R.I.P. Lemmy...Born to Be a Legend

Ian Fraser "Lemmy" Kilmister (24 December 1945 – 28 December 2015) was an English musician, singer, and songwriter who founded and fronted the rock band Motörhead. His music and lifestyle was a distinctive part of the heavy metal genre.

Lemmy was born in Stoke-on-Trent and grew up in North Wales. He was influenced by rock and roll and the early Beatles, which led to him playing in several rock groups in the 1960s, most significantly the Rockin' Vickers. He worked a roadie for Jimi Hendrix and The Nice, before joining the space rock band Hawkwind in 1971, singing lead on their hit "Silver Machine". After being fired from Hawkwind, he founded Motörhead as lead singer, bassist, songwriter and frontman. Motörhead's success peaked in 1980 and 1981 and included the hit single "Ace of Spades". Lemmy continued to record and tour regularly with Motörhead until his death in December 2015.

Aside from his musical skills, Lemmy was well known for his hard living lifestyle and regular consumption of alcohol and amphetamines. He was also noted for his collection of Nazi memorabilia, although he did not support Nazi ideals. He made several cameo appearances in film and television.

Lemmy was born on Christmas Eve in the Burslem area of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. When Lemmy was three months old, his father, an ex-Royal Air Force chaplain, separated from his mother. His mother and grandmother moved to nearby Newcastle-under-Lyme, then moved again to Madeley, another nearby town.When Lemmy was 10, his mother married former footballer George Willis, who already had two older children from a previous marriage, Patricia and Tony, with whom Lemmy did not get along.

The family moved to a farm in Benllech on the Welsh island of Anglesey,with Lemmy later commenting on his time there, that "funnily enough, being the only English kid among 700 Welsh ones didn't make for the happiest time – but it was interesting from an anthropological point of view". He attended Sir Thomas Jones' School in Amlwch, where he was nicknamed Lemmy, although he was unsure why; it would later be claimed that the name originated from the phrase "lemmy [lend me] a quid till Friday" because of his habit of borrowing money from people to feed his addiction to slot machines.He soon started to show an interest in rock and roll music, girls, and horses.

By the time he left school his family had relocated to Conwy, still in northern Wales. There he worked at menial jobs including one in the local Hotpoint electric appliance factory, while also playing guitar for local bands, such as the Sundowners, and spending time at a horse-riding school. Lemmy saw the Beatles perform at The Cavern Club when he was 16, and then learned to play along on guitar to their first album Please Please Me. He also admired the sarcastic attitude of the group, particularly that of John Lennon.

At the age of 17, he met a holidaying girl called Cathy. He followed her to Stockport, where she eventually had his son Sean, who was put up for adoption.In the 2010 documentary film Lemmy, Lemmy mentions having a son whose mother has only recently "found him" and "hadn't got the heart to tell him who his father was", indicating the boy – perhaps Sean – was given up for adoption.

Death....

On 28 December 2015, four days after his 70th birthday, Lemmy died at his home in Los Angeles, California, at 16:00 PST from an "extremely aggressive cancer."[44] Motörhead announced his death on their official Facebook page later that day. According to the band, his cancer had only been diagnosed two days prior to his death.

Reviewing his career after his death, The Guardian said:

Over the years as guitarists and drummers passed through Motörhead’s line up, Lemmy remained the grizzled heart of the machine. His bronchial rasp – directed into a towering microphone tilted down into his weather-beaten face - was one of the most recognisable voices in rock, while his Rickenbacker guitar recast the bass as an overpowered, distorted rhythmic rumble.

In his 2002 autobiography White Line Fever, Lemmy had written:

"People don’t become better when they’re dead; you just talk about them as if they are, but it’s not true! People are still a--holes, they’re just dead a--holes! ... I didn’t have a really important life, but at least it’s been funny."

Surce: Wikipedia