Lemmy Kilmister Quotes

People don't read any more. It's a sad state of affairs. Reading's the only thing that allows you to use your imagination. When you watch films it's someone else's vision, isn't it?" [Interview in The Independent, 15 October 2005]

Apparently people don't like the truth, but I do like it; I like it because it upsets a lot of people. If you show them enough times that their arguments are bullshit, then maybe just once, one of them will say, 'Oh! Wait a minute - I was wrong.' I live for that happening. Rare, I assure you

I don't do regrets. Regrets are pointless. It's too late for regrets. You've already done it, haven't you? You've lived your life. No point wishing you could change it.

I don't see why there should be a point where everyone decides you're too old. I'm not too old, and until I decide I'm too old I'll never be too fucking old.

In my life so far, I have discovered that there are really only two kinds of people: those who are for you, and those who are against you. Learn to recognize them, for they are often and easily mistaken for each other.

It seems that our brave new world is becoming less tolerant, spiritual and educated than it ever was when I was young.

Death is an inevitability, isn't it? You become more aware of that when you get to my age. I don't worry about it. I'm ready for it. When I go, I want to go doing what I do best. If I died tomorrow, I couldn't complain. It's been good.

Born to lose. Live to win.

That was a great time, the summer of '71 - I can't remember it, but I'll never forget it!

As you go through life's rich tapestry, you realize that most people you meet aren't fit to shine your shoes. It's a sad fact, but it's true. A good friend is someone who'd hide you if you were on the run for murder. How many of them do you know?

The only interesting thing about religion is how many people it's slaughtered. Communism and Nazism are religions as well, make no mistake about it.

If you didn't do anything that wasn't good for you it would be a very dull life. What are you gonna do? Everything that is pleasant in life is dangerous. Have you noticed that? I'd like to find the bastard that thought that one up.

If you're going to be a fucking rock star go be one. People don't want to see the guy next door on stage; they want to see a being from another planet. You want to see somebody you'd never meet in ordinary life.

Home is in here [tapping temple]. Where you live is just a geographical preference.

This entire generation seems to have become pussies, you know? Nobody seems to enjoy themselves much anymore.They are all knocking each other down for enjoying themselves.

My ethic is: ‘Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.’ You can be as careful as you want, but you’re going to die anyway, so why not have fun?

Motörhead is nothing if not democratic, but I don't think it's fair to be waving your dick around when people are minding their own business and might not want to see it.

...what happened in New York and Washington is the same thing that England and America did to Berlin every day for three years during World War II -- and Germany did the same thing to England.

Integrity is everything to me. I will not die ashamed. I will live on my deathbed knowing that I gave it my best shot, and everything else is meaningless to me.

I made more money out of writing those four songs for Ozzy than I made out of fifteen years of Motörhead – ludicrous, isn’t it!

I like girls. That’s the only reason I’m in the music business – I discovered you could get women to take their clothes off if you had a guitar. And they come off a lot faster if you can play it.

We are Motörhead. And we play rock and roll.

If there is a God he hasn’t been paying attention. He should retire and hand over to a younger man, because he’s making a real bollocks of everything.

People who work in a factory, right, or some awful fucking mind-numbing job like that - ‘cause I worked in a factory, I know what it’s like; it’s fucking awful, yeah? Most people have to do that kind of job that they hate every day of their lives. Can you imagine what that must be like? You have to submerge your intellect completely, right, and just, y’know, che cha, y’know, and all that. So, at the weekend, they want to hear something that tears the heart out of ‘em and gives it back better.

...the Beatles were hard men too. Brian Epstein cleaned them up for mass consumption, but they were anything but sissies. They were from Liverpool, which is like Hamburg or Norfolk, Virginia--a hard, sea-farin' town, all these dockers and sailors around all the time who would beat the piss out of you if you so much as winked at them. Ringo's from the Dingle, which is like the f***ing Bronx. The Rolling Stones were the mummy's boys--they were all college students from the outskirts of London. They went to starve in London, but it was by choice, to give themselves some sort of aura of disrespectability. I did like the Stones, but they were never anywhere near the Beatles--not for humour, not for originality, not for songs, not for presentation. All they had was Mick Jagger dancing about. Fair enough, the Stones made great records, but they were always s**t on stage, whereas the Beatles were the gear.

We were a blues band, really. Although we played it at a thousand miles an hour, it was recognizable as blues – at least to us it was; probably it wasn’t to anybody else.

Chicks used to steal food out of the fridge from their parents to feed us and shit – kind of like bringing a meal to the convicted prisoner on the run. They liked the drama of it, and we liked the food.

you just have to keep going and everything will sort itself out.

People don’t become better when they’re dead; you just talk about them as if they are.

The only time I've seen any rebellion was in the fifties, sixties and early seventies. The rest of it you can keep.

I left the Rocking Vicars, thinking I was going to be a star in my own right immediately. Everything was going to be wonderful and huge women would get a hold of me and do things to me with raw carrots – you know, shit like that. Of course, it didn’t happen quite that way.

I told that to Lemmy [Kilmister (Motörhead, ex-Hawkwind)] and he said, “Yeah, well I used to suck the meat out of raw sausages.” It was like a contest for who could be more metal.

Safe sex, safe clothing, safe hairspray, safe ozone layer,…too late! Everything that’s been achieved in the history of mankind has been achieved by not being safe.” – Lemmy Kilmister, Mötorhead

Howard’s eating habits, incidentally, leave quite a bit to be desired – he eats all these terrible vegetarian things, fruit and nuts. That shit’s not healthy! Human beings are carnivores – just look at our teeth! Our digestive systems are not made to handle vegetarian food. It makes you fart all the time, and you get intestinal flora. Vegetarianism is unrealistic – that’s why cows have four stomachs and we have one. Think about it. (Hi, Howard!) And don’t forget – Hitler was a vegetarian!

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If you think you’re too old for rock ’n’ roll, then you are.

So I peeked under the tent-flap and there was Tommy, stark naked with his clothes under his one arm, running like a maniac. Following closely behind was a furious Guide mistress beating him on the head with his own arm!

Po našem působení byly dvě míle pobřeží k nepoznání. Ale byla to jen nevinná hra, děti přeci vyvádějí všechno možné a koneckonců proč taky ne? Děti sa takhle prostě baví, vytáčejí dospělé a dávají jim zabrat; co by jiného měly dělat?

I remember he was asking me for advice and I was giving it to him. He’s always done the exact opposite of what I’ve said, which I think is fundamentally sound.

The line-up was Alice Cooper, Judas Priest, us, Metal Church and Dangerous Toys. The Metal Church and Dangerous Toys guys were the best company – you never saw Alice (he was generally on his bus watching Japanese splatter movies) or anyone in Judas Priest, but I’d always run into some of the guys from the other bands somewhere. Usually at a strip club. Every city we went to, we’d all go down to the local strip club, and there they’d be. Nowadays,

If at first you don't succeed - cheat" Lemmy Kilmister.

Since I was about twenty-five, nothing changed, except I got smarter and wiser and things have an effect on you. But I never thought I was any older, really. It was just a very long twenty-five!

If you think you are too old to rock 'n roll, then you are.

You can't have everything -- where would you put it?

You've never seen a politician who's kept his promise. You've never saw a politician who wasn't a liar.....They want you to do what they say because their word is better than that other guy...It's not!...All politicians are assholes.

Další věc, kterou lidé nechápou, je moje sbírka nacistických suvenýru, jež se začala dost rozrůstat, poté co jsem se přestěhoval do Státu. Předměty z druhé světové války mezi lidmi kolovaly, co si pamatuju. Koneckonců jsem se narodil v roce, kdy válka skončila, a lidé si tehdy domu nosili nejrůznější věci jako suvenýry. Když jsem přijel do Ameriky, měl jsem jednu dýku a dvě medaile, možná nějakou vlajku a železný kříž, to bylo všechno. Jako s každým koníčkem, čím více se do něho člověk zabere, tím zajímavějším se stává. Takže teď mám obrovskou sbírku předmětu z doby hitlerovského Německa – dýky, medaile, vlajky, všechno možné. Tohle všechno připomíná něco, co se skutečně stalo, je to zkrátka historie (z větší části, neboť nacismus stále existuje, byť jen okrajově). Nechápu lidi, kteří si myslí, že pokud budou něco ignorovat, tak to zmizí. To se teda pletou, jakmile něco ignorujete, akorát to nabývá na síle. Evropa ignorovala Hitlera dvacet let. V roce 1936 jsme ho mohli porazit: francouzská armáda ho mohla vyhnat z Porýní a byl by vyřízený. Vlastní lidé by ho svrhli. Ale Francouzi utekli, jako vždy a nechali ho tam napochodovat. Výsledkem bylo vyvraždění čtvrtiny světa! Navíc si vezměte, že Hitler byl nekuřák, abstinent a vegetarián, nosil oblek a měl krátké vlasy. V kterékoliv restauraci v Americe by ho byli obsloužili, na rozdíl od Jesseho Owense, hrdiny olympiády z roku 1936.

The only interesting thing about religion is how many people it's slaughtered.