Motorhead's iconic frontman and bassist Lemmy Kilmister was the guest on Full Metal Jackie’s radio show this past weekend. He spoke with Jackie about his health, the upcoming Motorhead MotorBoat Cruise and his thoughts on returning to the stage. If you missed the chat, here’s Jackie’s full interview with Lemmy Kilmister.



It's Full Metal Jackie bringing you two full hours of metal each and every week. On the show with us again, I'm honored to have the one and only Lemmy from Motorhead. Lemmy, it is so great to have you on the show again.

Thank you sports fans. Thank you very much.

So great to hear your voice. It has been a while. What have you been up to?

I have been ill for about a year but I am pulling out of it. I am getting better now.

You are feeling good?

Not good yet, but I am feeling a lot better than I did, which was terrible.

Well that's good. I will take that as a positive.

Yes, it is onward and upward, you know?

You are going to be having some tour dates in April with Coachella and it looks like a week of dates. Are you looking forward to getting back out on the road?

Yeah, its about time.

You have spent most of your time on the road on tour it seems. Do you feel out of place or out of sorts when you are not out on the road?

I did at first, but then I got comfortable, but I will be alright.

You are looking forward to it though?

Yeah. I am looking forward to the smell of the crowd again, you know?

I know us, the fans, are really looking forward to see you out there playing again. We are looking forward to that. That is obviously happening in April there is going to be about a week of dates. Coachella, which you obviously have never played before have you ever been?

No, we are doing two shows at Coachella. The first one and the last one.

Are you looking forward to that?

Yeah, yeah. It depends on how the first one goes.

Over nearly 40 years Motorhead has played some unlikely venues but on paper a cruise ship sounds like the strangest to me. What appeals to you about the upcoming MotorBoat cruise?

It is something we haven't done. We have played in places where there is a truck door to get off the stage, we've played in jail, we've played a lot of weird places but we have never been on a boat. I used to go when I went up to Liverpool to go see The Beatles, they used to have rock 'n' roll cruises on these two old ferry boats. You get five bands and you go out for three or four hours and they do a stage and come back in. I used to go on those so I got the idea. I just said the people who run it put their heads together and know what they are doing. Otherwise it would be a terrible fiasco, you know?

I think it will be fun. It is Motorhead's inaugural MotorBoat cruise. It is going to be Motorhead, Megadeth, Anthrax, Zakk Wylde, Danko Jones, Fireball Ministry, and more and rightfully so being dubbed the loudest boat in the world. It is going to be launching September 22nd from Miami. You can go to motorheadcruise.com for more info. How do you feel about boats? Have you been on one recently?

No, you get the ferry over to France if you play Europe so I guess you can say we have been on boats. It isn't a really big boat and it doesn't really go a long way but that is the biggest boat I have been on.

Have you ever gotten seasick on a boat?

No.

I get sea sick sometimes but I think that I am willing to take all of the Dramamine necessary to go on this Motorhead MotorBoat cruise because it sounds like it is going to be a lot of fun.

It should be fairly memorable, I think.

Yeah, it will either be a lot of fun or very memorable because I will be on the side of the boat throwing up. Across the board let's talk about the latest record 'Aftershock' and lots of fans and media were very into the latest album 'Aftershock.' It has been a few months now, what instance when recording this album are most memorable to you.

How easy it was, really, because we were able to go lay down track really fast. Then I went in and I was just really getting sick when I did this. I did the vocals while I was sick, dragging myself to the mic in the control room but it came out alright. The vocals were in sync, you know? I was sicker than usual anyway. It just came together real quick and then that came up -- the cover photo which was just fantastic. It was just a runner all the way, you know.

What is the biggest satisfaction you got from doing that record?

We got our first American Top 30 hit. It went to 22.

That's amazing.

We have only been in the Top 100 once before.

That is amazing. It must be pretty amazing for you the feeling that you have been doing this for so long and people still come out and support you, more than ever it seems for Motorhead.

We get young people, you see, that is the secret this time around. Our survival, we've got three and four generations coming to see us, and they bring their kids. The first original generation, they bring their kids out.

Do you think it's a kid friendly show?

No. I wouldn't say that at all. We do what we feel like. Take it or leave it. We've always done that, as you know.

The last show I got to see of yours, I was lucky enough to be in England for Download last year and then I went to the Metal Hammer UK Golden Gods Awards and watched you perform there, and it was amazing.

Those were a couple of good shows.

First time at Download and that was an amazing experience, I have to admit. There's definitely a difference in the festivals you see overseas as opposed to here.

Over here, they're more rigid. They're more like a military operation, which is not how you should do rock 'n' roll. You should be a little more looser than that.

It seemed like people were looking out for each other out there. People who came from all over the world to see those shows for a few days, they were just happy to be there.

Yeah, all those flags in the crowd.

So cool. Motorhead, obviously revered by so many people. They use words like "legendary" and "iconic" to describe the band. What is your proudest contribution to the evolution of rock and roll?

I don't know really; survival. [Laughs] People ran us off after 6 months in the beginning. They said that you can't last 6 months and here we are, 50 years later.

It must be fulfilling for you when you come across those people, the naysayers from the beginning that are around now.

There aren't any of them around now. [Laughs] The funniest thing is when people who come around to do interviews spouting praise and you know they don't mean it.

How do you mean?

Like, 'Hey man, well done! You've been around for so long' ... Stupid bastard, what are you smiling for?

[Laughs]

People should stand behind their statements.

It's safe to say that now a days that you and the band are one of the highly respected and long standing bands that have stuck around and continue to put out great records and continue to put on a great live show that people come from far away to see. Looking forward to having you back out there.

Yeah, we haven't become an assembled package yet. [Laughs]

Appreciate you taking the time, it's so good to hear your voice again and looking forward to this upcoming run and I'll see you soon.

Yeah. Stop by.

Oh, I'm going to.

This coming weekend, Full Metal Jackie will welcome Megadeth's Dave Mustaine on her show. Full Metal Jackie’s weekend show can be heard on radio stations around the country — for a full list of stations, go to fullmetaljackieradio.com.