Motörhead has never had a hit album in the United States. In fact, its previous release, “Motorizer,” was the group’s first CD to crack the top 100 on the “Billboard” magazine album chart.
Yet the group’s bassist-singer, Ian Fraser Kilmister, perhaps better known by his stage name, Lemmy, has become one of the most familiar figures in heavy metal — if not all of rock and roll. He’s been a writing contributor to hard-rock magazines. His quick wit, gravelly voice and rugged look — dressed in black, with mutton chop sideburns, mustache and his famous pair of warts on his left cheek — have made him familiar to generations of hard-rock fans.
He’s now been the subject of a new documentary by filmmakers Wes Orshoski and Greg Olliver that is receiving considerable acclaim.
For his part, Kilmister can’t explain why he has become something of an icon in hard-rock circles.
“I think it’s really been like dumb luck,” he said in a mid-January phone interview. “I haven’t changed how I am at all. I’m just, like, banging against the furniture on my way through life, and people seem to have picked up on it a bit more. I mean, it becomes fashionable to like Motörhead again about every seven years, so maybe we’re going through our own phases.”
Kilmister and Motörhead have been around long enough now to have seen several of those cycles of popularity.
Kilmister formed Motörhead in 1975 after he had been in the legendary cult band, Hawkwind. His intent from the start was for Motörhead to be a British version of Detroit’s seminal garage-punk-metal band, the MC-5 — although he didn’t expect the group to take on its famous power trio format.
“It’s become like the MC-3, hasn’t it?” Kilmister said. “At the start, we were going to have three guitar players and a singer. Then, I got stuck with the singing because the singer left. I was only one that could sing, or I was the only one that would. (Guitarist) Eddie (Clarke) could sing very well, but he wouldn’t do it. I got stuck with that. I like it now. I couldn’t be on stage and not sing now.”
Gradually, Motörhead made its mark, especially in the U.K, as its early albums built a decent audience before the group made a strong impact with its 1980 album, “Ace Of Spade,” which went top five. The title track remains the band’s signature song.
Next came 1981’s “No Sleep ’til Hammersith,” a live album that became Motörhead’s first No. 1 album in the U.K. It was in stores when Motörhead first toured the United States, opening for Ozzy Osbourne’s “Blizzard of Ozz” tour.
Since then, Motörhead had continued to release CDs at regular intervals, enjoying considerable renown and decent success with such albums as “Orgasmatron” (1986), “1916” (1991), “Sacrifice” (1995), “Overnight Sensation” (1996) and most recently, “Motorizer,” in 2008.
‘Lemmy: The Movie’
Now comes “The Wörld is Yours,” which arrives just as Kilmister gains additional notoriety through the documentary, “Lemmy: The Movie.”
Filming went on for almost four years, as Orshoski and Olliver followed Kilmister on tour and through his daily life, gathering footage not just of Motörhead, but interviews with Kilmister and a variety of musicians who admire him for his work and his friendship.
Kilmister said he is pleased with the final product.
“It’s good. It’s all right. I like it,” he said. “I think they did a really good job.
“They captured the side that I’m not an (expletive), which is always a good start, isn’t it?” Kilmister said.
Now, the cameras are off and Kilmister, drummer-guitarist Mikkey Dee and guitarist Phil Campbell are back to doing what they’ve done throughout their time together: touring, with a run of American dates filling February and March.
Fans can expect the typical Motörhead live experience, Kilmister said.
“It’s pretty minimal,” he said of the show. “We can’t afford big stage sets. I mean, that’s really stupid money. We don’t sell a lot of albums for that. We just go out and play some rock ’n’ roll, really. We have a decent light show. That’s about it.”
The songs from “The Wörld is Yours” should fit in well in the live set alongside the Motörhead classics. Once again, the band stirs up its familiar hybrid of metal and punk on songs such as “Born to Lose,” “Rock N Roll Music” and “Get Back in Line.” The CD also finds Kilmister at times taking the lyrics in a topical direction, something he has done on a number of Motörhead albums over the years. This time out, he touches on the environment, corporate greed and the economy, among other topics.
“There are no slow songs,” Kilmister said. “It’s all fast stuff.”
