Friday, December 28, 2012

Lemmy Stories



I have three Lemmy, from Motorhead, stories that I tell:

Story #1:  I arrived in London in December 1981 ... a guy I knew in Japan told me to meet him at his flat and we'd cab it to the New Year's party that everybody was going to ... I went to his building in Notting Hill and took the elevator up ... it was one of those European elevators that was sorta open and you could see the wall on the way up/down ... someone had taken a knife and carved in the Motorhead logo all up and down this elevator wall ... I noticed that someone was playing music way too loud (for even me!) when I got up to his floor ... I made mention of the loud music and asked if he could have them turn it down ... John said, "That's Lemmy ... you DON'T even ask him to turn the music down!!!" ... and he added that Lemmy had carved all the Motorhead logos in the elevator shaft.

Story #2:  In the summer of 1983 (still in London), Los Angeles punk band, "X," were making their debut appearance at the Marquee Club in Soho ... my buddy, Duart, got me on the guest list (he worked for a music publisher and could do this at quite a few venues in town) ... I was standing at the entrance to the club with my date while the doorman looked for my name on the list ... all of a sudden it was like a truck hit me and I went flying into the doorman and we very nearly ended up on the floor ... I got up and looked around saw the back of Lemmy charging into the club ... I was pissed and was going to go after him ... but, the doorman grabbed my arm, and when I turned and looked at him he was shaking his head and said, "Don't, it's Lemmy!!!"

Story #3:  It was near the end of my tour in London in December 1984, I was standing at the bar on the second floor of Hammersmith Odeon ... my girlfriend and I were there to see Def Leppard ... I almost had the barman's attention to get a pint when I was pushed against the bar so hard my ribs hurt ... it was Lemmy ... he yelled "Oi!!!" at the barman at an amazing volume, the barman looked over, stopped who he was serving and got drinks for Lemmy (he must have had a standard order at the Hammersmith Odeon) in mere seconds ... the barman gave the drinks to Lemmy (NO money collected) and the huge Motorhead bassist released the pressure on me and walked away ... I did NOT utter one word to him because I didn't want to spend the rest of the evening covered in blood.

Lemmy immigrated to Los Angeles around the same time I moved to Hollywood in 1997 ... he basically lives in the Rainbow Room and just drinks all day ... I've never run into him ... or him into me ... in L.A.!!!