Remembering the amazing life of late rock legend Lemmy and his dabblings in horror.
The staff of SHOCK are totally leveled to hear about the passing of Ian Fraser “Lemmy” Kilmister, iconic front-man for venerable hard rock outfit MOTORHEAD and perhaps one of the greatest (and often, misunderstood) symbols of rock ‘n’ roll, full stop.
Reportedly, Lemmy learned of an aggressive form of cancer that had seized him only a few days ago on December 26th and succumbed to the illness today. He passed away at home with his friends and family. Lemmy was 70.
Outside of his near-five decades of rocking, first with psych-rock band HAWKWIND and then, right up until the end, with MOTORHEAD (of which he was the main brain and only constant member), Lemmy also took time to appear in a slew of genre films, many of which were classics.
Recently, Lemmy appeared as The President in Troma’s RETURN TO NUKE ‘EM HIGH, a return to Tromaville after his most famous turn in the studio’s 2000 camp gorefest CITIZEN TOXIE: THE TOXIC AVENGER IV as well as cameos in both TERROR FIRMER and TROMEO AND JULIET. He also appeared in the Danny Trejo vehicle THE CURSE OF EL CHARRO and, perhaps most famously, in Richard Stanley’s cult future-shock flick HARDWARE.
But for this writer, the coolest “Lemmy in Horror” moment was the famous MOTORHEAD video for the Ozzy Osborne co-penned thrasher “Hellraiser“.
The song was recorded by both Ozzy for his 1991 disc “No More Tears” and by Lemmy and the boys for the blistering 1992 disc “March or Die”; that version-along with the MOTORHEAD track “Hell on Earth”-was featured on the soundtrack for the film HELLRAISER III: HELL ON EARTH.
Famously, none other than Clive Barker himself directed the video, which co-stars Doug Bradley in his most famous role. Barker also appears, playing cards. Lemmy of course, draws the ace of spades…
No one else like Lemmy. Ever.
So watch the video, play it loud. And raise a glass to the man who WAS rock ‘n’ roll.
