Lemmy Talks Recording With Brian May, Covering the Rolling Stones for Motorhead’s ‘Bad Magic’
You know pretty much what you're going to get when you buy a Motörhead album, but the band can still slip in a few surprises every now and then -- and their upcoming Bad Magic LP adds a couple of new wrinkles in the form of a guest guitar spot from Queen's Brian May and a cover of the Rolling Stones' classic "Sympathy for the Devil."
Motörhead mainstay Lemmy Kilmister offered Loudwire a few of his thoughts regarding the new LP, modestly assessing the band's "Sympathy for the Devil" cover by saying they "killed" it. Asked how they decided to tackle that particular track, he revealed that the inspiration came from professional wrestler Triple H: "He asked us to cover a few songs for his TV show. He’s got a TV channel now, so we recorded that and we decided to keep it."
May's involvement, it turns out, has been a long time coming. "He came onstage with us 10 years ago and did 'Overkill,'" recalled Lemmy, laughing, "He went f---ing cracking. I like Brian. He did this thing where he came coming at you like 1,000 miles an hour and he went down on his knees like they do in all the movies. I was very surprised. I was very pleased we got that out of him."
As Lemmy told the A.V. Club, May's friendship with Motörhead guitarist Phil Campbell provided the final catalyst for his appearance. "They communicate on the internet a lot, and he’d always wanted Brian to do something with us," he explained. "This time Phil just called him up, or maybe he just got too lazy to do the solo himself."
Bad Magic arrives Aug. 28, and is available for pre-order now. Motörhead have already begun touring in support of the album, with a string of North American dates scheduled to run through late September.
See Mootrhead om the Top 100 Albums of the '90s
You Think You Know Queen?