Just about every night he's not on tour, Lemmy Kilmister can be found at the Rainbow Bar & Grill in West Hollywood. Located in the heart of the Sunset Strip, the Rainbow has been a clubhouse for hard living rock stars since it opened in the early Seventies. When Lemmy moved to L.A. from his native England in 1990, he chose his address based soley on it's proximity to the Rainbow - his only friends in the city either worked, or hung out there - and he still lives in the same modest apartment, only a few blocks away.
Lemmy is the singer of the band Motorhead, and one of the great metal frontmen of all time.
"People ask me, 'Who's the king of heavy metal?'" Ozzy Osbourne says.
"And it would absolutley be Lemmy. Lemmy, to me is the epitome of what being a rock star is all about." On this paticular afternoon, Lemmy is working on a bourbon-and-Coke in the Rainbow's empty upstairs bar. It's just after three. Over the next few hours, an asistant will bring over a fresh cocktail, whenever Lemmy's glass gets low; at times, Lemmy will have two drinks going, consolidating them when the levels get right. In 2005 a BBC documentary called "Motorhead: Live Fast Die Old", Lemmy, shown pouring himself a drink from a handle of Jack Daniel's, estimating his intake at a bottle a day.
"I used to be a wild guy", says Ozzy, "but Lemmy...his rider was seven bottles of bourban and eight bottles of vodka. He's not human!"
Lemmy nods at a hand painted plaque on the wall of the bar. It reads "Lair of the Holylwood Vampires." In the Seventies, the Rainbow's upstairs bar was a secret clubhouse for John Lennon, Harry Nilddon, Keith Moon and other legendary partiers of the day. Their names are all scrawled on the plaque. "A lot of history in this place," Lemmy says, gruff-voiced, in his mumbly English Midlands accent. His breathing is slightly labored from climbing the stairs, though he quickly pulls out a cigarette from a pack of Marlboros. He will chain-smoke for the next several hours.
During Lennon's "lost weekend" of '73-'75, when he and Nilsson were likely partying in this very room, Lemmy was still playing with the seminal British acid-rock band Hawkwind. "They used to say LSD wouldn't work if you took it two days straight, we found out if you doubled the dose, it did. He formed Motorhead in 1975, after being kicked out of Hawkwind for doing too many drugs. (Or, rather, for doing too much of the wrong drug - speed.) And now, here he is today, the last of the Hollywood vampires, at least the lsat of his era - still playing the same music, still living just as hard, like a Japanese soldier stranded on a remote island who never learned the war has ended.
"I'm the guy that's always been into the f--king villain musicians, from Gene Vincent to Keith Richards to Joe Perry, and I don't think any of these tough guys can hold a candle to Lemmy," says Slash. "The first time I ever saw them was on the Blizzard of Ozz tour, he had a plaid bag with three books and a notepad. No change of clothes. His f--king rider was about 15 bottles of booze, two bottles of orange juice, and thats f--king it! And I've never once seen him falling-down drunk, ever. He's not grossly overweight, he never looks hung over or like he's about to die. The man isn't f--king human!"
Lemmy had been playing in various bands since Wales, covering everyone from Ricky Nelson to the Ventures to Chuck Berry. "For a while, I did a bit of dope-dealing," he says In 1967, he ended up in London, wher he called his only friend in town, a rhoadie for Jimi Hendrix who was sharing a flat with Hendrix bassist Noel Redding. Lemmy asked if he could crash on the floor, and three weeks later he was working as a rhoadie for Hendrix as well. The gig lasted about a year. Lemmy was on the bottom rung of the rhaodie ladder, simply hualing equipment. "I don't think if you asked [Hendrix] now he'd know who the f--k I was," Lemmy says.
Motorhead will be on the road for the next few months. A feature documentary on Lemmy is also in the works, and he still plans to record a long-promised solo album. When asked if he likes any recent music, his answers are suprising: Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Swift, Bon Jovi's duet with Jennifer Nettles of the counrty band Sugarlad. "Harmony still makes me shiver," Lemmy says. "About the only thing that still does."
The next question asked is about the music that still makes him keep playing, after all these years? "Music takes you places you can't go any other time. The more you try to analyze it, the more you f--k it up.
Turning to his dressing-room mirror, he pulls a new cowboy hat onto his head and gazes firmly at his own reflection.
"So," he asks, "what do you think?"
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