When Lemmy died in 2015, Metallica were one of the first bands to pay tribute, writing on Twitter, “You’re one of the primary reasons this band exists. We’re forever grateful for all of your inspiration.” They weren’t hollow words – Lars Ulrich was such a big Motörhead fan that he helped to run their fan club in the early 80s and the two bands crossed paths repeatedly over the intervening decades. For Lemmy’s 50th birthday bash in 1995, Metallica memorably opened up the show, billed as The Lemmys and playing a set of Motörhead covers, as detailed in Dave Everley’s excellent piece here.
A couple of years after that show, Lemmy sat down for an interview to look over the state of rock’n’roll and was asked his opinion of where Metallica were at. It was a period when the metal titans were taking a lot of flak, either because some fans weren’t into the recently-released Load or because James Hetfield & co. had gone and had their hair cut off, causing some fans to have an absolute meltdown. Always a man with a great perspective on rock’n’roll and life in general, Lemmy offered up some words of encouragement for his old pals.
