Lemmy’s Cancer Prognosis Gave Him Two to Six Months to Live, Manager Says
Speaking about Lemmy's death on Monday (Dec. 28), Motorhead manager Todd Singerman revealed information about how the bassist came to learn of his fate only two days ago. According to Singerman, the original prognosis had been for two to six months.
"Nobody had any idea," he told Sky News. "We just learned Saturday, two days ago, that he even had cancer and the doctor told him he had between two to six months to live. He goes today as I was making calls to Phil [Campbell] and Mikkey [Dee] telling them to come on out so they could have a last goodbye, while he was still upbeat and everything. He was feeling mighty low. [...] He wasn't expected to die like that."
Singerman said that, shortly after his 70th birthday party at the Whiskey A Go Go on Dec. 13, Lemmy went to the hospital because he wasn't feeling well. Although his doctors said he was fine, they decided to do a brain scan before releasing him because "his speech was seeming a little odd. We wanted to see if maybe [he'd had] a minor stroke." The scan uncovered tumors in his brain and neck. "It's terminal," Singerman quoted the doctor as saying.
For all of Lemmy's well-documented health issues over the last two years, Singerman said, cancer "caught everyone by surprise. That was the last thing we thought he would ever have. When you think about it he has been to every doctor and hospital around the world and nobody caught that. [...] That comes as a massive shock."
Singerman recalled a lifestyle that made "Keith Richards from the [Rolling] Stones look like a Golden Girl," one that involved " half gallon of Jack Daniel's a day, two/three packs of cigarettes and his other little favorites – and that was a daily thing." More recently, Lemmy had given up the whiskey for vodka and orange juice. "I still can't grasp it but he thought it was healthier," Singerman said.
"This guy lived it every day and there was never a break in between. He was the last true rock star left, if you ask me," he concluded.
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