Lemmy Kilmister, Singer and Bassist for Motörhead, Dies at 70

By Joe Coscarelli

Ian Fraser Kilmister, the jagged-voiced heavy-metal singer and bassist known as Lemmy, who led the loud and fast British rock band Motörhead for decades, died on Monday. He was 70.

Motörhead confirmed his death on its Facebook page. The band said in a statement that Mr. Kilmister, who had battled health issues for years, had “a short battle with an extremely aggressive cancer,” having learned of the disease on Saturday. “Please,” the band added, “play Motörhead loud, play Hawkwind” — Mr. Kilmister’s earlier group — “loud, play Lemmy’s music LOUD. Have a drink or few.”

Known for living hard and playing furiously on Motörhead albums including “Ace of Spades,” “Overkill” and “Iron Fist,” Mr. Kilmister became an avatar for rock ’n’ roll endurance and a godfather to genres like thrash and speed metal. Formed in 1975, Motörhead has released 22 studio albums with Mr. Kilmister as its only constant member, including this year’s “Bad Magic,” featuring typically aggressive songs like “Shoot Out All of Your Lights” and “Teach Them How to Bleed.”

Still, the band had slowed down in recent years, canceling tour dates because of Mr. Kilmister’s ailments, which included heart problems and diabetes. This year, he said he had switched from his usual drink, Jack Daniel’s and Coke, to a healthier alternative: orange juice and vodka. “Apparently I am still indestructible,” he said.

Mr. Kilmister was born on Dec. 24, 1945, in Staffordshire, England. His father was a minister in the Royal Air Force and his mother a librarian. Starting in his teenage years, he had the good fortune to be present for many of rock ’n’ roll’s pivotal moments. When he was 18, he went to see the Beatles at the Cavern Club in Liverpool. He spent six months as a roadie for Jimi Hendrix and attended the guitarist’s sessions for “Axis: Bold as Love.”

He joined the English psychedelic-rock band Hawkwind in 1971, but got kicked out several years later for abusing amphetamines. In response, he formed Motörhead in 1975, naming the band after the final song he wrote for his previous group. (It was slang for a biker with a penchant for speed.)

Mr. Kilmister never married, preferring a solitary life on the road. “This is how I live, you know?” he told Rolling Stone in 2009. “It’s what I’m supposed to do.” To start 2016, Motörhead had scheduled tour dates across the United Kingdom and much of Europe.

Since its self-titled debut in 1977, Motörhead favored consistency over innovation, writing music that worked at breakneck speeds with violent imagery. Early on, the band coexisted with the rise of punk in the United Kingdom, but moved along its own rougher path. (Mr. Kilmister preferred the simpler genre classification “rock ’n’ roll” to “metal,” even as his band became synonymous with the genre.)

In “Ace of Spades,” from 1980, the band’s breakout song and still its most recognizable, Mr. Kilmister growls: “You know I’m born to lose, and gambling’s for fools/But that’s the way I like it baby/I don’t wanna live forever.” Motörhead won a Grammy in 2005 for Best Metal Performance for its cover of Metallica’s “Whiplash.” In 2015, the band was nominated in the same category for the song “Heartbreaker.”

Asked about the future of rock as an elder statesman, Mr. Kilmister was often pessimistic. “People don’t want to see the guy next door on the stage; they want to see a being from another planet,” he said.

Mr. Kilmister moved to Los Angeles in 1990, selecting an apartment close to the Rainbow Bar & Grill in West Hollywood, a dank hangout for rock’s most notorious figures. In 2014, he told Rolling Stone that he was not ready to hang up his bass just yet. “I’ve still got a few bugs in me,” he said. “Don’t look forward to my demise just yet.”

On Monday night, Mr. Kilmister was remembered online by his rock peers. “He was a warrior and a legend,” wrote Ozzy Osbourne, a fellow metal icon. “I will see you on the other side.”

The band Anthrax, one of countless groups influenced by the hard-charging Motörhead, added, “You are Rock N Roll.”

Motörhead suffered another loss last month. The drummer Phil Taylor, who played alongside Lemmy in the band from 1975 to 1984, and again from 1987 to 1992, died on Nov. 11 after a long illness. He was 61.

Recognizable by his untamable mutton chops, distinctive facial moles and usually all-black biker gear, Mr. Kilmister cut an imposing rebel figure and was known to collect Nazi memorabilia, although he denied sympathizing beyond fashion.

“I’ve always liked a good uniform, and throughout history, it’s always been the bad guy who dressed the best,” he told The Independent in 2010.

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