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Lemmy Laid To Rest: Superb Tributes Paid At Moving Service

The world paid tribute to Lemmy as the legend was laid to rest in Los Angeles late Saturday night (9th January 2016) UK time.

The service, held at Forest Lawn Memorial Cemetery, was broadcast live on YouTube and watched by 280,000 people all over the world.

Motörhead manager Todd Singerman hosted proceedings and Lemmy’s son, Paul Inder, gave the opening eulogy, a heartfelt, revealing and incredibly moving passage which included these words: “They say you can’t choose your parents but I won the lottery when I got Lemmy.”

There’s a video below of the complete service which just has to be watched. Unfortunately, the stream cut out right as Dave Grohl relayed the first words Lemmy ever said to him: “Sorry about your friend Kurt.”

Grohl then shared a story about how he introduced Lemmy to his family backstage at a concert. Upon entering the dressing room with whiskey and cigarette in hand, Lemmy spotted Grohl’s newborn daughter off to the side in a crib and, without saying anything, put his cigarette out in his drink.

“That was my hero putting out his cigarette into his drink and putting it aside because my daughter was there in the room,” Grohl said. “I think what everybody has always known or at least learned today is that Lemmy was not only that kind of… whiskey-drinking rock n’ roll star, but he had the biggest heart and set such a great example because he was so kind to everyone.”

Mikkey Dee gave a very moving tribute including the words “try take it easier on the other side Lemmy” while Phil Campbell, who could not make the memorial service, sent his own token of remembrance.

Hella Rock Festival

Todd revealed that “he [Campbell] made sure there’s a line down there and that’s supposed to be speed for Lemmy, he made sure he had a mirror and the whole bit so… do it up Lem.”

Tributes were also paid by Slash, Jim Voxx and Nina C Alice of Skew Siskin, Triple H, Bob Kulick, Slim Jim Phantom, his publicist Nina, his longtime girlfriend Cheryl, one of his best friends Scott, Rob Halford, Scott Ian, Whitfield Crane, Mike Inez, Robert Trujillo and several other friends, associates and colleagues.

Also in attendance were Gene Simmons, Dee Snider, Ozzy Osbourne and their partners.

Some of the speakers broke down, with his personal assistant Ian starting one of Lemmy’s jokes and not being able to initially finish it while Motörhead’s stage manager struggled to make it through his speech.

“There’s only one Elvis Presley, one Little Richard, one Steve McQueen and one Lemmy,” Mike Inez said.

The service ended with Dave Grohl tearfully reciting the lyrics to Little Richard’s ‘Precious Lord, Take My Hand’.

Lemmy’s bass was then strummed, set up against a Marshall stack next to his urn as Todd declared: “Lemmy has left the building.”

Bass feedback then reverberated throughout the room.

Here’s the service in full.

If you’d like to make a charitable donation under Lemmy’s name, please go to Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund at http://www.diocancerfund.org/.

A campaign is being supported by Motörhead’s management and other big names in the industry to rename a “super-heavy” periodic element “Lemmium” in memory of Lemmy.

You can read more and sign the petition here.

Another campaign that we thought was particularly brilliant is this one that Todd sent to us. It’s a campaign to rename Lemmy’s favourite tipple, Jack Daniels and Coke, to A Lemmy.

The MetalTalk crew hit four different bars in London last night and every time a round of Lemmy’s was ordered, they were delivered without hesitation; every single bar person knew exactly what was being requested, even in the conventional non-rock bar that we started off at.

Here’s the petition to rename the drink here.

On Friday a milk advert for by Finnish dairy firm Valio, created by ad agency Hasan & Partners, featuring Lemmy was released as a tribute. It was under production when he passed away on December 28th and you can see it here.

All in all it was a superb, moving, emotional and fitting service. Triple H stated that Lemmy would not have wanted people crying or mourning but rather celebrating his life and while that spirit was in evidence on Saturday night, it was obviously impossible to escape the fact that we have lost the biggest rock n’ roll legend of all time.

Lemmy has indeed left the room but his legacy is very much alive and always will be.

Ian Fraser Kilmister, 24th December 1945 to 28th December 2015. Forever.

Sleeve Notes

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