It has been a whirlwind of information in the last 24 hours with the news spreading last night that rock icon Lemmy Kilmister from Motorhead died of what was described at the time as "an extremely aggressive form" of cancer. The tributes came pouring in from the metal community, but very little was known about what specifically caused Lemmy's death.
Motorhead manager Todd Singerman spoke to Music News and revealed that Lemmy wasn't feeling well after his birthday celebration, which happened a few weeks before his actual birthday of Dec. 24th on Dec. 13th at the Rainbow. He went to the doctor for a check up and doctors noticed his speech was a little odd, so they performed a brain scan. The results came in and they were not good:
"Nobody had any idea, we just learned Saturday, two days ago (sic), that he even had cancer and the doctor told him he had between two to six months to live. He goes (dies) today as I was making calls to (bandmates) Phil and Mikkey telling them to come on out so they could have a last goodbye while he was still upbeat and everything. He was feeling mighty low… He wasn't expected to die like that…
"He (Lemmy) gets home (from tour), we have a big birthday party for him at the Whisky A Go Go. His friends came down and played. Two days later I could tell he wasn't feeling good so we took him to the hospital, they release him, then after the brain scan they found the cancer in his brain and his neck… The doctor comes with the result a couple of days later and says… it's terminal."
It is absolutely a tragic ending to a live well worth living. Ultimately, Lemmy refused to compromise his lifestyle and was ready to go when it was his time and as I saw in a comment on Facebook, Ian Fraser Kilmister may have died but the legend of Lemmy will live on forever.
Metallica posted an awesome clip featuring Lemmy joining them on stage for a great rendition of "Too Late Too Late."
Metallica & Lemmy: Too Late Too Late (Live 2009)
Our hero…
Posted by Metallica on Monday, December 28, 2015
[via MetalSucks]
