Mikkey Dee said he's glad he had "brain enough" to refuse Motorhead's first invitation for him to join.

The drummer was a member of then recently-formed Danish band King Diamond, who toured with Motorhead in 1986, when Lemmy first approached him about becoming part of his band.

“I saw something,” Dee said during a recent episode of the NFR podcast (below). But he continued: “I go, 'Look, I got to earn my stripes … before I join this fucking band. This is not just a band; this is an institution here.' And I said ‘no,’ but with all the respect.” He recalled that Lemmy kept in close contact afterwards, “sending me postcards and writing to me and calling me from pay phones and hotel phones." He added, “We hit it off really nice.”

He finally became a Motorhead member in 1991 and remained until the band split as a result of Lemmy’s death in 2015. “I just saw these guys as crazy, funny and extreme in such a way that I felt if I joined this band, I’d be eaten up for breakfast,” he said of his earlier refusal. “They were as hard as it gets. I’m glad that I actually had the fucking brain enough to calm myself down and think logically here: ‘This is not for me at this point.’”

In February, Dee recalled how the trio suffered a high amount of tension during the making of their 1996 album, Overnight Sensation. But during the more recent interview, he clarified: “[M]y point was that when we argued … it was never, ever under the belt. It was never unfair or nasty, and we became even better friends after each argument — and stronger as a band.”

He continued, “Lemmy's views on Overnight Sensation both me and Phil [Campbell] disagreed on. … Later, Lemmy agreed and said, ‘Yeah, maybe you guys are right there.' ... And I never before or [ever have had] that bond like the three of us had, and that's what I wanted to get across … telling you that we played for 25 years without any arguments — that's pathetic; that's ridiculous. We had arguments. Lemmy had a vision. I had a vision. Phil had a vision.”

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