Late Motorhead icon Lemmy Kilmister can be heard performing a spoken-word piece in a new Jetboy song, “Beating the Odds,” which is taken from the band’s upcoming album Born to Fly.

Lemmy, who died in 2015, co-wrote the piece, titled “The Reading,” with Jetboy frontman Mickey Finn in the early ‘90s. It begins, “From our childhood homes they take us; in our innocence they make us to march, to fight, to hate; to believe in them, their games, their priceless murderous toys.”

You can watch the “Beating the Odds” video and listen to the original version of “The Reading” below:

“In 1990, Lemmy became friendly with us and jumped onstage at the Cathouse for our second-album release party to cover a rocked-up version of Jerry Lee Lewis’s ‘Great Balls of Fire,’” guitarist Billy Rowe explained.

“A year or so later, Lemmy ended up helping out with some backing vocals on a demo, along with a spoken-word piece. … In the breakdown of this new single, we edited a portion of ‘The Reading,’ as we felt it was such a perfect fit for the track. The video was also inspired by Lemmy, with an animated story of a war pilot in a dogfight and beating the odds to survive."

Finn said the new album featured “lots of inspiring messages” along with “some good old rock ’n’ roll fun."

“My wife was the inspiration for 'Every Time I Go,' and my firstborn son inspired 'The Way You Move Me,'" he explained. "Our life struggles as a band and lifelong friends inspired tracks like 'Beating the Odds' and 'Born to Fly.' 'Inspiration From Desperation' covers our political climate in America these days, 'Brokenhearted Daydream' reminds us that love is sometimes fickle and hearts get broken, but don't let it destroy your heart — we have to learn to move on and allow love to come into our lives again.”

Lemmy was recently featured in a new track by Leader of Down, a project formed by ex-Motorhead guitarist Wurzel.

 

 

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