We are entering a very sad age in the world of heavy metal, the middle-ages of metal if you will. All the legendary musicians of our beloved genre are getting old, and some of them have already "checked out." Hopefully, that is not the case for Lemmy, although things aren't looking good for the guy.
Last week, we learned Lemmy got a defibrillator installed in his chest to help control his heart beat, and today the band announced they've been forced to cancel dates, namely this past Saturday (June 22) in Austria at the See-Rock Festival and tomorrow (June 25) in Milan, Italy with the promoters in Milan posting this message (please excuse the rough translation):
With great regret we inform you that, after [Motorhead had] canceled a date in Austria yesterday, Motorhead are also forced to cancel the date of June 25 in Milan, for the same reason, health problems with Lemmy, caused by a strong hematoma, makes it impossible at present to go on stage.
Hematoma is "a localized collection of blood outside the blood vessels" according to Wikipedia, commonly a blood clot. Hopefully, these health scares will encourage Lemmy to perhaps slow down? But it's much easier said than done with a guy like Lemmy, who's been going full throttle for the last 40 years.
Motorhead are still scheduled to release their new album, Aftershock in September.