Motorhead icon Lemmy laughed about appearing on stage as a ghost after his death in one his last-ever interviews.
The 14-minute chat was recorded by German TV channel ZDF in late November, weeks before the 70-year-old passed away on December 28.
His manager Todd Singerman this week revealed that Lemmy had become too frail to sit through interviews and soundchecks during his final tour. Drummer Mikkey Dee said his colleague had “spent all his energy” on the road in December.
Despite looking unwell and tired, Lemmy was in good spirits during the ZDF interview. Asked if he planned to keep performing, he joked: “After death? No. I’ll have to stop then, I think. You never know… I could haunt somewhere. Mess up somebody else’s gig. Tears For Fears or somebody – appear in the middle of it and go, ‘Everybody out!’”
He said of his band’s longevity: “40 years is a joke. It’s ridiculous. The press didn’t like us. They gave us six months to live. They’re all gone and I’m still here. Too bad.”
He reflected on the recent death of former drummer Philthy ‘Animal’ Taylor, saying: “I feel like I’d known Phil all my life. He was a nutcase – and I do admire that in a person. I think he lost his will to live. He was doing a lot of the wrong drugs and living with the wrong people. It was too much for his constitution. So far I’ve survived it, because I invented it, more or less.”
Lemmy added: “I don’t recommend the lifestyle, because most people die of it. A lot my friends are dead who shouldn’t be. They had a lot more music in them. But that’s the way life is – it’s all down to luck.”
Looking forward, he said: “I’ll do it for as long as I can. I’m 70 in December and it’s sort of ludicrous after that. But I’ll see how I feel.”
He also talked about the Paris terror attacks, punk music, songwriting, Elvis, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, Lars Ulrich, and rejecting the “godfather of heavy metal” title.
