White Line Fever: Lemmy: The Autobiography (29 page)

With Wurzel gone, Mikkey and I figured we needed to get somebody else. But then Phil said, ‘I’d like to try it on my own.’ So we decided to carry on as a three-piece and see how it went, and it turned out to be amazing. It used to be that Wurzel was always the energetic one on stage. He was the one who did all the leaping around. But the first night we played without him, there I was singing and minding my own business and this
thing
zoomed past me . . . and it was Phil! I couldn’t believe it because he’d never moved a muscle on stage before that. He really tried hard and played his ass off. He really came through, but perhaps I shouldn’t sound so surprised. It’s true that he’s a very strange person, but he’s also a natural when it comes to playing guitar. Phil can be in any sort of condition and he’ll still play you a good solo. He just does it instinctively – Brian Robertson was the same way. Phil just picks up a guitar and it practically becomes part of his body. The fact that he’s determined to be a little pervert just makes life on the road all the more interesting!

To be honest, I’m glad we’re a three-piece again. For one thing, it saved us the trouble of finding another guitar player! But also, as I’ve said before, when there are two guitars, you can never get things worked out completely because somebody won’t agree with it. With one guitar player the bass can do anything. In the early days, I used to play all kinds of weird shit behind Eddie and it would work. So things are a lot freer now with this line-up, and everybody seems to know where they stand, which is a plus. Also, we get more money!

Anyhow,
Sacrifice
had been finished for just a few months
when we had a new American label, CMC, ready to release it. CMC hired us off our German label, CBH. That was our first offer in the US in years, and they showed a lot of faith in us from the start because they shipped the album before we had even signed the contract! We’re with them to this day, and five albums later, I can still say they’ve done pretty well by us. Tom Lipsky, who owns the label, believes in what he’s doing. His people put their money where their mouths are – they’re honest (surprise and shock!) and I like that. We had a solid first year between CBH and CMC. We played nineteen dates in Germany and all over Europe and people were actually bringing us the
new
record to autograph! That was a change – usually the fans would be holding records from three years ago. But CBH really got the record out there, and CMC did their best for us too.

As always, we toured America. You’ve gotten the idea, I’m sure, that the road is my natural habitat, but there are still some things about it that annoy the fuck out of me. One is the patronizing attitude some of these record company publicity people have towards the band. They actually take you by the arm and try to rush you around – I hate that! I’m not a dummy and I’m not a fucking commodity. Some people just insult your intelligence, and when you react they call you troublesome. You get a bad name for asserting your intelligence and independence. I’ll give you an example. While we were in Canada this chick had all this shit set up for us to do – Much Music, the Canadian version of MTV, and all that. But we were incredibly depressed that day. None of us wanted to go on stage because the monitor system was
so horrible. We hadn’t been able to hear each other play for the last eight gigs, and I was talking about just dropping the tour and going home – ‘Fuck this. This music is my life and I can’t play it properly because it sounds like shit on stage. How is the audience going to enjoy it if I’m not enjoying it?’ (It sounds stupid, I know, but it’s quite real, I assure you!) And while we were having this crisis, she was hovering around us, saying, ‘Much Music is outside.’ I told her I couldn’t do it – I was too depressed. And I was! I couldn’t have gone on TV with the attitude of, ‘Hey, everything’s wonderful!’ because it wasn’t. I said, ‘Can’t we tape it after the show?’ And she said, ‘No, no! It has to be done now because after six o’clock they have to pay extra for the camera.’ What the fuck does that matter?
Pay more for the camera!
Jesus. So anyway, the other two trooped off and did it, and she wrote this letter saying that we were troublesome and arrogant bastards. The thing that got me the most was she claimed I insulted her sexually! Do you know what I said? I said, ‘You’re the best-looking representative we’ve had from a record company in years.’ That was
it
! If telling someone they’re looking good is harassment, then the world has truly gone out of its fucking mind.

As you can tell, a lot happened to us in 1995. Plus I turned fifty at the end of the year. Todd wanted to do something big, so he threw me a semi-surprise party at the Whiskey – he actually told me about it the day before, the swine. The night of this big event, there were lines around the block and it was fucking packed once you got inside. The people who couldn’t show up wished me happy birthday on video (Dee Schneider took up
about half the tape!). To be really honest, although I appreciate all the effort everyone put into it, a gathering like this is not my idea of a good time. It’s just that I hate being
that
much of the centre of attention. Not all my own guests were able to get in because of the fucking fire marshals and I never did get a chance to relax with the ones that
did
get in. Let’s face it, with something like this relaxing isn’t on the agenda! I was being pulled left and right, to and fro, fore and aft. Nevertheless, it was a really nice thing for everyone to do, and the evening had some real highlights. Metallica flew down and performed some of the more obscure Motörhead songs – that was a great tribute. Metallica is one of the few bands that has consistently given us credit, and I hold them in high regard for that.

Somewhere in the midst of all the touring we were doing, we got to work on our next record, titled (inappropriately enough)
Overnight Sensation
. We spent four weeks writing it and four weeks in the studio and then we did some European festivals, and when we came back we were in the studio another month or so. It generally takes us about three months to do a record, and this one was no different – it’s just that those three months were a little spread out! We hired Howard again as producer, but Duane Barron came in and did a lot of work under Howard’s direction. Then Howard came in at the mix and sorted it all out. Duane was all right – you could tell he liked guitar!

Actually, this was our first official album as a three-piece since
Another Perfect Day
with Robbo. If you’re wondering what that was like – it went the same as a four-piece except one guy wasn’t
there! Or the same as the Everly Brothers plus one. It was a bit more fraught, but that was just because Phil, being the only guitarist, felt that there was a lot riding on his shoulders (which there was). So he was under some added pressure, but he proved himself well.
Overnight Sensation
is a great album for him. Mikkey was his usual perfect self – he always finishes his drum tracks well ahead of schedule. This time around he did them in one day. And why spend any more time than you have to? People think that the longer you take for an album the better it’s gonna be, and that’s not true. Look at Jeff Beck, Clapton and Page – they played a lot of their early classic work in one take. They had no choice! In those days, you had to do the best solo you had in about fifteen to twenty seconds. You had to make your point quick! None of this Jerry Garcia nonsense. Jeff Beck made his name in eighteen seconds on ‘Shapes of Things’! The sixties were a great time for breeding excellent musicians, far better than now. And speaking of less time making better albums – our back catalogue proves that loud and clear.

Overnight Sensation
was also our first official record for CMC –
Sacrifice
was already partly here in the States on import before they got it. But the label really proved itself with
Overnight Sensation
– it was the best-distributed record we’d had for ages. They worked out a deal with BMG, which helped. I do have to say, though, that sometimes I worry about CMC’s business sense. Like I’ve said before, good business is theft, and since CMC has been nothing but straightforward with us, that makes them bad businessmen by definition! But I think I can deal with that.

We had some interesting experiences while touring for that record. We went back to Hungary, which had changed a lot since we’d last been there. Before it was like Russia, very oppressive, but now it’s more like Germany. And speaking of Russia, we went there for the first time and played four shows. Russia is a very strange country, unlike anything else I’ve ever seen. I went to eastern Europe before the wall came down and after it came down: I’ve played in East Germany, Hungary of course, and Czechoslovakia and none of them was anything like Russia. People in America who haven’t been there really have no clue about it. It’s insane. There’s security everywhere, nine deep around everything. It seems like everybody’s an ex-soldier. I guess that’s because when the Soviet Union collapsed, half the police force collapsed with it – they didn’t need that many anymore, so most of them became ‘security’, which means ‘private army’! Those of them who aren’t driving cabs in LA, that is! Having all that security around was stifling. And as for the free market, it’s mainly casinos because the only way they can get any foreign currency is by the gaming in the casinos. So those are everywhere, but the country’s still starving to death. The gigs, however, were incredible. Every one of them was sold out, and the audiences went fucking crazy! That part I liked (but then, it’s always the best part of touring – that and getting laid after the gig).

Of course, there were a few nightmares since the promoters hadn’t been promoting for very long. For example, we were going from Moscow to Rostov, which is a long fucking ride.
They told us to show up at this address at such-and-such an hour, and we drove out of Moscow. We kept going and it was getting darker and darker until there was something like one street lamp every half mile and finally we turned off the road and stopped by this tall hedge. As our eyes got used to the dark, we could see armed guards in sentry boxes at each side of a gate. This guy ordered us to pull over, so we did and he and the promoter began arguing in Russian. It was spooky. Then these two fucking great trucks suddenly whoomed in. They were army trucks – except they weren’t being driven by soldiers – but anyhow they got waved straight through. We finally figured out the place was some sort of Russian air force base doing a bit of ‘import-export’ on the side! The promoter came back and told us, ‘We can’t go in yet. The general is about to visit.’ So we had to sit around until this big, fucking staff car with a flag on it appeared. This guy in a little coat and cap got out, went in and came back out – he was probably just collecting his cut. Finally we got waved in. There were soldiers all over the place, chattering like mad – Russians are like Italians that way, they’ll go on for half an hour. After all of this, they got us to the plane and Phil saw it first. He came back to the car and said, ‘I’m not flying in that.’

‘Don’t be such a sissy,’ I said, and got out of the car myself to see what the matter was. Then
I
came back and said, ‘I’m not flying in that!’ It was some sort of two-motor 1957 Ilyushin Bomber or a transport plane, completely gutted inside. The passenger lounge was at the back part of the cargo hold and it
was nothing but some garden furniture! Plus the fucking thing wasn’t pressurized – totally open to the elements. So we said we wouldn’t go, but we sent the crew in it. Hey, it gives them a good story to tell later on. Keeps them happy, relating their tales of woe.

Tony, our light guy, almost got mugged by a couple of policemen once we did get to Rostov. We had a great show, then we all went to this café. All the crew were wearing these hats with the Soviet badge on the front – those big fur hats they’re making for tourists now. So it was like being surrounded by fucking munchkins. And Tony was talking away at these people and he and another roadie, Dave Road Warrior, went off with these two supposed cops to ‘find some girls’. But they put them in separate cars, which was somewhat suspicious and after about ten minutes, Dave noticed the other car wasn’t behind him. He said, ‘Fuck this,’ and just got out and walked back. And then Tony went off at the people he was with until they turned around and took him back – the British Embassy was mentioned along with various threats. Dave walked back. I’m sure if they’d ever gotten to the place, it would have been about twenty-five miles outside of town with one girl and six geezers with blackjacks, ready to beat them senseless and steal all their money.

I would have loved to have gone over there when it was still the Soviet Union so I could compare it to what it’s like now. Really, it’s misery over there for most of the locals. We went to St Petersburg, which is fantastic –
Dr Zhivago
, the Winter Palace and all that history. So, romantic dummy that I am, I thought,
‘Right, let’s take the train back to Moscow! It’ll be a Russian experience.’ Well, it certainly was a Russian experience. The guy told us, ‘No problem, we have booked the train.’ So we get to the station and there’s a great, long train there. We get on and I go to the compartment with my ticket number on it, open the door and there’s a woman with two kids in there! So I say to the conductor, ‘There must be some mistake.’

‘No, no – ’ He shows me the ticket and she’s got her name on it, too. What they do is they book you and they throw the peasants out – she and her kids got tossed off the train. I said, ‘Hey, man, you can’t do that!’ And they said, ‘Do you want to share your compartment with them all the way to Moscow?’ I had to admit, ‘Now that you mention it, I don’t.’ But obviously nothing has really changed since the tsars’ days – the guys at the top do anything they want and everybody else pays for it. It’s always been that way in Russia. Fucking Lenin, for all his blather, changed nothing for the peasant.

Touring was going particularly well for us – in fact, there were some countries like Argentina and Japan, where they put us in bigger venues. And it was around this time that the English promoters discovered that yes, they could turn a nice profit with Motörhead shows. Our three-piece line-up was performing excellently, so we thought it was high time we made another live record. We did, eventually, but first we made another studio record,
Snake Bite Love
. It came out quite nicely, even though we recorded it all over the place instead of doing it all at just one or two studios. I also improved my Risk game – Howard Benson,
who produced again, had it on his computer, so I played it whenever I wasn’t recording. With
Snake Bite Love
, and
We Are Motörhead
, the record we just finished, I really feel that this lineup has come into its own in the studio. We like recording – I like it more now than I ever have before. With Mikkey and with one guitar player who, like Phil, is a natural, it’s really easy. The prima donna scenes have gone way down in number. We all have the occasional one, but not often. We’re all very professional (we should be after all these years!), so it’s a simple process.