It's not so much he's set in his ways; Kilmister simply has stayed the same while the world around him has changed. He's spent his life ignoring musical and fashion trends — that skull-and-crossbones cowboy hat, pork chop sideburns-meets-Fu Manchu moustache, a western-styled shirt, black jeans, and matching cowboy boots make it easy to pick a look for the day. But he's also dealt with the often capricious popularity of hard rock, like the current downturn, by sticking to the basics, confident that another musical revolution could be just around the corner.
"Rock and roll will be alright," he says. "We have to have a patch like this to appreciate the better stuff. It's time for a new Sex Pistols I think; it's time for a bit of anarchy in the UK, mate." He considers the Internet a positive tool for new acts, giving them word-of-mouth all over the world. "The unfortunate thing about it is you give them the Internet, which is the greatest communication system known to mankind, and we use it for fucking child pornography, which is really encouraging, isn't it? You can rely on mankind; they always take it to the lowest common denominator and crap all over it."
That's not to say Kilmister feels the need to personally embrace the conventions of social media like Facebook and Twitter. "I don't do those things, because I have enough hassle keeping up with what we've got without it, sitting on my ass doing 10 to 20 hours of that every day, twitting all my friends. Twitter? Not in my lexicon, sorry. I don't Twitter, man."
No, Lemmy don't Twitter — he's too busy being a rock-and-roll professional.
"What else is there?" he hypothesizes. "It's the best job in the world. I get to fly all around the world, sleep with women of all colors, sizes, and persuasions — and religious persuasions — and make people happier than they were when they got there. What better job is there than that?"
MOTÖRHEAD + SLAYER + ANTHRAX + MORE | Comcast Center, 885 South Main St, Mansfield | August 3 @ 1:30 pm | All Ages | $33-$77 | 508.339.2331 or livenation.com
