Motörhead drummer Mikkey Dee has revealed that he initially didn’t want to be a part of the legendary rock band when Lemmy asked him to join in 1986.
“He asked me to join Motorhead in ’86, and I played in King Diamond in the beginning,” Dee revealed during a chat with The NFR Podcast. “He asked me actually three times before I actually joined the band in ’91.”
Prior to joining the hugely successful rock band Motörhead, Dee was a part of Danish heavy metal band, King Diamond, which he left in 1989. Presented with the opportunity to join Motörhead, Dee reveals that he was hesitant at first.
“I was extremely honored, like, ‘Wow.’ Because they were super rockstars over here, trust me. I listened to Motorhead since they came around pretty much,” Dee reveals. “I saw something. I go, ‘Look, I got to earn my stripes.’ ‘I need to earn my stripes before I join this fucking band. This is not just a band, this is an institution here.’ And I said no, but with all the respect.”
“I just saw these guys as crazy, funny, and extreme in such a way that I felt if I joined this band, I’d be eaten up for breakfast. ‘I’m not ready.’ They were as hard as it gets.”
However, Dee reveals that Lemmy was persistent in attempting to get Dee to join the band, and wouldn’t give up.
“Lemmy kept sending me postcards and writing to me and calling me from pay phones and hotel phones,” he said.
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“‘Hey, Mik, how you doing? Just want to check on you, what’s up?’ He’d send me postcards from all over the world.”
Lemmy eventually got his wish when Dee had an unsuccessful stint playing with Don Dokken and agreed to join Motörhead to track just two songs with them.
“By that time with Dokken, he said, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘Well, Don [Dokken] is pretty much falling apart.’ ‘Can you come and play with us? We got to do ‘Hellraiser’ and another song.’ I said, ‘Sure.’
“So I drove up to the studio the same day and start tracking, and they asked if I could join them on tour – because we were going out with Ozzy for the whole summer, and I said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’
“And then we jumped from that tour to Guns N’ Roses and Metallica tour, then straight over to Europe and picked up Saxon, and did Bombers & Eagles Tour again with Saxon, and off we went, 25 years went by very quick.”
Dee stayed on as the drummer for the band until Motörhead disbanded in December 2015, due to the death of founder and frontman Lemmy.
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Listen to ‘Born To Raise Hell’ by Motörhead:
