The final years of Motörhead icon Lemmy were plagued with illness, but that didn’t stop the rocker from sucking the marrow out of life. Lemmy kept rocking until his final days, performing Motörhead’s momentous final tour, unaware that his body was riddled with an aggressive form of cancer.
In a new interview with the CATtales podcast, Phil Campbell has reflected on the final reflected Motörhead tour, that lead up to the tragic passing of the rocker in December 2015.
“Towards the last couple of years, Lem wasn’t quite himself,” the guitarist mused. It was evident that ill health had affected Lemmy.
“He just wanted to carry on. You could see Lemmy aging a little bit more, ’cause he was a fair amount older than the rest of us. But he was doing fine — he was playing fine. We just carried on.
“We kind of slowed it down a little bit, but it was still full-on touring compared to what other bands do. Us slowing down was just like full-on [touring] for many other bands. So we’d still go on tour for two months anywhere where they would have us… But Lem played, basically, like he wanted to do as long as he possibly could. But it was difficult to watch sometimes at the very end.”
Adjusting to life post-Motörhead wasn’t an easy feat at first for Campbell, who revealed that he found it difficult to adapt to life off the road.
“For 30 years, it was like my routine, basically — traveling on a bus and meeting at airports and soundchecks and having a laugh and watching TV and all the stuff day after day after day after day after day, all of a sudden it just stops,” he explains. “[But I have] great memories. We made some great music for people to still rock out to, so that’s great.”
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Earlier this month Motörhead released a new video for the band’s classic song ‘(We Are) The Road Crew’ to honour those that work behind the scenes for live touring acts.
All streaming proceeds from the music video are set to benefit the Crew Nation, a Live Nation charity that has pledged US$10 million ($16 million) fund to support the roadies, techs and all the back-stage professionals whose livelihoods are on the line amid the coronavirus pandemic.”
Check Out Motörhead’s ‘…Roadcrew – Crew Nation – Global Relief Fund’:
