WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 634 - Richard Thompson / Lemmy Kilmister

Episode Date: September 2, 2015

Richard Thompson and Lemmy Kilmister seem like they exist at opposite ends of the rock spectrum, but you’ll notice a lot of similarities in this double-header episode. First, Marc talks with Richard about his brand of guitar wizardry and how he keeps the tradition going in his family. Then, Marc and Lemmy talk Motorhead, the Beatles, dads, drugs, Ozzy, and what it means to be Lemmy. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

lock the gate all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fucksters what the fuckadelics i am mark maron this is wtf my podcast thank you for listening i appreciate your patronage interesting show today a double header the amazing genius guitar player richard thompson talks to me for the first part of the show and plays a beautiful song and next up the amazing and singular lemmy from motorhead hangs out for a bit in the garage we put i put them together for a reason perhaps i'll tell you that reason they've both been playing a very long time they're very different musicians but what's interesting about them is i don't think whether they said it or not maybe i'm projecting i don't

know that they've gotten you know the the the fame or the respect that they deserve either of them in their own worlds in a way let me well you know that that may not be true i might be projecting that but these are not huge stadium arena rock stars never were these guys are specific and they are the kings of their worlds but what i found to be interesting is that they both grew up in England, not too far apart from each other, you know, age-wise. And also just they both had amazing stories about who was around and who came and who they saw in England when they were kids

because so much of, you know, that second wave of rock and roll, you know, really came out of England, you know, and I just, I thought there was sort of a connection there. That was my reasoning, is that for some reason, I got, I started asking these guys about other musicians and about who they saw and who they knew. And I don't know why that happened. I hope it didn't seem disrespectful, but that's sort of why I put them together. All right, there you have it. I do want to tell you this. The days of the whole are over here at the Cat Ranch.

Many of you who have been with me since the beginning know that I have a fear and a dread of the powerful downpours that happen rarely but do happen here in Los Angeles. There are times I hear an El Nino is coming that will not only end the drought but will wash away the badness in Los Angeles. There's going to be a storm so intense that people are going to be morally more decent afterwards. It's going to be a cleansing storm. I think it was called the Great Flood at one time. When God did it the first time, I just hope my garage floats. But I will say this, and some of you who follow me on the Instagram or maybe on the Twitter, I don't like people that say the anythings, but I just did it twice.

You saw the astounding cement squirter that I shot as a morning greeting in a video form. My driveway, I replaced my driveway. I had my driveway redone, and I now have a French drain that runs along the front of the garage. So no more mystery hole. For those of you listening, you remember the mystery hole. I had this hole right next to the garage

that when it rained, the water would go in the hole. No one knows where the water went. No one knows. Well, I've stuck hoses down there to try to track the water. Me and Dennis, my neighbor, tried to assess. Maybe it's going down the hill. Maybe it's going under the garage.

Maybe it's going into Dennis's yard. Nope, we have no idea. The mystery hole. Just water went in. Don't know where it went. Not a good feeling. Could be a large hole beneath my house. A sinkhole, perhaps.

But those days are over. I no longer have to rely on the mystery hole. I have a sinkhole perhaps but those days are over i no longer have to rely in the mystery hole i have a new driveway with drainage and now all my guests who park in my driveway they don't need to fuck up their undercarriage and nor do i i'll tell you man cement finishers there's a fucking art there's an art to watch guys work cement and i look i'm not even a fucking truck guy and i don't think i was a truck guy when i was a kid but man to see those two cement trucks pull up and they have this separate motor car not a motor car like just a trailer that runs the cement through it and

then into these giant hoses and it just it just poos out cement and they're they're working it and they're going up and down they're on platforms they're in weird boots and they're just uh they're moving that surface and they're making those lines it was fucking beautiful to watch it was like goddamn movie production over here it was very exciting here for a couple of days people drive by you know what you know what men love to do they love to drive slowly by anything that's being built or constructed any kind of construction i can't tell you how many dudes just slowed down in front of the house right They love to drive slowly by anything that's being built or constructed. Any kind of construction. I can't tell you how many dudes just slowed down in front of the house and were like, nice job. Look at that rebar.

Good job. Good work. Yeah. And I thank them as if I did it because I didn't know what else to do. Anyways, don't forget about the Howl thing. All the WTF archives are now on Howl Premium. Don't forget about the Howell thing. All the WTF archives are now on Howell Premium.

If you sign up for that at howell.fm and use the promo code WTF, that'll get you full Howell access for about $3.99 a month, for exactly $3.99 a month. And if you already have a WTF Premium account, if you have that account, make sure you switch it over to Howell by emailing support at howell.fm. It doesn't cost you anything more than what you already paid, and you'll keep your current price. I know there's a couple of bugs in the system. We're on top of it.

We're working it out. Sometimes this takes a little bit of finessing with new platforms and technological things, but I know that we are on top of it. All right, so let's move on to Richard Thompson. Many years ago when I was applying to colleges, I applied to the University of Indiana in Bloomington. And I was a sort of like weird kind of fragmented, self-uncomfortable, neurotic, confused young man. And I went up there to Indiana. I remember the first time I flew on a small plane to the campus. I stayed the night and I wandered around sort of like a weird amoeba, like an emotional amoeba, not knowing what I was doing, not knowing why I was looking at a college, not knowing exactly what I wanted to do, not comfortable with my haircut or my pants. I think I went jogging up there and that was awkward.

I can't explain it. But I wandered around for many years like lost. And I remember I wandered into this antique store in Bloomington, Indiana. I don't remember where it was, but it must have been 1980. And there was a woman there who I immediately became enchanted with because I didn't know how to talk to people that well. And I felt uncomfortable. And I just wandered into this Art Deco antique store. And there was this beautiful woman there.

I tried to talk about music and I think I just learned about Brian Eno and I was trying to impress this woman there who was probably twice my age. But I had not talked to anybody and I was very needy. And I just remember at that time that she told me about Richard and Linda Thompson. It wasn't until years later when I moved to Los Angeles for the first time that I knew nothing of Fairport Convention at that time. But it was years later I moved to Los Angeles and I was living with Steve Brill and Pete Berg. And for some reason they had the Richard and Linda Thompson Shoot Out the Lights album. And there's a song on there. I believe it's that album called Calvary Cross.

And every time I heard it, it almost made me cry. The guitar playing was so insanely perfect. And that's when I became just blown away by Richard Thompson. And I had those two Richard and Linda Thompson albums, which were stunning. And then I followed Richard Thompson's solo career. And no one plays guitar like that guy. And then years later, not too long ago, I realized that he played on some of the Nick Drake stuff. And then I decided that Mark Knopfler kind of stole his riffs and his style. I decided that. I talked to Richard about that.

And I don't know, man. I've always loved the guy, and I've loved his guitar playing. It was a real special thing for me to get to talk to him. He's got a new album out that he was working with. Jeff Tweedy produced it and is there with him. And it's an amazing match, and it was amazing to talk to him. So let's go talk to him. So let's go talk to Richard Thompson.

The last album, you did at Jeff Tweedy's. Jeff Tweedy's Loved, yeah, which was a great experience. And what's it called, the new one? The new one's called Still. So now, recording with that guy. Yep.

Now, obviously, like, every guitar player in the world is a great fan of yours. Are they? If they know better. You know that. How come I'm still poor? Well, that's the difficult thing about being the genius that everybody aspires to be, is like, you invent something. Well, I think I'm a genus rather than a genius, but thank you anywayo sapiens probably well nobody plays like you and that's a rare thing you know like to have a sound that's so uh specifically your own uh is it's not it's not common uh well one

tries to be different you know in a land of guitar players yeah you know there are so many guitar players you know that they the number of the the millions, that it's desirable to be distinctive. And I really tried to do that since I was quite young, since I was about 16, I really thought. You always knew that? Well, you know, in the 60s in Britain, it was all blues guitar players. You know, you make Taylors and you're Peter Greens and Eric Clapton. So I thought, you know, I've got to do something different. I've got to sound different somehow.

So you did that at 16? Yeah. Because like, where did you grow up? Grew up in London. Uh-huh. And was there any musicians in the family? I mean, did you? Yeah. I mean, my father was a kind of bad guitar player. He played fairly bad dance band guitar, but we had great records. He had Django Reinhardt records. He had Les Paul records.

Yeah, yeah. So I heard that stuff growing up. My grandparents had a Scottish dance band, but I kind of missed that. That was another generation. But there seems to be something kind of Celtic and exotic about the playing. Well, Celtic, absolutely. I mean, that's a reflection of some of the music I was listening to. So I grew up listening to Django Reinhardt, rock and roll,

and Scottish country dance music. Plus, my grandmother sang in Gaelic. She sang Gaelic folk songs. So I got this real mixture of stuff. And when you started playing, what was the first guitar? First guitar I had was a piece of crap. We can cuss here. Was it your dad's guitar?

He bought it at home. It was basically broken. It was an old Spanish guitar that had been dropped. Nylon strings? Yeah, nylon strings. So he repaired it with the idea he was going to play it or my sister was going to play it, but then I grabbed it first. And did you just teach yourself?

Pretty much, yeah. How to get those sounds? I also had a sister, God bless her, who's two hours late for everything, for life. So her boyfriends would come and pick her up. Right. And she'd be two hours getting ready. So I'd get a guitar lesson off her boyfriends. Oh, so she dated musicians.

Yeah, yeah. She seemed to. I was a musician. Yeah, yeah. She seemed to. You know, I was a musician. Yeah, yeah. But so that's how you learn. These guys would come over and they're like, let me show you some Chuck Berry. Yeah, so it was, yeah, Chuck Berry,

but maybe, you know, a lot of Buddy Holly, you know, at the time. Buddy Holly was a, he's an underrated guitar player, I think, isn't he? He was a great guitar player. I mean, on some of his records, it's a guy called Tommy Alsop. Right, yeah, yeah. He was also a fantastic guitar player and uh so that sound so that so so you're up in in when who's popular in pop music like when you're 16 i don't know how old

you are but like you so you're listening to buddy holly and when i'm 16 uh you know the who were were they already a band oh yeah they're a great band. So I used to go after school, go down to the Marquee Club in Soho and see The Who on Tuesdays. And they were almost like an R&B band then, right? They were an R&B band. But they were doing all the nihilistic pop art stuff as well. They were smashing gear. They were. And wearing flags.

And it was all terribly exciting. And they were just an incredible club band. I mean, imagine that energy. Right, right. In a 400 uh seater so you saw all those those people playing and you knew that you could you needed to transcend that regular sound of blues well absolutely yeah uh you know there was blues and soul and that's about it right and then you know pink floyd started to get rolling and the psychedelic thing came in

so did you see them oh yeah yeah we used to do shows with with pink floyd i can't with sid with sid barrett with sid you know and you know it was never quite the same after sid i don't think it was it was different but it was like the ghost of sid they were all just reckoning with his absence for the for the next 20 records yeah but he had this extraordinary kind of uh whimsy to his music yeah you know and and sense of fun and and sense of humor yeah it was just extraordinary you got fairport Convention. You guys were, how long were you with that band? About five, six years. And you toured heavy.

We toured, we worked a lot, we worked a lot. And you opened for all these people. We opened for them. At some point, people started to open for us. Oh, that's good. Yeah. And that's where you and Linda met. Probably, yes, probably because Linda was a friend

of Sandy Denny who was in the band. In the band, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I kind of got to know her that way. And you guys, when did you two decide to sort of do it solo? Do it solo? I was playing in Sandy's band. She was being groomed as kind of a pop star,

but we didn't see each other because we'd both be touring at different times, different places. It was the dilemma of having two musicians in a relationship. So we thought, well, we could just team up and do stuff together. We'll just play around the folk clubs and we'll keep it small.

And were you dating at that time? Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, this is after we started dating. Nice word. I mean, this is after we started dating. Nice word. So, yeah, that just seemed a logical move, you know, and we can have a life together.

What shifted it into, because those were big records, the two Richard and Linda Thompson records. Well, big in what sense? Big, big. Well, I mean, like I knew about Fairport Convention. I'm like, I'm 51. So everything that, most of what you did from that period, you know, I'm getting after. I wasn't, you know, I wasn't conscious enough to know. But I know that, like, I want to see the bright lights tonight and shoot out the lights.

Like, at some point when I was maybe a freshman in college, someone says, like, this is the shit. I mean, this is important records. Well, in the way that, you know, Trout Mask Replica trout mask replica you know which sold 60 000 copies what was the record i think it was a little more accessible than trout mask replica but similar sales probably less actually i mean we're talking about cult records i mean you know but bright lights was a cult record shoot out the lights was still a cult record these were records that never quite hit the mainstream never hit the charts really but so what is this a do you have i'm in the charts now right now i wasn't then yeah with the tweety produced record yes how's that feel uh it feels uh immensely rewarding seriously yeah i mean what we we hit number six in the in the uk album charts which is uh well congratulations which is actually

incredible for an old folk rock dinosaur like me. Was that like 50 years coming? About 50 years coming. I mean, we were up there with Taylor Swift, you know. Oh, my God. That must feel fucking great. It's okay. It's okay. Yeah?

Well, if people still sold millions of records, you know. Well, you're always going to figure out a way to frame it, so it's not quite, you know. Okay. Right? Is that true? But you're telling me that those two Richard and Linda Thompson records, they never sold big? No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. And who was guiding you at that time, like production-wise?

I mean, who made sort of decisions that... Like, I don't quite understand how it all works, because you were obviously singled out as this amazing guitar player. I mean, you were doing a lot of studio work at the time. Like, who guided you through that? Was there a producer that was like, you're the guy? Well, it varied from place to place. In Fairport, Joe Boyd was a tremendous influence on us and a guiding hand, you know, a kind of eminence,

although he was probably about 22 at the time. Perhaps not so gris in his eminence. And what was he known for? Joe was the stage manager at Newport Folk Festival when Dylan plugged in and went electric. Oh, he was there? Yeah, he signed the incredible string band, Fairport Convention, Pink Floyd, but made the first Pink Floyd records. So Joe's one of those people with really good taste. He's an American guy?

American guy, yeah. But he's lived in the UK for a long time. Is he still around? Yeah, still around. Joe was a great guide for us in the early days. And then, I mean, the early stuff, I was producing with the engineer John Wood, the Richard and Linda stuff.

Well, those two records, the Richard and Linda Thompson record. I mean, like Calvary Cross is on one of those, right? Yeah. I love that song. That was like one of the first times, when I first heard that, it was like so haunting, I couldn't stop listening to it like over and over again. You're weird. I am? Yeah. I love that song. That was like one of the first times, when I first heard that, it was like so haunting,

I couldn't stop listening to it like over and over again. You're weird. I am? Yeah. Am I picking the weird songs? Well, you're just not the normal demographic we expect. Well, like that song and like from the solo album, When the Spell is Broken, that one, brutal.

Yeah. Brutal. Okay. But there is a heaviness to most of your music. Am I misreading that? Serious, maybe. Okay, serious. Serious.

Well, you know, I write a lot of love songs, and I think it's flippant to say, I love you, here's a few flowers. Isn't love great? A little tension to it. Yeah, I mean, that's a nice song, and that's good. But to do justice to love, I think you have to go a little deeper, and you have to say,

well, I love you in spite of, you know, we're together in spite of this, this, this, and this horrible thing, you know?

Yeah. Um, you know, we've been thrown together, you know, so sometimes, you know, love's like,

you know, hanging on to a, to a life raft in the, in the middle of a storm, you know what I mean? That there are other things to consider. So I like to go a little bit more deep. Right.

And there's also the, the element of, uh, sometimes love is, is fraught with drama yeah and uh and pain and pain and you're not sure whether that's why you're in it uh yeah so uh you know it's um there's a lot of facets uh to deal with here well right and i've talked i've talked to other songwriters like you know i had uh who like like nicolo like i made this mistake with Niccolo, you know, because I assume because of what I do as a comic that you guys are living every song. Like the beast in me, I decided was Niccolo talking about himself. And it was very jarring to me where he's like, no, I write songs. I don't live them.

Do you find that you write songs or do you live them? I write songs, first of all. I think you have to be able to live them as well. But if you invested everything... I had a great interview with a classical pianist. And she said, you know, if I truly felt everything that Beethoven put into this, I would destroy myself every night. Yeah.

I wouldn't be able to. I'd collapse on stage. I would not be able. So I have to hold back something. Right. It's professional. Yeah. In order to be a professional,

I have to somehow contain this incredible emotion that comes from the music and get through it. And I feel often performing and writing as well you know sometimes if i'm writing there are tears like streaming down my face really yeah really oh my god and then afterwards you say okay well you know you you kind of have to now contain that and kind of put that in a little box and kind of um you know bring it out occasionally for a concert right but um several times maybe. Maybe a hundred times. Right.

Maybe a thousand times. That's interesting to me because I guess that's the difference between that's being a professional is managing, you know, the magic of a song. It's just managing the power of it. Yeah, I think so. Music is powerful stuff. Oh, man, yeah.

And if you feel it deeply, then you really have to have methods to convey it to other people. And you've known people that have destroyed themselves with music in a way, haven't you? With music? I think more with lifestyle than with music. What was your relationship with Nick Drake? Nick Drake was not unusual in 1968 in saying nothing, you know, in given situations. You know, a conversation between myself, who was incredibly shy in 1968, and Nick Drake would be pretty sparse, you know. I don't think a word would not be spoken.

Right. I think a word would not be spoken. Right. He and I could sit in a room, as we used to occasionally, and just sort of not look at each other and nod and smile. And understand. Yeah. But in 1968, this was not unusual behavior. There were a lot of people like that.

In the folk scene? You know, folk scene, rock scene, psychedelic scene. Everybody was too high to talk. People were drugged up. But also it was considered kind of okay to be sort of psychotically inward looking as a way of life. That was just fine. And the few that were able to capture it in music were the gifted. I think so.

The other people just drifted away quietly. Yeah, that's very true. And there was a few people sort of, you know, standing on the edge, sort of watching and thinking, how can I market this? Right. Yeah. And that they became the managers. Well, thank God for them on some level or else you'd just be wandering around the street being quiet and playing somewhere occasionally. I don't quite say thank God for them.

No? and playing somewhere occasionally. I don't quite say thank God for them. No? Well, I mean, it's another painful, sort of troubling relationship. It doesn't seem to be any way around the business sometimes, but I mean, until you get a reputation for yourself and you can say like, you know,

well, fuck you, I can fill this place without your help. I suppose so. But, you know, art interacting with commerce is always a slightly uncomfortable friction. Yeah. Have you had a lot of problems in that area? I don't know anybody who hasn't. Right.

You know, at some point in your life, you're going to sign some stupid contract that never goes away, you know, for your whole life. Do you have one of those? Oh, I've got lots of those, yeah. With publishing kind? Or is it whatever? Yeah, lots of publishing. You know, some record stuff, although that's changing now. The laws are changing in some cases where you can now recover your old records.

I think it's after 30 years in the US. It's a good time for you. Well, you got hit on the charts. Unfortunately, the majority of my records are actually recorded in the UK. So that hasn't quite happened there yet. But, you know, the laws are slowly changing. You played on many nick drake records two i think i did uh yeah the first two and there's only three yeah i know and what what happened to him what happened to him um

i think he he had um you know mental issues yeah yeah he was fragile yeah uh i don't know if this was brought on somewhat by drugs i suspect maybe it was but but he was fragile um Yeah. I don't know if this was brought on somewhat by drugs. I suspect maybe it was. But he was fragile. I don't think he was intending to kill himself. Right. I think he just mixed up some medications. Bad mix, yeah. Bad math.

You know, he was back at his parents' house. Yeah. You know, to live. And it just went down. Yeah. Just a fragile human being. But yeah, you can feel that in the music and I guess that's what people gravitate to.

Were you guys friends? Or you just hired guns? I wouldn't say friends. I don't know if Nick had any friends. Well, I suppose, you know, John Martin was a friend of Nick's. John Wood was a friend of Nick's, but he didn't have a lot of friends.

You know, he was really, really difficult to get anything out of. Yeah. And at the time, I didn't have a lot of friends. He was really, really difficult to get anything out of. Yeah. And at the time, I didn't have the skill to do that. Right. But you played some beautiful leads there and some beautiful background. I tried to, yeah. But they're fantastic records.

Some of those tracks are just mind-blowingly good. Do you remember as a kid or when you were playing? Because I know that Clapton talks a lot about when the band sort of did their first record or Pete Townsend sort of talks about when Hendrix showed up for the first time in London that it was like, oh my God, it's over. That guy won. It was incredible.

And they were all there, you know, they're all sitting together, I think. You know, Eric and Townsend and Clapton and all of them were sitting there and it was the week Sgt Pepper was released Were you around? Oh I was there I was there and

so Henry Andrews comes out and he's learnt you know the first track of Sgt Pepper Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club so he opens with that and it's all kind of fairly true to the tune until he takes a solo, which is like,

you know, from space. Yeah. Or, you know, it's like Ornette Coleman suddenly sort of started channeling through,

you know, it's all, you know, it's just the whammy bar and the whole thing. And, you know, mouths are dropping

in the audience. And at the end of the song, you know, he starts tuning his guitar and he says, hey, Eric, man, are you out there? There's a little voice there. Yes.

Yeah. He said, could you come and tune this for me, man? I can't make out a tone. Did he really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just the fact he had the balls to kind of do that, I thought it was hilarious. Call him out. Yeah, I thought it was hilarious.

So he definitely had something to prove when he was over there. He wanted to show. Well, you Yeah, I thought it was hilarious. So he definitely had something to prove when he was over there. He wanted to show. Well, you know, he really did, yeah. And do you feel like that changed everything? I think Hendrix changed it for a lot of people, a lot of people. It was an extraordinary kick up the ass, you know, for these people. I can't imagine being in that room, you know, like, can you remember it like real, like, do you feel it? Yeah, it was the Saville Theatre.

How many is that seat? Oh, maybe a thousand. Yeah. Eight hundred to a thousand. And it was, actually, probably less,

maybe six to eight hundred. Yeah. And, you know, it was a Western theatre that put plays on and on Sundays they were dark

so they'd have music on Sundays. Right. And they had a series called Sundays at the Saville. Uh-huh. And that was the day he played? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh my God. But it was great fun. Well, the thing is, he was kind of real. Yeah. All these English guitar players have really been learning the blues off of records.

And American blues musicians have come over, you know, here and there, you know, a few of them. But Henry came and kind of embodied the whole thing. He was like very sexy, you know, here and there, you know, a few of them. But Henry came and kind of embodied the whole thing. He was, like, very sexy, you know, incredibly physical.

Plus, he could do anything with a guitar. He's like the history of American music. Yeah, in a sense, you know. Blew it up. And he just went further, you know, he did do some outrageous things and all this sort of showman stuff. Yeah, yeah. The British guys never even considered as as being uh possible you know

yeah it's interesting that because i never really thought of that and it just seems that uh like the british interpretation of the american blues it was it's it's it's it's kind of the the way they that they went well either you go the way the stones did or either you and they or you go the way if we would make it yeah like they're like they're the purists and then they're the guys that seem to pop it up a little bit. Well, in a sense, I mean, the purists to me are less interesting.

Where bands like the Yardbirds get interesting is when they start to write their own material. Yeah. And they're writing stuff that's somewhere

between Tim Pan Alley and the blues. And then they're adding something original. And as you approached it, did you, in your mind, just sort of like overstep or just forego the blues and stick with traditional?

Pretty much, yeah. I mean, like everybody else, I grew up listening to blues records for about the age of 12. Who were your guys? Who'd you like? Well, the records my sister had, which was Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee. Oh, yeah, acoustics. Lightning Hopkins. Yeah. Oh, really? And I didn't really hear you know electric blues

until much later and did you have a relationship with the Stones no I mean I saw the Stones in the early days I wasn't very impressed with them actually

yeah a little sloppy yeah they're a really sloppy band they weren't particularly good but you know they improved later I mean the Stones

I mean they're still a kind of sloppy band yeah they vary and it's beautiful just occasionally you know they improve later I mean there's still a kind of sloppy band they vary and it's beautiful just occasionally they'll hit this thing yeah Charlie and Keith

will hit this thing right it's just the greatest groove so when you were coming up though I don't want to just talk about

I love talking about these guys but who were your primary influences if it wasn't the blues I mean

outside like Leonard Cohen I mean you obviously had people that were contemporaries or influencing you. Yeah. I mean, in Fairport as a band, we were always a lyric band. We love lyrics.

So our earliest cover versions were people like Leonard Cohen, Obscure Dylan. We went to Dylan's publisher and said, have you got any uh songs that the the Bob hasn't hasn't released oh yeah here you are here you are boys they gave us a part of acetate recordings that were basically the basement tapes yeah so so it's 67 though they gave us the basement tapes we went to Joni Mitchell's publisher and we said oh we here there's this girl Joni Mitchell um you know we'd love to hear what she's oh same thing

you know part of acetates. Stuff before her first album. And they just give them to you because if you record them, they get the publishing anyway. Exactly, yeah. It's in the publisher's interest to do that. So we were always trying to find obscure stuff. We'd go to great lengths to find Percy's song by Bob Dylan,

which he never recorded. But it's in a Bob Dylan songbook. Right. So we found the songbook, and then we found a version by Joan Piers, and then he sings, you know, one verse of it in Don't Look Back, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So we kind of pieced the song together from these obscure places, you know. But we were always looking for, you know, B-sides and, you know, strange things. Well, yeah, so you sort of, like, capture that, you know but we're always looking for you know b-sides and you know well yeah so that so you sort of like capture that uh you know something exciting in the magic of these guys and then you just make it your own yeah i suppose so in a sense but but at a certain point we decided well you know we really have to be our own songwriters and and so uh then then that whole era kicked in and and did you do most of your writing alone or with the band? How much did you write with Linda?

I'd say I did most of the writing, 98% of the writing. Yeah. 98.3% of the writing. She helped out on a couple of verses here and there. Right. But yeah, and that was a nice challenge too,

was having to write from a female perspective as well. So that taught me a few things and you how many kids you got five oh you do yeah

I think I guess I only know a couple of the music of a couple yeah three of my kids

are musicians well I actually saw you at at the Chrissy Hines show oh right I saw the back of your head

and you know and I was with my girlfriend i'm like that's richard thompson that's his head right there yeah and then i didn't realize why i knew that was your daughter it's cammy is that yeah and her husband's a fucking hell of a guitar player isn't he a great guitar oh my god fantastic so he was playing a chrissy's band what's his name again james uh james walbert yeah uh he's been playing with chrissy for a few years. Right,

and I watched him on Chrissy, like, it was with your daughter and they're, The Rails is the name of their band. And he's one of those guys where I'm like,

oh my God, where's that guy come from? He's like some, like. He's great. I mean, you know, I can't think of a better

UK guitar player. He also plays with Ray Davis when Ray goes out. He plays with the Pogues when the Pogues go out, you know. So he's a go-to guy.

Yeah, he's in demand, which is good. But the Rails first album I thought was brilliant, and they won the best newcomer award at the BBC Folk Awards. So they're doing great. Did you actually live on a commune of some sort? No, I didn't. No, I lived in a kind of very loose community.

But, I mean, a commune implies certain things. It implies sort of sharing everything. Right, right didn't. No, I lived in a kind of very loose community. But I mean, a commune implies certain things, you know, it implies sort of sharing everything. Right, right, right. And being a socialist. It was kind of like a Sufi community. It was a community that followed a particular teacher in Morocco. And did you stick with that? I still do. You do? Yeah, I still do. Oh, that's interesting. So you like in the 60s, you had sort of a spiritual awakening of sorts?

Probably 70s or 73, probably. Spiritual awakening, well, you know, these are cliches that never quite... Well, how did you end up, you know, shifting gears? Well, I've always been a spiritual person. I mean, probably I started reading spiritual things when I was about 15, 16 years old. You know, and I started off with Zen, I think. Yeah, 16 years old. And I started off with Zen, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Then worked backwards through the alphabet, you know, to try them all out.

To A for anthroposophy or something. Yeah. Yeah. And I got interested in Sufism. Some friends of mine had just come back from North Africa. And so I went to meet this teacher. And I'm still there, really what what is the basic uh idea like if you could break it down uh sufism uh it's it's like the the inner teaching of islam okay basically did you like um raise all

family in that and everything else uh yeah i did yeah yeah yeah because it's interesting that that your kids like they seem to be doing the like just the following not only your footsteps but the type of music in a way which is interesting um i mean you would think that they would be like nah fuck dad i'm gonna jam you know yeah some of them do uh yeah certainly teddy and cammy um you know i kind of sing a singer-songwriters yeah um you know you know, a kind of singer-songwriters. You know, Cammie's actually more British-influenced, you know, a British-Celtic influence. Yeah, yeah. Which has kind of appeared more recently in her music,

which is fantastic. My youngest son, who's 23, kind of doesn't follow that. He's more into kind of trance music and... Oh, really? You know, slow, you know, shoegazing stuff. And does everybody get along? I'd say everybody gets along, yeah, which is great. It's fantastic.

Do you envy some songwriters? Songs or just songs in general? I envy some songs, yeah. Like what's one of those? I mean, probably a well-known great song by Ray Davis would be something like Waterloo Sunset. Yeah, yeah. Just a killer song, absolutely killer song. There's some great Dylan songs, you know a well-known great song by Ray Davis would be something like Waterloo Sunset yeah yeah just a killer song

absolutely killer song there's some great Dylan songs you know Lily Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts or something yeah yeah yeah

Tangled Up in Blue you know kind of well-known brilliant songs Visions of Joanna that's a good one if you've got the time yeah yeah

I think all the answers are in there that's what I've decided decode it have you ever worked with him? Did you ever meet him? With who, sorry? Bob?

Bob? Yes, I've met him a couple of times. We did a tour last year called the Americana Armour Tour, which was ourselves and Wilco and My Morning Jacket and Bob, you know. Uh-huh. And he was great. He was charming, you know, generous. Yeah.

Just great. Did you go up and play with uh uh wilco or well we did frequently yeah yeah yeah it was like every night there was some you know new song to jam on how did that how'd that relationship start with you and uh tweety well we probably started there i mean we we've done shows with wilco going back you know maybe 20 25 years but but um uh we got to know them a lot better on that tour and um yeah you know we started to interact a bit and and um you know at some point on that tour you know yeah i think a few people said you know that he'd be a great person to to do a recording project with yeah and it

turns out they were right huh uh well i think so i want to talk about the the family record too because i got that recently oh good yeah yeah, yeah. Yeah, I liked it. It was great. It made me happy to see everybody together for some reason. I don't even know you people. If only you knew the agonies. I can't imagine. But as a guitar player,

do you find that you continue to evolve something? I mean, do you find new? Yeah. Well, you have to. You have to. You cannot stay still. You have to be looking? I mean, do you find new? Yeah. Well, you have to. You have to. You cannot stay still. You have to be looking for new things, new ideas, new techniques,

all kinds of stuff. And new pathways. You know, your fingerboard is this, they're like neurons. You know, you're fine. And you have to keep looking for new connections, you know, between notes. Yeah.

And at some point you worked with you did an album or two with Fred Frith and Henry Kaiser yeah and Drombo from Captain Beefheart yeah you know how so because that seems not antithetical but something kind of adventurous for you to do I mean what was the idea there because those guys are kind of experimental out there dudes well I see myself as experimental in a slightly different way but but uh like what way well you know um i mean i i love if i play a guitar solo i'm i i love to throw in yeah you know dissonance yeah you can get out there dude yeah absolutely you know but but because you know i i grew up listening to to um you know to 20th century classical music

yeah among other things right listening listening to john coltrane and heaven knows what so you know it's not such a leap for me to play with Henry Kaiser who's a very experimental guitar player he's very out there

and Fred Frith who's a who's a more trained musician but also plays kind of out on the edge

did you like those records? yeah especially the first one I think the first one we weren't thinking about it too much. The second one, I think it was a little more, you know, now what do we do kind of thing.

But I think the first one's a great record. What kind of people do you find are coming to see you? I mean, you have a diehard, like the cult of Thompson has got to be pretty strong. Are they all ages? Are you finding like, you know, people are getting older with you? How's that looking?

Well, that's the original audience. They're still there. The diehards are actually dying off. Yeah, I know. At this point. Yeah. So there's people my age and even older. But younger generations are coming to check you out.

Or sometimes you get that embarrassing thing of, oh, I heard your music through my parents. Right, sure. Of course, yeah. God, how old are you? Oh 40 you know crap it's happening yeah so you know you get the kids original fans yeah yeah yeah they get the grandkids original fans yeah and people who found you through other means you know people who find you on the internet or they find you through playlists and stuff like that or amazon recommendations yeah yeah but uh

yeah the audience is all ages these days, which is great. So when you, okay, let's talk about the family record, because that's all of you. That's the whole family, yeah, pretty much. And who spearheaded that effort? Teddy. Yeah.

Yeah, it was Teddy's kind of concept to put it all together. And he stuck with it and, you know, got us all to contribute and send our tapes in. So you weren't all in the same room? Not much. Occasionally we were, but not much. I think all of us together, it never happened.

So we were kind of assembled bits and pieces. And there were rules like you didn't play solos on your own track. You had to play on somebody else's and that kind of thing to make it a bit more homogenous. And do you get along with Lindainda uh yeah we get along fine did but did that take time or because i know that like i i've heard only took 30 years no it didn't take that long at all no i mean um you know um after we split up but you know what we had kids in common so you have to deal with each other so you have to deal with each other. So you have to deal with each other, and then, you know, the old animosities go away eventually. Uh-huh. And how many times have you been married?

Two. Okay, that's pretty good. Only two. It's not bad for a musician. Yeah. And you've lived here for how long? Well, on and off. I mean, you know, 20, 25 years.

I mean, for a while we kind of commuted between here and London. Uh-huh. Because, you know, I had family there, so I'd go back and see my family, and then, you know i you know i had family there so i go back and see my family and then you know come out here and to work and then go back you know so we're better for us but uh when my youngest uh was of school age we kind of decided to to send to school in the u.s but you never were the at the time when you were sort of cutting your teeth you never like

i'm moving to hollywood i'm moving to la to make it in the music business you always stayed over there well you know i I don't think... You know, musically, I never wanted to pursue an American style of music, particularly. So I was better off being in the UK, where I could find musicians of a similar mind. And now I'm insulated from that kind of thing. You can't change me.

Yeah. So all the way through, even when you were doing music that wasn't necessarily specifically informed by British roots in that way, you still were like, I'm not going to try to, I'm not going to America.

This is not an American record. This is just a part of what I do. Pretty much. And I mean, when I did start to make records in America with Capitol, you know, the musical content, you know, the songs are still very British. Yeah, yeah. In content.

Even though I was using American musicians, you know, sometimes I had to slap their wrists for putting in the wrong stuff, you know, sometimes I had to slap their wrists for putting in the wrong stuff, you know. Uh-huh. Yeah, so, you know,

if musicians are flexible, then they get these things, they pick these things up. What is the primary difference? Is it a chord progression? Is it in the sense of where you come from? It's a different feel.

I mean, it's a different rhythm. As I say, I'm trying to bridge the gap a bit between celtic and rock so some elements of rock music are absolutely fine uh other things it's more the modes of the music i think more than anything else yeah and avoiding uh you know cliches avoiding you know blues cliches rock cliches right uh of which there are lots many many many many you're actively avoiding that

you're sort of like nope can't do no turnaround there yeah yeah yeah yes yeah truly right let's not go to that chord it feels like there should be a chorus but no we're not going to do that now we're not doing choruses but we're just going to do straight through 33 verses no refrain no absolutely not no forbidden and were you like did i read that you were uh you weren't knighted but you were awarded something some uh a great honor by the uh yeah by the queen um yeah i got a thing called an obe which which is fantastic you know oh that's great is it yeah um you know there's's this honor system in Britain. It used to be, you know, given out by kings and prime ministers, you know. But now it's much more community-based. So the community elects people.

The community of art? The community of everybody. Oh, okay. The whole country. Right. Okay. You know, you've got some fantastic school teacher. Yeah.

Then the community around that school says you know that this person that deserves you know a a recognition yeah so you you kind of elect people now that way so i suppose that you know the folk community or something you know elected me to to to receive something and and what what does it entitle you to um did you get it not much not much. You get a castle? I get to use a certain chapel in Westminster Abbey. You do? Yeah. It's reserved for OBEs. Have you gone over there?

Had a look? I haven't yet. I haven't had a chance to get in there yet, but soon I shall make this point. But you get letters after your name. That's the cool thing. O-E-B. O-B-E. Excuse me?

I'm sorry sir damn colonials i know i know we're horrible it seems to me that some of your stuff like if any american music that you really will kind of play around with its country um yeah i i still country licks yeah um mostly pedal steel licks um so you don't you don't yeah because you just you mean you recapture you reinvent them with just your fingers i suppose i don't know how you know so but but there's a trick to it oh yes totally yeah it's yeah true and um you know country music is not a million miles away from you know scott's music irish music because it come down through appalachia exactly yeah so it

has the same root so um i just um steal something that's not too far away. Well, I mean, is it stealing really or is it just being part of a chain? Someone once said, steal from everybody except yourself. Uh-huh. That's good advice. But if you're one of those people that just try,

is there anybody that really doesn't take anything that has a pure music? I mean, even Beefheart, like I recently went down that rabbit hole that really doesn't take anything that that has a pure music i mean even beef heart like i you know i recently just went down that rabbit hole and it's all howling wolf at the beginning so i mean the howling wolf wannabe really oh yeah it's like all that stuff so so there's no you can have to sort of build on what's before you yes totally but but but you know the great moments in music sometimes happen when um two stars come together. The birth of jazz is this sort of collision of European music and African music,

making this new thing. Rock and roll is sort of hillbilly music meets the blues or something. Right. So I think sometimes you synthesize your influences. You love that person, that person, that person. And at some point, you emerge as this pure synthesis of these things that you listen to. But it's something different. It's something new.

You become a recognizable player. Yeah, which you did. I think, I don't know. Tell me if I'm wrong. I think that it's stuck in my head for some reason that it seems like one of your biggest sort of, not stealers, but I think the guy who maybe learned the most from you and i don't know if you know him is mark knopfler um did you ever think arguable yeah i i'm i shouldn't comment on that oh really should i

sure i don't know well um yeah i mean he uses the same kind of out of phase stratocaster sound that I use. But I was probably 10 years before him. Right. Well, that's what I mean. It seems like he just sort of like, you know, you were his guy. Maybe, maybe not. I don't know.

You never met him? I can't say. He never said, show me something, Richard? No. He came up to you. Is there tension between the two of you? Presently, if I knew him, there might be. But I don't know him.

But it seemed like you had a weird response. Like you've been asked that question before you've noticed it well you know i i used to get a lot of reviews where i say oh and thompson's guitar reminds me of mark knopfler so it's not the other way around you know i was recording 10 years before mark knopfler well i would never make that mistake thank you i am here to say that mark knopfler ripped you the fuck off well i i would not say not say that, but he has his own style, which is very different from mine. He's his own guy. I don't know him very well.

Okay, fine. But I was not ripping him off, which was a common perception. That's a mistake on the uneducated. Exactly. Yeah. Do you use your fingers? I do. You don't pick? you don't use to pick

i use a pick and fingers yeah um it's called hybrid picking yeah so you basically use a flat pick for some things and then you use your fingers for other things and it's a kind of a combination technique it's very useful for a lot of things and there's things that you can't do any any other way other than with hybrid when you first started playing i mean what were like did it come naturally or do you practice i mean do you still practice like like for hours i mean how does that work after a certain point i mean i know you play almost every night yeah you have to practice you have to practice um yeah it requires a certain amount a certain amount of physicality yeah in playing so you have to keep that up. And if you're working on new ideas,

then you have to do that. That takes time. If you're a songwriter, I mean, you're basically just playing, playing, playing, playing, playing. So it varies from having no time in the day to play. You know, you're on an airplane all day. How are you going to practice? Yeah.

To, you know, you're working on a new album. You might play eight hours a day you're in the studio you might you might play 12 hours a day right you know um or you want to practice something that you know you know four hours six hours you know or just to keep things going uh you know you practice watching the tv or something for an hour just keep your fingers fingers limber. Sure, yeah. How much are you touring? I mean, how much do you play? Like, dates-wise, a year? I think I do about 100 and something a year. I think we did 120 last year, which is a lot. Do you love it?

I love playing live. I really do love playing live. To do that, you have to travel, so you have to deal with travel. You have to try to not kill yourself. It's a nightmare, yeah. So we try to pace all that stuff. So you want to play a song? Sure.

That'd be good. I'd be honored. Let's set it up. Should I just roll? Sure. Okay. Hand me down my walking shoes Mr. Murdoch's news I'm going thunder, rain or shine

Got a papoose on my back We're on the right track, Jack To leave the beatin' the breeze Take the path down to the mill I'm gonna get my fill I'm going to eat till the pot runs dry At Frank's house and Rembrandt's tomb I'd better make some room Cause Brother Vincent's on my mind Life goes on behind the tiles and chintzes Dirty water fit for kings and princes Amsterdam, where good things come in threes See if you're troubled, my hand's shooting the breeze

The Dutch is not a loving tongue You say you're peace and run You show you care in other ways Sailors in their Sunday best I'm feeling overdressed I've got to lose these blocks of grace Oh, hand me down my walking shoes Oh, hand me down my walking shoes nipple loose behind Got to leave this big nipple loose behind That was great.

Gracias. Thank you so much, man. Thank you. My pleasure. It was really exciting for me to talk to you, and I appreciate you coming. Thank you for having me. Thank you. That was amazing i love when people play in here i i just like i just get to sit here and pretend like i'm a record producer with my one mic i just used a mic that they talk into on the mouth and then i i run a a second mic uh did i stick into a guitar and i ride the levels ride the fader

that's what i do that's richard thompson i would highly encourage getting into his music and listening to that guy play guitar it's fucking astounding so lemmy lemmy from motorhead right lemmy i think y'all know him you know what he looks like you got a feel for him i'm about to talk to lemmy i uh for years like i'm not a metal guy but i'll listen i you know i've gotten into it more i've had to educate myself i don't like to say late to the party i just i was not evolved enough in one direction or another to uh appreciate the metal but i do remember hearing ace of Spades. I remember hearing that album.

I remember hearing that song when I was trying to understand what was up and who Motorhead was. And I knew Lemmy was Motorhead. I knew Lemmy was the front man. And I talked to Chrissy Hine. I talked to Chrissy Hine about Lemmy. And I've known about Lemmy. And I watch a documentary on Lemmy.

I'm kind of fascinated with Lemmy. And then Ty Siegel got me into hawkwind and lemmy played on i think three of those records lemmy's a character and he's now he's a hollywood character and he's a rock and roll character and he's a rock and roll original so i jumped at the opportunity to have him over but i was a little nervous about talking to him i didn't think it was going to happen but he showed up dude brought him over he he looks like he's fucking lived it and you know and he's older now and i didn't know what to do i saw him i said how you doing he's like all right and i go you need a beer yeah i'll take a beer so i gave lemmy a beer because i thought he looked like he needed a beer need to take a little bit of that you know a hell of an edge off that guy

must have but he is uh he is fucking Lemmy. I do have beers for guests if they need them. I do allow smoking in the garage. And people can smoke weed if they need to. I'm not judgmental or weird about that. I'm not encouraging it. But sometimes people need a beer. I do keep plenty of tea on hand for my British guests.

And I like to offer them tea. Lemmy did not want tea. I gave him a flat tire ale. That's what Lemmy drank during an interview, and he drank half of it. So now, from Motorhead, maybe I should tell you this, too. There is a new Motorhead album. It's called Bad Magic. It's available now.

This is my little chat with Lemmy from Motorhead. You don't drive at all? No. Never did? No. How long have you been in L.A.? 21 years. 21 years a passenger in Los Angeles.

Yeah. You must have some pretty good friends. Oh, I can call them any. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, Dixon, will you shut that air off for a little while so I don't get the noise? I was just in New York City, and I interviewed Keith Richards for an hour. How is he? He's okay. okay he's okay have you met him no were you ever a fan yeah I like the stones all right one of the stones I like him the best yeah he's the guy right yeah he's like uh he's sort of like you in a way in the sense

that you kind of define a certain thing. Yeah, right. It's gone now. Is it gone? Feels like it. When you look around, you're the only warrior standing? Usually, yeah. Unless there's a couple of female ones. Yeah, yeah.

I don't mind female warriors. No, no. You've got to have them. Why do you think that is, man? I mean, is the music dead, too? I mean, it still seems like there's some people out there doing it. The music's all right. There's only five radio stations.

Yeah, yeah. So you're never going to hear it. This is your what, 22nd? How many records? Yeah. 22nd record. Yeah, no counting the live ones. Right.

It's crazy, man. Tell me about it. And Brian May played with you on one of these? Yeah, he played on one track did the solo you know were you in the studio with him no he did it in Wales oh he just Phil's home studio where'd you start where'd you grow up I started I was born in Stoke in the Midlands I don't know anything about England that was that nice there no it's horrible then we went to a little village outside of there called

madeley which is like a country village yeah yeah so that was okay you know when did you uh start playing i was about 16 guitar right yeah like what inspired you to play who were the guys fat stomino fabian elvis presley yeah yeah, yeah, Fats Domino. The whole list, you know. Yeah, and you just wanted to be in a little rock band? Well, first I wanted to be black. Yeah. And then I wanted to be a blues player. And through all the bands I've been in, I never got it.

You played a little blues? Yeah, a little blues. You played some blues? But you didn't set out to be in a blues band, though, right? No. Well, I joined Hawkwind. it was already yeah going what was the idea like you know hawk when like how would you define that music uh psychedelic yeah and what did you when you were playing there you did you was that how you learned to play bass basically no i started playing bass the day I joined them. That was the point.

But that's sort of how you defined your style, right? Like in terms of figuring out who you were on the bass, it was through Hawkwind, right? Well, I knew where I was. Right, because you're playing guitar. Yeah. I went for a job as a guitar player. Yeah.

And they said, no, we don't need one, because Dave's going to play lead. Right. I said, oh. They said, no, we don't need one because Dave's going to play lead. Right. I said, oh. They said, do you play bass? And D-Max said, yeah, he does. Because he wanted another speed freak in the band. Yeah.

And so suddenly I was a bass player. I had no idea how to play. Yeah. Figured it out, though. Yeah, yeah. I never even picked one up. Yeah, yeah. What was the one up. Yeah, yeah. What was the speed back then?

What was it? It was pills. Oh, like Benzedrine? All kinds. Yeah. Dex. Yeah, Dexedrine. Yeah, I used to have a script in Harley Street.

Yeah. It was a lot of fun going down there. See everybody you met in your life within about four hours just talking jacked up yeah hey man what's going on man what are you doing for the next three days you do it anymore yeah a little bit you get tired you know yeah yeah yeah was that the original intention of it or was just a buzz both yeah because you were traveling a lot fuck yeah we were we traveled a lot were they huge when you were in a hawk one where they were big uh were they a big band well the first the

first song i sang on went to number two it was the only hit they ever had yeah i don't think they ever forgave me well they have to live with that. Yeah, they do. Yeah. And you just left because you got, what, you got trouble with the law? No, I got fired. Yeah, for what?

For getting caught with speed at the Canadian border. But they charged me with coke and it wasn't coke. They didn't have a law for speed? So I walked away, yeah. Well, they did, yeah, but they didn't with coke and it wasn't coke they didn't have a law for speed yeah well they did yeah but they didn't charge me with it that's fucking lucky yeah i had chrissy hind in here oh yeah i know chrissy oh i know yeah she she really sort of credits you for kind of um saving her life somehow in a way oh yeah when she got to england she said that you know lemmy was

like you know like he took care of me almost you know what was it like because i think a lot of people kind of like tie you in with with what was going on there in the 70s with the punks and everything else and there was a lot of different factions in the mid-70s in england right yeah what was going on i mean how did you sort of sort out? Well, there was the punks and the long hairs for a start, and then the ex-mods. The ex-mods, yeah. You know, the hair had grown out of it, you know?

Yeah, yeah. And there was the original rock and roll crowd, too. They were still around. Teddy boys, yeah. So how old were they, like in their 40s or 50s at that time? 30s. Oh, really? Yeah.

So did they feel themselves slipping away? I don't know how they felt. Did you work with them? Well, you know, we play for anybody who comes in the place. Yeah. You know, it don't matter why they come in. As long as they're in, you're going to get them. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I guess she told me that that like ska was a big thing too yeah it was reggae yeah reggae in general because that didn't happen

in the states till later no I know I never liked it anyway it's a little laid back right well no it's just too lame

yeah a little too lovey a little too yeah yeah too peaceful yeah shoot you in the back now you know yeah yeah i don't know it's a funny thing reggae yeah you got all these people who call themselves gangsters right playing it yeah and it's really laid-back music yeah well it's yeah whole different culture no edge to it at all you know no no i i mean i i i've listened to it in my life but i i don't you know if you go back to it then you know you got to start dressing like that and dancing stupid it's just a you know you know well when you were figuring out i i assume that

right when you got out of hawkwind you didn't want to do psychedelic shit. No, it wasn't that. I didn't mind, you know, but I didn't want to be Hawkwind. Yeah. I wanted to basically, I wanted to be the MC5. Did you ever see them? Yeah, yeah. When they came over there?

Yeah, I sung a couple of songs on stage with them. You had known their records before you went? Who I knew kick out the jams, you know. Yeah. They hadn't released a second album yet. What about Iggy? You like Iggy? Yeah and no.

Yeah. Sings a lot of shit. Yeah. But he has the attitude, you know, and I like that. I'd like to see, I'd like to break the categories of shit into, you know, what exactly defines shit. Yeah, that's true, yeah. It'd be hard to explain, wouldn't it? I don't know, I think that's the next book, Lemmy's Guide to Shit.

Yeah. Shit to Avoid. Lemmy, shit or shine only. Yeah, exactly. So, but you, like it seemed to me that, you know, when I was talking to Chrissy, that you guys had sort of built a scene, you know, like around the whole image of what you kind of invented. And is that true?

I don't know if I'd say that. Yeah. We had the same manager, you know. As Chrissy did? Yeah, Tony Secunda. And we used to hang out at his office, taping all his albums, you so that was great fun and i always liked chris and i used to go around to uh we had squats in the joining streets oh really

which is very handy yeah yeah i used to walk over there with my guitar at night sometimes and we'd play for hours you know like squats like you guys were just holing up in places. Yeah. Yeah. Went and squatted for years. Yeah. Had a three-story house squat once. Just, no one, it was just empty? Yeah, you just walk in, you know. Yeah, yeah.

There wasn't any furniture in it. Yeah. There's carpets in it. Yeah. It was all right. The only thing was we couldn't get the water heater to work. Got a little chilly. So we had to go next door where Phil Taylor was, you know,

residing and have a bath at his place, you know. Yeah. So that's sort of how Motorhead sort of came together was through, like, going to places to take baths. Yeah, right. Communal, you know. Yeah. The original band, how did you meet those guys? How did you guys come together initially? Oh, the original band how'd you meet the those guys how'd you guys come

together initially oh the original band yeah i met lucas and he was handy he had a van you know right that always helps yeah yeah so he drove me around for a bit yeah and then we got larry and larry was kind of doom doom yeah and Yeah, in here, you know. Oh, yeah. I was always complaining, you know. Dark, or just sort of like it was... Just the thing, that's his manner. Yeah, yeah. I didn't go for it much. And then you ended up with the lineup that lasted for the first couple of records? Well, Phil and Eddie, yeah. Lucas, we were at the studio in Wales

and he kept he was trying to match me for speed and this vein was in his forehead right down to his eyebrow and he like It's all jacked up

Yeah really Seized up Fucking ruined and we were in there listening to a playback one day right and he leaned on the machine yeah yeah and it all it wasn't locked it fell over with all these drinks on it right and they went in the desk and it went yeah smoke yeah and he went oh and walked out of the studio and larry shouted don't walk past my house lucas it'll burst into fucking flames

i think that did it you know that was it yeah that was a clincher speed's not for the faint of heart and mind is that do you find do you think that speed is what defined the pace of the music i I mean, was that intentional? And do you think it just was the way it worked? I think it was just the way it worked, but it was better for music than what they do now. It's that old new romance stuff, you know? Yeah, yeah.

Where did that start? That was going on in England too, kind of, wasn't it? Yeah. Everything seems to be coming back around, but I'm not always sure it's the best thing to come back around no no but if it is coming back around then we're due for a heavy metal explosion yeah another one should be all right what would this be the third one fourth one what do you consider the first one you no deep purple really in rock yeah did you listen to them when you were young before you started You? No, Deep Purple. Really? In rock. Yeah.

Did you listen to them when you were young, before you started playing them in Motorhead? No. Never did? After? Yeah, you know, because when you met somebody, you have to know a bit about their music. Yeah. In case you meet them again, you know.

So you could say something? Yeah. Hey, I love that second song, you know. Yeah yeah that one song i listened to i really like it now yeah that's right yeah with the drums yeah something vague when did like uh the sex pistols and all that shit happen was that alongside when you were there 76 so you were right there with all that shit yeah yeah and did you mind being lumped in with that shit oh we weren't we were long hairs right oh so that was that was what you were called long hairs oh no you know we were called by most people heavy metal at that time yeah because that was how they categorized things. Yeah. Record companies, you know. So the first record, who was that record with?

We did Parole, and then they wouldn't release it. Who? UA. So we went back in the studio with Eddie and Phil Taylor and cut the whole thing again. And then when we already had two, three hit albums, they released it. Yeah.

Because they were like, okay, these guys have a little traction traction let's bring that thing you have in the vaults out yeah yeah but they you know we couldn't get arrested yeah years in britain really yeah yeah from from what like 75 to like 78 or 9 something like that i mean there was nobody like us. Really? The ones that did really did. Right. You know? Yeah, yeah. You were their life. I don't know if I was their life.

I was symbolic of what they would like to be. Do you handle that all right, knowing that there are so many people now, I mean, more than that, that sort of aspire to lemminess? I don't know. I'm kind of weird about being a lemmy. I'm kind of tired of it, you know. Does it get, like, I was wondering that when I was talking to Keith, too, because it seemed like he was a little tired of it, too.

Yeah. That, like, do you feel ever that you have to keep going to maintain lemminess in order to appease these guys? I don't know about that. I don't feel I have to keep going i i think i should because i'm crippled even i you know yeah what happened with the legs it just went diabetes oh really when did you get that 2000 oh yeah do you take uh medicine you're watching your diet? Cutting back on shit? Yeah. You know.

There's a certain level you can go to. Yeah. Do you wake up and find it's amazing to be alive? No. No? Not yet. Not yet? Not until December.

Oh, okay. After that is when you start thinking it's amazing. When you get these bands together, because I mean, 22 records, and you've been through a lot of different players, but it's all Motorhead music. So I guess after a certain point, people who come and want to play with you,

they know exactly what they're getting into. Yeah, well, you'd be surprised, man. A lot of people in this country, especially, haven't heard us at all. Because it's outside their frame you know what I mean yeah I do know

I wouldn't like that when you tour here though you do alright right yeah we do alright because I know some dudes like my buddy Jim Florentine he thinks that Ace of Spades

is the best record ever made well you know it probably is in that case were you brought up with with any religion or anything? No.

No? Got lucky on that? My father was a priest, too. He was? Yeah. The real father? Yeah. You had two fathers? Well, I had a stepfather.

Right. How was that guy? Oh, he was too late to exert any discipline. Yeah, yeah. He had already learned to not to go. That ship had sailed. Yeah, right. Yeah. And you tracked down your real dad, though?

Or was he always in your life? Oh, no, I never saw him again until I was 25. Yeah? He left when I was three months old. And, oh, wow. Did you, like, during all that time, did you want to meet him or did you just wait on it? Well, I had no way to meet him. I didn't know where he was, you know.

Yeah. And then he started writing these letters saying how guilty he felt about letting the boy down. Oh, yeah. Didn't even know my fucking name. So my mother says, go up and see him. He might give you some money, you know. So I went up to him. I met him in this fucking pizza place on Hills Court Road.

He was a little weasel with the bald-headed glasses. And he said, oh, sit down, sit down. I'm so glad you came. I said, yeah, me too. He said, what can I do for you? I said, well, I need an amplifier and a stack, you know. He said, give me 1,000 thousand quid that'll do it he said what for i said an amplifier he said oh no no no he said i couldn't do that i couldn't give you money to waste on an amplifier you know what do you want you know he offered me

he said i made arrangements for you to become a traveling salesman. He made arrangements? Yeah. To sell what? I don't know. Magic carpets. Yeah. Yeah?

That was his big gift to you after 25 years? That was the big thing, yeah. I got you a hookup to go door to door and sell shit. You got me a hookup. Yeah. Would have been better. Would have been better. See, so that didn't go. He said he was a priest. Yeah. It would have been better. It would have been better. See, so, so that didn't go,

and he, did you say, he said he was a priest? Yeah. So, but he got thrown out of the church for leaving my mother. For leaving her?

Yeah. So it wasn't a Catholic church, was it Catholic? No. It was the other one. Church of England. So that was the end of the exchange

and that was, that was it? Yeah, I said, that's just a good thing the pizza hasn't arrived yet, or he'd be wearing it like a hat. And I was at the place.

And that was it? Yeah, I didn't want anything to do with it, really. I got along with Adam until then. Could you tell it was your dad? Was there anything sort of like, oh, yeah. No, there was nothing remotely visible. Really? Yeah.

So your mom remarried another dude, and you grew up with that guy? Yeah, and it was two kids. Yeah? Did you get along with them? No. No? They were both really dumb. So music was the outlet then.

That was all you had, right? Yeah, well, you know, I mean, I wasn't conscious. It was an outlet, you know know i was just doing whatever yeah yeah to survive you know so i knew i was in rock and roll and that was it yeah so as far as everything else is concerned it's details you know yeah what was the first band first band let's let's see now, the Rainmakers. What kind of music? Oh, awful. The first band's always awful.

Yeah. Were you doing covers? Yeah. Yeah. Now, what about the Beatles, man? Did they play in at all to you? Did you like them? Oh, yeah, the Beatles were the big influence on me, actually.

Yeah? Yeah, out of all the bands i ever heard the beatles were the ones that really fastened me up yeah did you ever get to see them oh yeah how was the show structured then were there several bands or just them yeah you get like eight bands on that's fucking amazing that was how easy it was you know now it's really difficult man you know i mean we've got to do this this way because we've always always done it that way the fact they didn't know how to do it in the first place yeah you know means they like improvise and they always do it the wrong way so now here we are with tours like fucking military exercises they're

crazy dude i i barely ever go to concerts anymore you know but now like it's it's insane the amount of money and production that goes into no one just fucking plays anymore well we don't do all that no you just play right yeah it's i don't i guess i guess if people get older they get scared they don't know what it is either scared or clever yeah yeah clever right right right i don't know who they think they're fooling but i guess they think that people who are sitting there just want to have the same experience they had listening to the fucking record yeah so where is that yeah yeah that's not what they're getting yeah so you saw the beatles like in what in 60 what five six no 61 holy shit two three four five you saw them all the way through yeah many times yeah like i can't even imagine what

the fuck that was like was it electric yeah it was like it was and you could they were magic you could feel it but a lot of them bands were magic from Merseyside. Yeah? Like who else? The Big Three. You ever heard of them? No. See?

But they were magic. Yeah, they were. Not as magic as the Beatles, I guess. No, they were magic carpet magic. The Beatles were all around the world magic. Yeah, the big magic. What did the Big Three, what did they play like? Well, there were three of them from the start. Well, yeah, that would make sense.

You guessed. Yeah. And they had a really good guitar player, Griff. He used to play this rotten old Rickenbacker. Oh, yeah. Hoffner. Yeah, Hoffner. Colorama.

Yeah, yeah. He had a neck like a piece of fucking tree. And he used to play the most amazing guitar. But they were all great, and they were all really eccentric. They were all speed freaks. Right. You know. Sort of jacked.

Johnny used to get in the van and throw a handful of pills in the back. And they'd be searching for him all the way to the gig, you know. Yeah. And then on the way back, I imagine, in a little more panic. Yeah. No, not more panic. Because when you wind down. Yeah. And then on the way back, I imagine, in a little more panic. Yeah. No, not more panic. Because when you wind down, you know, you round down. Right.

That can take a while, right? But, yeah. I did a lot of acid, too. Yeah? With Auckland, yeah. Well, do you think that my experience, I didn't do a lot. I did some. And, you know, it didn't do a lot. I did some. And, you know, it kind of changed the way I thought during it.

But I don't know if it changed the way I thought for the long haul. It changed the way I thought. It did? But I probably took a lot more than you. Yeah, I'm sure. And it was probably better. Yeah. It was probably cleaner.

It was probably real acid. Yeah. How did it change your perception? It made me judge people different it made me see people different in a better way yeah and worse oh yeah you know what you feel like you could tell where they were coming from right away well you think so you know because you're on acid yeah yeah yeah but uh i don't really think it helped me any because I still got taken to the cleaners

by our old manager, but all the same, I wouldn't have missed it. I think that's the key to having good drug experiences is going into it with the right frame of mind. And coming out with the same one. If you can, if you can. So the Big Three, the Beatles, and then the bands you were playing can, if you can. So the Big Three, the Beatles, and then the bands

you were playing in, did you miss guitar? I mean, did you? No, I was a really mediocre guitarist. Yeah? I was good on rhythm,

but then it went out of fashion. No more rhythm. No, sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Switched to bass

just the right time. So, all right, so you go through Acid, start going through the speed, you're doing Hawkwind, you're doing the fucking, you know, mind-blowing kind of like out there music,

and then you just fucking focus in on the MC5 and you just nail it. You just start rocking hard. Now, Chrissie Hynde talked about when the Heartbreakers first came to London. Yeah. And she said that it blew everything up. Yeah, I'll never forget that.

Yeah, we went to see her at the Roxy. You were with her? No, no, we just went down there, but I think she was in there. Yeah. With some of the, you know, one of her pompadours. But they were great for about, what, a month? They hung out in London for a month?

Oh, yeah, but then they got back into heroin. Oh, fuck, man. That dude, it was like see because i have no sense of that like you know when you talk about seeing the beatles and having to be mind-blowing i can't even imagine what that would have been like i mean no one's ever going to have that experience not right and you like and i imagine you well you dealt with hendrix right well i should work for him yeah i mean i can't so you were you there that sunday when he blew everyone away when he first first went to England that night

that when Townsend was there and Clapton was there? No, I wasn't there for that one. That was in the Scotch. It wasn't one of the good places. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It wasn't. What do you mean? It was lame, you know.

Oh, really? All these ex-rock stars sitting around talking about their last hit. They were all still around, though. Like when I talked to you, I talked to Richard Thompson. Yeah. So that's the amazing thing about London, it seems. It's like all you guys were there at the same time, different ages,

but it was just sort of around, right? Yeah. They were just sort of around looking at other people, thinking it was over, thinking they were over. Yeah, all of that stuff. But bands are like that. Yeah. If you're new and you ever hit Cock of the Walk,

it despises everybody else. Cocky. Yeah. Did you see the Stones? Yeah, yeah. Back then? The Stones in Hyde Park, when they did that thing for Brian.

Right. And released all these butterflies. Yeah. And they all went and sat on the ground and people trod on them. So you could walk into this mush of mud and butterflies, you know. I guess that's an apt tribute to Brian. Fair enough, yeah. That's the fucking, when hippie shit goes wrong, man.

I know. There's one guy who released 200 frogs at the Roundhouse. Come on. And I mean, it's enclosed, right? For what band? It might have been the Faces, I'm not sure. Oh, yeah. But they released them and they were hopping about

and people were just treading on them. Sad dead frogs everywhere. It's a fucking horrible mess. Set them free. Sad dead frogs everywhere. Horrible mess. Set them free. Let the frogs go. Oh, the faces, fuck. They were a good band, no? They were. I like the small faces

better than the faces. What was the difference, Marriott? Yeah. That guy could sing, huh? Yeah, you never heard a voice like that. Pink Floyd too? Yeah, I saw them with sid yeah oh man you saw everybody i saw everybody jesus fuck almost everybody i didn't see the audits i just didn't get to see him because i wasn't in london oh i was up north how about the who

the who i've seen a lot yeah from all from early on when they were just R&B to when they kind of did something else? Yeah, well, actually, they were a cover band, a soul cover band. Right, right. So who was the ones that, like, outside the MC5, what were the guys that really compelled you to, like, sort of, like, I've got to fucking get there? I was already compelled.

Yeah. Because we used to have this show on TV called Oh Boy. And Cliff Richard was resident on it. Yeah. And he was our Elvis, you know. Right. So he was always surrounded by these screaming chicks. Yeah.

With hot pants on. Right, yeah, yeah. And I thought, that's the job for me. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's a good reason to get in. A lot of people get into show business for that reason. Yeah, well, you know, it's the best one I can think of.

When did they start coming around? Was it before Motorhead or when Motorhead happened? Oh, yeah, I'd always done all right with chicks. Yeah, yeah. I took them into it, you know. Sure. You got game. Yeah.

Yeah. You got a few kids, right? Here and there? Two and a half. Two and a half? Yeah. The half is the one where you don't know that one? No, the half is the one where my roadie and me

put this check on two separate nights. Right. You're not sure? Well, she called it Lanny, you know. But then I was better known than my roadie, so that's probably why that was. And one found you after many years? What happened?

What's the story? I knew the second one, but I never met the first one because he was adopted at birth. So you're never waiting for that knock on the door? No, no. I don't mind, you know. No, no.

I don't think I should interfere with this life. Sure. Because these are the people you might think they're his real parents. Right. Well, yeah, sure. I don't fuck that up, you know. And I watched the documentary. So what is it, your third son, you got a relationship with him, right?

You guys get along all right? No, my second son. Second son? Yeah. That must have been, that's good to have, Bill? You got a relationship with him, right? You guys get along all right? No, my second son. Second son? Yeah. That must have been, that's good to have, right? Yeah. He's really good. He's a lot better than me.

Is he on this record at all? No. You don't play together in Motorhead? No, he comes on stage now and again, plays the song, you know. He lives here too? Yeah, he lives here too. So when the Heartbreakers came, how did that change the game?

It was just that they were really good and really fierce. Yeah. They didn't change anything. No? They went around long enough. They were back in the hole, you know. So fucking sad, man.

So many guys went down from that shit. I know. You never got involved with that shit? No, never. Because you, well, I mean, either got involved with that shit. No, never. Because you, well, I mean, either you're an up guy or a down guy. Yeah, I'm up.

Yeah, I know. Yeah, that's what I mean, yeah. And the terrible thing is it kills somebody in every band, one person. Yeah. And then they infect the rest, you know?

Right. It's really, it's like a disease takes that one dude to turn everybody on then everything just turns to shit yeah you lost people in your bands from heroin oh no i don't you didn't i want to be around me no oh you oh really you're like fuck that shit i don't like it man i old lady. Killed a lot of my friends. Yeah. Fuck. All right, so let's talk the records then. So Motorhead, that record did all right? That didn't do anything.

Overkill. Overkill was the first hit we had. How high up the charts? 12, I think. Really? And then Bomber went in at number four. and then asa spade went in i think two but we never got the number one god damn it well we got it with the record after that the live one yeah no sleep till emma smith people love that record yeah they do still oh yeah man metalheads

like you know it seems to me like from my you know i'm, like, you know, it seems to me, like, from my, you know, I'm not specifically a metal guy, but it seems to me that you invented what became modern metal. Like, after that, whatever the Deep Purple generation was, that you brought the pace to it. I don't know. I think it was all of us, you know. Yeah. Who do you consider all of you? You know, the ones that were at the same time as me, like Saxon.

Yeah. You know, and who else? I don't fucking know now. I don't know what age everybody is. But, like, there was a whole wave of it when we'd been together about a year. And there was a whole wave of it, about a thousand bands, you know?

Yeah, yeah. You've lived here, how long, 20 years? 21 years, yeah years in that apartment that i saw on television no no you moved you did yeah i bought a condo oh wow was it hard to leave that apartment no it was hard to pack it i still have it actually it's called my mother had stuff in it oh you still oh you keep the apartment? Yeah. Well, that's good. Is the condo bigger?

It's nicer? More room for your shit? It's more elegant, shall we say. You got finer display cases for your paraphernalia and whatnot? The same. I couldn't put them together again. I mean, I do them all individual. Right, right.

I buy a badge from a certain organization. And then, yeah. Stick it in there, you know? Yeah i i do them all you know individual right right i buy a badge and from a certain organization and then yeah stick it in there yeah yeah yeah and some of them are overflown but when did that obsession start uh let's see about 76 i think somebody give me a flag and a iron cross yeah yeah that's a real iron cross. Yeah, yeah. First World War. First World War. What's the fascination there?

Do you just like the... It was funny. There was a flea market. I grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. And there was a flea market there in the fairgrounds. And there was this Jewish doctor that used to go there every weekend and sell Nazi shit. Yeah, right.

And it was fascinating. The chief dealer in New York is a big Jewish guy. Really? And his family give him shit about it. And he says, hey, you don't like it? Buy it. Take it next door and burn it. Is it expensive, that shit?

I mean, does it get pretty pricey? Depends what you're talking about, you know. What's your most prized possession? I don't know, really. I've got a couple of Damascus Steelers. Yeah, yeah, that's the good stuff, right? It's all layered and twisted. Yeah, yeah.

Those are expensive things. But the most expensive one I ever saw was Herman Gerwin's hunting dagger. Oh, yeah? There was two of them. Yeah? His brother-in-law had one. Yeah?

Made for him and one for himself. This was his brother-in-law's dagger. Yeah. And the price started at 100,000. Jesus Christ. We're not talking about hippies and skinheads here. Yeah. This is doctors and, you know.

This thing looks cool, you know. But there, yeah, you know, I got to admit, you know, and I'm a, you know, I was brought up a Jew, but that shit's heavy stuff and it looks, you know, it does look fucking gnarly and cool. Yeah, well, this is just as Jewish. Didn't take so long. Yeah, that's right.

It didn't quite catch on, thank God. We'd all be wearing them, right? Yeah. It was pretty close there, man. It was touch and go for a little while. I'm tattooed on the forehead. Yeah, exactly. What is that hat?

The hat I just made. That's a Lemmy insignia? A Lemmy hat. Yeah. You got guys that do all your outfitting now? Well, no. I mean, if you want something that's unusual, you have to get it made. How did you decide on the insignia on there?

I didn't. I just came into possession of it somehow. Oh, you don't know what it is? Yeah, I know what it is. What is it? Well, the swords are cavalry and the grenades are grenadiers. Okay. Do you go out and shoot? No. No?

Don't like guns. I like daggers. They're much more personal. Yeah. Kill them up close. Well, no, but if you put a knife in somebody, you get a feeling jerk and get their blood on you and listen to them die if you got it right.

And I think if that was what you had to do every time you kill somebody, there'd be a lot less of it around. Yeah, you certainly think twice. There's an intimacy to it. Yeah. I mean, even with classic dueling, there's a sort of weird procedure to it.

Yeah, all that. Yeah. You've got to think about it. Yeah. You know, 20 paces, and then, procedure to it all right yeah you get you makes you got to think about it yeah you know 20 paces and then you know all right for the whole 20 you're going what the fuck did i get into what am i doing yeah is this that important is that chick's honor really that important yeah really give him the chicken call it quits yeah so now what was your relationship? You worked with the Aussie, right? Yeah. How did they call you in?

What was your assignment? Well, I knew them anyway from Britain. You saw them when they were starting out? No. No? I still hadn't seen them. And then he left them and he was on his own. And I thought he was much better by himself.

Yeah. You know, I still do. He's a good singer. Yeah. Well, I wouldn't say he was a good singer. He's Aussie. He's Aussie. Yeah.

And the guy has charisma. Yeah. All over him like a fucking cloak. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, because it doesn't matter if the band's great. You don't care. Aussie comes on. Everybody watches him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, because it doesn't matter if the band's great. You don't care. Yeah. Ozzy comes on. Everybody watches him. Yeah, yeah.

He's one of them guys. He's got a thing. Yeah. There's a few of those guys around. Not too many, but a few, huh? Oh, yeah. What the fuck was Hendrix was like that? Yeah. What'd you do for him? I was just rodeoing. For how long? He wasn't around that long, right? About eight months. Yeah? Did do for him? I was just roadieing. For how long?

He wasn't around that long, right? About eight months. Yeah? Did you learn anything? Yeah, I learned that I would give up guitar and play bass instead. Yeah. Was he a good guy? Yeah, he was great.

I used to score acid for him, too. Oh, you did? I'd give him ten and he'd give me three. Yeah. And take seven. He and take seven he takes seven yeah so he was out there huh that was the sort of habit i got into it yeah yeah you knew the deal but he didn't want to seem like a pussy you know what i mean sure did he ever get too far out there to play no he always pulled it off huh no i you know, you can do anything you like. Yeah.

As long as you've got the concentration. So you've got to hold the frame. Yeah. Yeah. Fix. Yeah. Sometimes that's a little bit of a fight, though. Yeah, right.

Things start shaking on the sides. Yeah, that's okay, but forget them. Yeah. Because that's an illusion. That's the illusion. But as a band with those guys, I mean, did you pick up anything? Because you're a band leader, really. I mean, fundamentally, right?

I wasn't then. Right. But was there things you picked up from that experience in other bands? From Hendrix, I picked up a few moves. Yeah. But, I mean, he's a guitar player, you know. I was never a good guitar player. So I didn't get anything from that. But Redding, did he's a guitar player, you know. I was never a good guitar player, so I didn't get anything from that.

But Redding, did you hang out with him too? Yeah. Yeah? She had a flat with him for a while. Yeah. And me and Neville and Noel and this chick called Lisa, and we were all piled on top of each other all the time. Yeah.

He wasn't cool, you know. No. He keeps saying, that fucking Hendrix hogging all the limelight. Oh, really? Yeah, I was the best guitar player in Kent, you know. He didn't appreciate it at all. Really?

Didn't get it. Completely bitter. Just dumb. Yeah. Lame, you know Lame, yeah. Yeah, yeah. How did he pick up those guys? Why did he choose those guys?

They came to auditions in... In Britain? Yeah, yeah. And he just said, you guys are the experience. Yeah. Wild. And that guy never appreciated any of it. So when you moved here, what was the plan, man?

Why'd you leave England? Oh, I don't have a plan. No? No, I'm very impulsive. Yeah. And did you get your citizenship and all that shit? Oh, no. What I thought was I had the chance to move here.

Yeah. Because we were managed by Phil Carson, who was then offered a job at Victory Records in Japan and left you know and he passed us on to for a little while we were managed by what's her name

fucking Ozzy's wife Sharon and then she bailed as well I don't know it's always it's been disaster you disaster the whole life. Yeah. But it's pretty good. Compared with ordinary people's disasters.

No, I think that's true. Yeah. It's an interesting life that you live as a fucking artist. Are you bitter about it? No. No? Not for a moment. Well, it seems like everybody in the world respects Motorhead and respects you.

But do you, would you have liked to have been a bigger band? No, I'm alright with it. Yeah, yeah. Now this new record, man, so, how do you feel about it? I think it's great. Yeah? It's one of the best we've ever done, I think. How come? Why do you

feel that way? We got a bit clever on this one. Yeah? We were building up to it the last four. Yeah? Or so. But we got a bit clever on this one. It sounds really good.

And in terms of production, who did the production on it? Oh, me and Cameron. So you do it all now? Yeah. You can trust yourself? Yeah. Yeah. Well, Cameron is good like that.

Yeah. Because he'll say no. You need somebody to. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, Cameron is good like that. Yeah. Because he'll say no. You need somebody to say no, yeah. Well, a lot of people are intimidated by us. Yeah. You know, they want to say shit. Yeah. They're just like, let him go.

Don't make any waves. Don't piss Lemmy off. Right. Do you have a reputation of being an angry gay? No, I don't think so. No? The people who don't know me are scared right you know i was a little nervous what's your favorite joke lemmy on the radio yeah no it's uh we're we're free to say

whatever the fuck we want yeah yeah probably the best one I got was Jesus walking down heaven, you know, checking everybody out. Yeah. And everybody's blissful, fucking harps and halos and that. And Jesus, little old fella sitting in a corner,

crying his fucking eyes out, you know, miserable as fuck. And he says, excuse me, he said, you're in heaven, you know what I mean? He said, people go to church five times a week, every week of their lives to get up here. He said, and you're here, you've made it, so what's the matter? The old guy says, well, he said, I'm sorry,

I didn't mean to cause, well, he said, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cause any trouble, he said, but when I was on earth, I was just a poor carpenter, you know, and we had nothing. And we had this little boy, and I wanted him to follow me into the carpentry business, you know. But then he said he had to go away on a mission and he went off into the desert with 12 fellas And we never saw him again. He said And I was hoping he said that when I got up here, you know, I mean I'd see him again, but I've lost everywhere and I can't find him and it's really cracking me up

Jesus with tears streaming down his face goes father and the guy says Pinocchio well thanks for talking to me man and have a good time on the tour

thank you that's the Lemmy that's Lemmy Godspeed lemmy i hope he's all right and i want to thank richard thompson as well it's kind of an interesting show both these dudes that grew up you know from were there at the birth of rock and roll or whenever it got to england and whatever came out of england and they both had very interesting stories about growing up and who they saw, and I like that. I like that connection.

Go to WTFpod.com for all your WTFpod needs. My tour dates for Australia are there. I'm going to be there in October in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. State Theater in Sydney, Australia, October 15th, the Palais Theater in Melbourne, Australia, October 16th in Brisbane City Hall, October 17th in Brisbane, Australia.

Please get your tickets so they know that it's going to be okay. I know it's going to be okay one way or the other. I'll be there unless something goes weird. But yeah, yeah, I'm not going to play guitar today. What, you think I'm going to fucking play guitar after Richard Thompson? Do you really think I'm going to do that? Come on. Boomer lives! Bye.