I finally got my hands on British music journalist/rock biographer Mick Walls' book "Lemmy: The Definitive Biography". It was released April 2016 and it took me until a couple weeks ago to land a copy of my own. I was hoping for the hardcover edition, but I'm fine with the paperback. What I didn't want was to read the Kindle version. I read books on Kindle, but there are certain books that I want to read where I have to HOLD the physical book. This is one of those books.
I'm a huge fan of music related biographies. Have been since the early 80s and its only become worse since everyone and they're brother/sister is offered a book deal and spew their memoirs. There are so many good ones out there. Hook, line and sinker for me - so I'm not complaining. TAKE MY MONEY!
I know there are many Lemmy books littering the market (pre/post his death), but this one is way above average. Especially since it's a collection of interviews Mick had with Lemmy over the years; starting in the early 90s. And coincidentally, Mick worked as Motörhead’s publicist for a short period of time. This book started to take shape when Lem's health took a turn. I believe Mick had a ton of tapes he had to transcribe. He had Lemmy's blessing of course and dove into piecing this together using the words of the man himself. I wouldn't go so far to call this extremely in-depth. But, if you're familiar with the 2002 book "White Line Fever" (by Lemmy and Janiss Garza) then it does fill in some gaps left in that one. Plus there are friends/musicians who are brought in as well.
It does get hard to read towards the end of the book since this includes Lem's passing. So I spent the last portion of the book just gearing up for the inevitable. It's like knowing the ending to a movie you've watched a hundred times. You know the ending but you still immerse yourself into it and become attached for a moment in time.
I wouldn't call this "definitive" because Mick does gloss over many areas/years, including Lem's side band The Head Cat (Google that band if you're unfamiliar - classic stuff). So I wasn't too happy about that being left out entirely.
There are many gaps here too, but what this book does is it captures Lemmy’s own unique philosophy of life. His life and the life which surrounded him.
From the 1994 movie "Airheads"
"Wrong dickhead, trick question; Lemmy is god....."
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