now but I just feel that’s probably something better done when I’m starting to faze out of the business a little bit.”

“But this book became a hybrid of a lot of different things. It became a hybrid of the photos tying in with the stories, an overview of these artists, a list of sorts with the playlists, some anecdotes with “Did You Know?” stuff — and just about every single band featured in the main chapters has at least one personal story. So there’s really something in there for everybody, depending on what you are looking to get out of it. And for me it was a great first introduction into the publishing world. … being the fist book it was the best kind of way to put my toe in there.”

One story has Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash trying to take special-edition CD sets from Eddie’s personal collection. But it was not seen as a malicious act. “He was a fan and he wanted them. But he didn’t want to go to the store and buy them at the time,” explains Trunk. “He tried to pull out his money and just pay me for them. And the thing I was most proud about in that particular story is that I stuck to my guns. Even though he was Slash I didn’t cave and say ‘Take them.’ I physically took them from him and told him ‘Get out of here.’”

Over the years, Eddie Trunk gave away most of his vinyl collection and replaced it with newer formats. However, he has been smart enough to keep his collection of unique vinyl and other material. “The one thing I collected as a kid was U.K. imports, and U.K. magazines. I would go to a record store all the time and buy Kerrang! when it came out and then I was really big into buying singles because in England they would always release 12-inch singles of all these bands I loved. And you only could get them in England. They always had really cool jackets and stuff, and there were also picture discs and things like that. Those were the one things I was smart enough to keep when I decided to dump a lot of the vinyl. The vinyl I dumped was just regular catalog titles. And also, being in radio back in the days when vinyl was played on the radio, I have a lot of the promotional singles as well. And working at a record store for years I have a ton of 45s and picture sleeves, even non-heavy rock stuff. like a Prince 45 of “Purple Rain” on purple vinyl. I knew from working in a record store that when anything came out as a picture sleeve it was a big deal. You used to have customers who would come in and they didn’t care who the band was or what the song was, as long as it was a picture sleeve they would buy it.”

Trunk realizes the street cred Goldmine has in the music collecting community. Once looking for hard-to-find items from the band Piper, he immediately turned to Goldmine. “I took an ad out in Goldmine long before the internet. Billy Squier had a band called Piper on A&M, prior to being solo, and I loved the two albums of Piper and I was dying to get them on CD. I even talked to Billy himself and he knew that Japan had issued a limited run and he didn’t even have it himself. So I needed a way to put the word out, so I took an ad out in Goldmine, and I ended up getting a response from a record store in Indiana. After getting them I burned a copy of each as a safety and then I started hearing rumblings that Universal in the U.S. was going to put them out in a new edition. So before the word got out on that I thought,’Let me dump these things.’ I took another ad out in Goldmine and sold them,” he laughs. “But then I freaked out because they ended up canceling the U.S. releases. Ironically, a few years ago, a label called American Beat finally put them out in the U.S., both albums on one disc. So I felt a little redeemed but it was touch and go there for a while.”

This kind of passion for music is contained in the 240 pages of “Eddie Trunk’s Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal.” Yes, the book does go behind the scenes of Eddie’s professional career (VH1 Classic’s That Metal Show, Sirius/XM radio’s Eddie Trunk Live, the FM-syndicated Eddie Trunk Rocks, etc) but it goes beyond that — it goes to the core of what it is to be a die-hard fan. Plainly speaking, it’s a music book that truly is essential.

Note: Goldmine’s online store is offering a special savings on the purchase of “Eddie Trunk’s Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal.” Click here to check it out.

Metal guru Eddie Trunk, of VH-1's "That Metal Show," among other ventures. Publicity photo

Eddie Trunk eats, sleeps and breathes hard rock and heavy metal. He knows stuff about groups that even the members don’t know, or at best, have forgotten. Thankfully, Eddie uses his superpowers for good, not evil, as host of VH1’s “That Metal Show,” Sirius/XM’s “Eddie Trunk Live” and the syndicated “Eddie Trunk Rocks” on New York’s Q104.3 FM.

His new book is “Eddie Trunk’s Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal,” which, trust us, really is an essential volume you need to add to your music library. Here’s a look at the music that changed Eddie Trunk’s life.

1. Raspberries, “Go All The Way” — “Go All The Way” was the first time I ever heard distorted electric guitar and power chords. I was a kid in my parents’ back seat, and it came through the AM radio, and my hair stood up. Raspberries were the first real rock I ever heard, and I was consumed instantly.

2. KISS, “Destroyer” — The first real heavy rock I heard and the band that really started it all for me as a crazed fan. This was my first Kiss album. I remember dropping the needle, hearing “Detroit Rock City” and starring at the cover of the album. I was 12 and Kiss changed my life and set me on a path of rock obsession I’m still on!

3. UFO, “Strangers in The Night” — One of the greatest live album of all time and one of my favorite albums ever. Tragically underrated melodic hard rock by one of my all-time favorite bands. This is them at their peak.

4. Aerosmith, “Toys in the Attic” — I actually like “Rocks” better, but “Toys” was my first, and after KISS, Aerosmith became my next big obsession.

5. Billy Squier, “Don’t Say No” — The first album I ever cued up on a college station while still in high school. Billy is a tremendous talent, and this is one of his greatest albums.

6. Metallica, “Kill ’Em All” — The first real thrash I ever heard. I was in my first year of metal radio and Jonny Z drove to my studio and asked me to play this when nobody else would. I did, had no idea what I was hearing, but knew it was a game changer.

7. Judas Priest, “British Steel” — Classic British metal at its finest from one of the gods of the genre.

8. Ace Frehley, “Frehley’s Comet” — The first artist I ever had a hand in signing to a label and working in the studio with. Nine years after my first show ever (KISS @ MSG), I had signed the band’s lead guitarist to his first solo deal and was in the studio with him.

9. Black Sabbath, “Heaven & Hell” — The Dio Sabbath was my introduction to the band, then I went back and discovered the other stuff, but this album is amazing, and Dio was a god.

10. Van Halen, “Van Halen” — I remember getting this album from a record club. I knew I was hearing something that was going to change everything instantly.

By Pat Prince

Heavy Metal scribes and music critics are already calling Anthrax’s new album “Worship Music” the metal album of the year. But it’s more than that. This may be the best metal album since Metallica’s “Death Magnetic in 2008. And with the return of vocalist Joey Belladonna, this is may be the best Anthrax album since 1987’s “Among the Living.” From the grinder (pun intended) called “Judas Priest” to the balls-out thrash phenom of “Revolution Screams,” there is simply no filler on “Worship Music.”

LEFT TO RIGHT, back row: Frank Bello, Scott Ian, Joey Belladonna front row: Rob Caggiano, Charlie Benante PHOTO CREDIT: Matthew Rodgers

And, sure, the John Bush era (1992–2004) had its great moments. Even the singing of Neil Turbin (1982–1984) has its sentimental charm. But Joey Belladonna always seemed like the perfect fit for Anthrax’s sound — a melodic voice balancing out such heavy music. Drummer Charlie Benante agrees: “To be quite honest, when I first heard Joey singing — the first song that he did — it was just so apparent to me that there it is, right there. Don’t change it. It sounded like Anthrax again. And you almost feel like kicking yourself, keeping this from you for so long.”

“I mean, who knew, all these years later?” says guitarist Scott Ian. “I didn’t. You couldn’t have asked me in 1990 or 1995 or 2000 … there are so many of those situations where it’s like “Do you think you’d still be doing this?’ No. Absolutely not. ‘Do you think Joey would be back in your band after all these years?’ No. I never thought that. I know it’s kind of cliché but it really is a crazy road sometimes, being in a band. All signs, at some point in late 2009 — going into early 2010 — were pointing Joey. They really were. It’s not that we were ignoring them. It’s just that we didn’t really know that it was happening until it was right in our faces. ‘Ah, D’uh. Why don’t we just ask Joey to be in the band and see if it’s something he’s into doing?’”

“It sounds so simple,” Ian continues, “but sometimes things like that in the context of a band can be really difficult. It’s almost the same as family. You get in a really bad argument with someone in your family and then not speak to them for month or years where all you really got to do is pick up a phone and make that phone call. It seems so simple yet at the same time it’s really difficult. And that’s kind of how I can compare it. But when we made the call and all got together in New York and we sat down and fifteen minutes later we were back on the right path and everything seems to be going the right way since.”

The title of the new album, “Worship Music,” explains the path the band members have been on since the very beginning. Besides being die-hard fans of heavy metal, their life is nothing but music. “A few years ago I woke up at like 5 in the morning with the t.v. blasting as usual,” says Benante, “and it was on this channel called Worship Music. And the title just stayed with me. It turned out to be some Sunday morning sermon show but it meant something totally different to me. Whoever loves heavy metal or hard rock music, you are one of the faithful. Usually, fans will have a handful of bands that they love. They will buy everything that that band puts out. It’s a form of worship. And I’m the same way. So that’s how the Worship Music thing came about. I can’t begin to tell you how many times someone has said to me, thank you for helping me through a bad time or thank you for getting me through high school, and all because of music. Music speaks to people in so many different ways. It’s such a universal language. It’s a form of worship, but in a good way. Most people who listen to music get the good out of it. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t listen to some sort of music, whether it be something I worshipped since I was a little kid like The Beatles or Zeppelin, that will til this day still inspire me. It’s timeless. And if you are a music lover, you totally get what I’m saying.”

Speaking of a band that the members of Anthrax have worshipped to a certain degree over the years, Judas Priest were the inspiration for the song of the same name on “Worship Music.”

“Scott and I were working on material” explains Benante, “and the day we were working on that song, Judas Priest announced that they were going to disband. We were really bummed out about that. And the working title of the song became Judas Priest. And then it just stuck. But the only real Judas Priest reference in the song is the middle section where we took different Judas Priest song titles and made something of it. There’s a verse that has ‘Rapid Fire, Genocide, Screaming …’, like that. It’s just a little bit of a nod to Judas Priest.”

The outcome works but it will make some wonder whether covering a Judas Priest song would have been more of a direct tribute. After all, Anthrax has always mastered covering songs, from the likes of Joe Jackson to the Alice Cooper Band. Benante explains that the band did play covers of other bands during the recording sessions of “Worship Music.” “Some of the cover songs that we did for this record were so abstract. We did a Tom Petty cover. We did a Scorpions cover. I don’t when or if they will ever see the light of day. We recorded all these crazy b-sides. Some of the b-sides aren’t even finished yet. They are 75 percent finished, and I am hoping that while we are on the road we’ll take our rig out again and maybe finish them.”

And this leads us to an important Goldmine question: Will the album “Worship Music” be coming out on vinyl, too? “So funny you mention it,” says Benante, “because I just got the test of them today. Two different versions of vinyl, different colors. For me, it is so important the people get the full experience of a record that I used to have when I was younger, like sitting there with my Kiss “Destroyer” record, just staring at the cover while listening to it.”

“I was just talking to someone about this the other day,” continues Benante, who is a vinyl record collector himself. “I am praying that Queen do a limited run of vinyl because I really want “News of the World” on vinyl again. That’s one of my favorite album covers. Think about when you were younger, how much went into an album cover. I always go back to Zeppelin III, that had a spinning wheel. How much fun was that? Even “In Through the Out Door” with the paper bag. All that stuff was fun.”

And where many musicians frown upon live bootlegs, Anthrax’s Benante loves it. It’s all part of the worship. “For me,” explains Benante, “they were just as important as the actual records themselves. I’ve had the biggest collection of Zeppelin bootlegs since I was young. Especially a band like Led Zeppelin. There’s no version of “Dazed and Confused” that’s the same. So I had to have every single f**king version. Because I’m such a worshipper.”

You can worship Anthrax on their Fall tour, with classic metal bands Testament and Death Angel.

OCTOBER
14 Orbit Room, Grand Rapids, MI
15 Congress Theatre, Chicago, IL
16 First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN
18 The Cotillion, Wichita, KS
19 Summit Music Hall, Denver, CO
22 Nokia LA Live, Los Angeles, CA
23 Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, CA
24 House of Blues, San Diego, CA
26 Sunshine Theatre, Albuquerque, NM
28 South Side Music Hall, Dallas, TX
29 Emo’s East, Austin, TX
30 Warehouse Live, Houston, TX

NOVEMBER
1 House of Blues, Orlando, FL
2 Revolution, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
4 House of Blues, Myrtle Beach, SC
5 Fillmore Charlotte, Charlotte, NC
6 The Fillmore, Silver Spring, MD
8 Northern Lights, Clifton Park, NY
10 Electric Factory, Philadelphia, PA
11 Palladium, Worcester, MA
15 Town Ballroom, Buffalo, NY
17 Stage AE, Pittsburgh, PA
19 Rave, Milwaukee, WI