In a new interview on the Waste Some Time With Jason Green video podcast, Motorhead drummer Mikkey Dee looks back on his last ever conversation with friend and frontman Lemmy before his untimely death in 2015.
Dee reveals that Lemmy was unwilling to compromise over his ailing health when it came to Motorhead’s final tour, and consistently rejected any suggestions that he should perhaps take some time to rest up. The band played live shows up until just two weeks before his passing – and Lemmy’s last words to the drummer and long-time friend were actually over setlist alterations.
“We played the last show the 11th of December [of 2015] in Berlin," he says. "He passed just [two] weeks later. And that tells you, the guy died with his boots on. And both me and [guitarist] Phil [Campbell] were trying to talk him out of starting the second part of the European tour after Christmas. But there was no way in hell we could do that.
“And I said to Phil, 'Look, instead of arguing with Lemmy or pushing him not to do this,' because we said maybe we should break for a couple of months for him to catch his wind, basically. I said, 'Let's not push him any way. Let him decide what he wants to do. He knows best what he wants to do.' And he wanted to be onstage."
The band agreed to crack on with the second leg of the tour, which sadly never took place.
Dee’s last moment with the frontman was spent discussing which songs from the band's latest record, Bad Magic, they'd play on the road. In the podcast, Dee also admits that he did not have any idea that this would be the last time he would ever see him.
"I spoke to him right after the show. I went down to Lemmy's dressing room, and I said, 'All right. Go back to L.A. and figure out, maybe, another two songs from Bad Magic that you think that we should do. And we take out the two songs that we already played on this leg, and we put in two new songs from the record.'”
“And he said, 'Yeah. All right. I'll check that out.' And I said, 'Let's hook up after Christmas.' Because it was the 11th of December at that time, and I figured we'd talk between Christmas and New Year's Eve and decide which two songs that we agreed on on playing on that next leg.
"And that was it. He had no intention of not coming back to Europe and touring. So we did a little finger hook, as we always did, and that was the last time I saw him, actually. Very sad."
Lemmy’s official cause of death was listed as prostate cancer, as well as cardiac arrhythmia and congestive heart failure. The iconic frontman also previously had a brain scan that displayed that he had terminal brain and neck cancer.
Catch the full interview below:
