During the recent interview with Landry Audio, Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian has shared the untold story of why Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister didn’t quit drinking alcohol.
Interviwer asked if it became obvious to him that Lemmy was starting to get quite ill in the months leading up to his death, Scott responded…
He said that ‘Lemmy’s got diabetes, and no more Jack-and-Cokes, because of the sugar content.’ Here’s the statement:
“He wasn’t really that ill yet at that point. He wasn’t as healthy as he has been. He had been diagnosed with diabetes at some point, if I remember correctly, so he was battling that. I remember at some point [hearing that] Lemmy switched to vodka. Like, that was news. In the rock world, that was major headline news.
I remember hearing that, like, ‘Lemmy’s got diabetes, and no more Jack-and-Cokes, because of the sugar content. He switched to vodka.’ I was, like, ‘Wow! After 50 years, that’s a big deal.’
I did spend a lot of time with him over the years; lucky enough for me, it was a privilege to have spent 30-odd years or something knowing him and being friendly with him.
And I asked him one time about smoking: ‘Do you think you’ll ever quit?’ or this or that. These are questions he just… there wasn’t even an answer to. He wasn’t gonna quit smoking; he wasn’t gonna quit drinking.”
Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister has passed away at the age of 70 in 2015.
You can watch the entire interview from below.
