Roy Jurgens on December 28th, 2015

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Lemmy Kilmister, frontman of Motörhead and celebrated rock ’n’ roll badass, died Monday at his home along the Sunset Strip among friends and family. He was 70.

Kilmister had been suffering from an aggressive form of cancer that had only been recently diagnosed, according to a statement released by the band. Renowned for living along the knife’s edge, he had been soldiering on despite his well-publicized health issues, including a hematoma, irregular heartbeat and recent lung infection. Despite ailments that would have felled a lesser man, Lemmy continued touring well into the fall of 2015.

Born Ian Fraser “Lemmy” Kilmister in Staffordshire, England on Christmas eve in 1945, he was driven to music upon seeing the Beatles at 16 and noticing that a classmate with a guitar had been “surrounded by chicks.”

Bouncing around several bands throughout his twenties as well as serving a stint as a roadie with the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Lemmy landed with proto-psychedelic space rock mavens, Hawkwind in 1972. Despite his lack of experience on bass, he quickly flourished and had a strong influence on the band’s direction, having sung lead on Hawkwind’s hit single “Silver Machine”, which topped out at No. 3 on the U.K. charts.

Fired from Hawkwind in 1975 due to a drug arrest at the Canadian border, Lemmy went on to form a band called Bastard. Advised by his manager that the moniker would be bad for publicity, Lemmy went with Motörhead (meaning speed freak) instead, which was the title of the last song he had written for Hawkwind.

Growling into an upturned mic, flanked by two Marshall Superbass stacks and with his weaponized Rickenbacker in hand, it was with Motörhead that Lemmy established his superhuman status. As the vocalist, bassist, principal songwriter and the only constant member throughout the band’s history, Lemmy piloted Motörhead through 20 studio albums that achieved over 30 million in sales worldwide.

While Motörhead never saw the stadium level of success, they inspired a slew of successful metal, hard rock and punk bands (from Metallica to Guns N’ Roses to Nirvana) in their wake. It was with the classic lineup of Lemmy, guitarist “Fast” Eddie Clarke and drummer Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor that the band achieved their greatest victories. Their anthem, the “Ace of Spades” was brutal, fast and loud, and perfectly encompassed several genres at once. The albums “Ace of Spades,” “Orgasmatron” and “Rock N’ Roll” hammered home the phrase “Everything Louder Than Everyone Else,” the code by which Motörhead lived and played. The band’s first live album, 1981’s “No Sleep ’Til Hammersmith” peaked at No. 1 on the U.K. album charts. Oddly enough, they won their only Grammy Award by covering Metallica’s “Whiplash” for a tribute album.

Kilmister was also a frequent collaborator, contributing to songs by artists as varied as the Ramones, Ozzy Osbourne, Slash and the Damned.

Lemmy was also active as an actor, appearing in such films such as “Airheads,” “Eat the Rich” and “Hardware,” as well as numerous commercials where his gruff, self-deprecating nature was used to sell everything from Kit Kat bars to Walker’s crisps to insurance policies. Lemmy was active in Wrestlemania, as Motörhead’s sonic assault was tailor made for the spectacle. He was also the subject of the 2010 rockumentary “Lemmy,” which featured admirers from across the spectrum of the music world. Earlier this year, he appeared alongside Henry Rollins, Iggy Pop, and Grace Jones in what was dubbed “The loudest silent film of all time,” “Gutterdämmerung,” directed by Swede Björn Tagemose.

Lemmy’s appetite for sex, drugs and alcohol was the stuff of legend. He once stated that he enjoyed a bottle of Jack Daniel’s every day since turning 30 (he switched to vodka for “health” reasons in 2013), as well as a copious intake of amphetamines and other illicit substances. In a famous Channel 4 interview he claimed to have bedded more than a thousand women.

An Englishman by birth, Lemmy had been a Los Angeleno for 25 years. Well-known by Sunset Strip regulars, it was not rare to find him at his favorite spot, the video poker game at the Rainbow Bar and Grill, where he was always approachable and friendly to friends and fans alike.

Speaking in 2004, Dave Grohl perhaps captured Lemmy’s legacy best. “We recorded his track in Los Angeles in maybe two takes about a year and a half ago. Until then I’d never met what I’d call a real rock ‘n’ roll hero before. Fuck Elvis and Keith Richards, Lemmy’s the king of rock ‘n’ roll – he told me he never considered Motörhead a metal band, he was quite adamant. Lemmy’s a living, breathing, drinking and snorting fucking legend. No one else comes close.”