Written by The only person who was in Motorhead longer than vocalist and founder Lemmy was guitarist Phil Campbell. A boy from the valleys, Campbell joined the world’s loudest rock’n’roll band in 1984 and served with them right up until their dissolution in 2015.
But even then, he couldn’t just walk away from the legacy he’d made with the band. In 2016, Campbell unveiled The Bastard Sons, a group he formed with his sons Tyla and Dane, and though the group would record three albums, they also dipped their toes into the many songs from Motorhead’s back catalogue during live performances.
In October 2025, Metal Hammer spoke to Phil as part of a massive celebration of Motorhead for the band’s 50th anniversary, and to commemorate 10 years of Lemmy’s passing. It was his last interview with the magazine.
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When did you first hear Motorhead?
“Really early on, around the time of that first album. They sounded so different from anything anyone had ever heard and the first time I heard them it was obvious how unique they were.”
Were you already playing as a musician at that point?
“Yeah I was in [70s Welsh metal band] Persian Risk. Like most bands, we were just trying to do something new, but then here was this other band that did it just by existing. It was all brand new. We were lucky enough to support Motorhead in 83, it was the last gig of the UK tour and we played in Cornwall during the summer.
It was brutal, the volume was incredible. Once you’ve seen them live, like it or not, it’d stick in your mind. That set was filled with a lot of classic songs, and a lot from Another Perfect Day actually. Brian [Robertson] was a brilliant guitarist.”
So that show, was it the first time you’d met Lemmy?
“No, I’d actually met him way back when he was in Hawkwind. I went to see them at the Cardiff Capitol Theatre and hung around in the big foyer after the show hoping to meet them. Lemmy was the only one that came out, so he signed my programme.
I’ve still got that somewhere, I’ve not looked at it for years. But if someone had told me that day I’d be in a world-famous band with that guy for over 30 years… it’s inspiring. You never know how things are going to go.”
When did you ‘properly’ meet him then?
“It would’ve been the actual audition [to join Motorhead]. I went out to London, but I ended up missing the train. So we stayed together in a houseboat – me, Lemmy and his girlfriend. He didn’t have any cash, but he borrowed a tenner off his girlfriend to get me home.”
What advice did you get when you joined?
“Lem took me aside when I joined, he said, ‘Phil, I trust you 100%. Please don’t wear shorts on stage.’ I think Robbo had overdone it, with his shorts and pink leg warmers!”
One of your first big public engagements was playing on The Young Ones – what was that like?
“I don’t remember much, but afterwards we were having a drink in the BBC bar and Lem’s just there talking to Noddy Holder and Roy Wood. Me and Wurz stood there with nothing to say, really, and he said, ‘Don’t worry lads, give it a couple of years you’ll have loads of stories to tell.’
It was an honour to play with him. He and Little Richard are the epitome of rock’n’roll – they lived and breathed it. On the other hand, if it was a long journey, we’d be there on the back of the bus with Abba, or The Bee Gees, trying to sing along with various degrees of success. I imagine that would’ve been hard to listen to, but we definitely had a go.”
You lived together in the 80s, right?
It was the four of us – me, Lem, Wurzel and [Motorhead drummer from 1984 – 1987] Pete Gill in Kensal Rise, in London. Things got wild there, god knows what the neighbours thought! We were always getting high in the garden.
I remember, quite late one night we were sat in the kitchen and we could hear this chewing noise at about 3am. We turn the garden light on and there’s Lem, high on whatever out in the garden trying to trim weeds in the dark with a pair of scissors. He loved gardening. He never wasted time, he’d be reading, or listening to music, or watching something.”
Did you ever actually see Lemmy drunk?
“No, never! He got really stoned once. Someone had given him this really strong weed right before we played a club show, and he ended up smiling and slithering around the stage. Still played fantastic, though. But the speed meant he’d get through a bottle and half of Jack Daniels and not even be tipsy.”
What’s the wildest night out you ever had with him?
“Oh god, so many. I remember going to the Hyatt House – that’s the Riot House – in LA one night with a petrol scooter. I took it up the lift to our rooms on the seventh floor or whatever, and ended up riding it up and down the corridors naked, in drag make-up with just a tie on with all these fumes creating this smog.”
Naked?!
“Well, I was wearing a tie. Lem came out though, nearly took me out as I rode past. ‘Give it a rest!’ There was a lot of crazy stuff the four of us – later the three of us – would get up to. I reckon we’d all be in jail now, for all the stuff we used to get up to.”
Famously, Lemmy’s drink was Jack Daniels and coke – did he drink anything else?
“That’s made up! Lemmy did love his Jack and coke, but he drank all sorts and when I met him, it was vodka and orange. He denied that later though. I think he went to vodka again towards the end – he’d cut down on a lot, stopped smoking so much.”
Was Lemmy much of a practical joker?
“He left it to me, generally. He’d tell people, ‘Phil is the Keith Moon of our band.’ I’d tell him of our plots and he’d enjoy getting involved. I remember we went on tour with Testament and Heaven And Hell in the US. The night before the last gig, Chuck Billy of Testament made the grave mistake of going, ‘Tomorrow’s the last gig – I’m gonna fuck you up.’ I told him there, ‘I’m in a different league from you, you’re dreaming.’ The morning of the last gig, the tour manager came to ask if we needed anything, so I asked for six bags of marbles, 25 copies of USA Today and one large horse.
A few hours later, the runner comes back and is like, ‘We’ve got you a horse Phil, it’ll cost $500 for two hours.’ Fine! I’d been talking to Chuck’s girlfriend and she was in on it, so she said, ‘After the third song he’ll talk to the crowd. You should do it then.’ So I stuck an electric blue wig on, a horrible blue dress that Ronnie Dio had brought me and Mikkey stuck on a pantomime Mexican costume, while Lemmy stuck on a towel like a turban and followed us along with a sweeping brush in case the horse shit. Testament went on, and after the third song, we all went out on-stage. Chuck was stunned, he couldn’t say anything. There were 2000 people in this place and I’m waving to everyone like I’m Caesar.
We went off after laughing, and cleaned up to play our set. Then when we finished, we rushed back out into the crowd and handed out these 25 newspapers, getting people to take a page each. I distributed them and told everyone to read the paper when Heaven And Hell came on. So when they did, we were sidestage to watch them, trying to keep a straight face. They make this big entrance, and the first 20 rows was just people reading the newspaper. Tony [Iommi] looked at Ronnie like, ‘What the fuck is happening?’ I just called out from the sidestage, ‘Alright lads.’”
What are your memories of the Grammys?
“Well, nobody wants to wear a penguin suit, do they? I remember the first time we were at a rehearsal and got a call saying 1916 had been nominated. We thought it was a prank phone call so told them to fuck off!
To actually win a Grammy [in 2005] was fantastic – I never thought I’d end up with one on my mantlepiece. We all went to a party afterwards and my wife was trying to find me and ended up collaring James Brown, ‘Have you seen my husband?’”
Was there anything that was guaranteed to make Lem lose his temper?
“Promoters lying to us. He took off a metal door once. He was wild about some promoter, I can’t remember what it was over, but he just took this big metal door off its hinges.
Lem was a gentleman 99% of the time, until something pissed him off and then he’d fight for his rights. You could only push him so far. He couldn’t stand to be surrounded by idiots; he liked good, long and deep conversations with people. He demanded our ticket prices always be in the range of the working man, so everyone could hopefully afford to see us. I know we couldn’t put huge amounts on those tickets anyway – we’re not U2 or Madonna – but he was insistent about that.”
What was the worst argument you had in the band?
“We’d have a few disagreements in the studio, but nothing too major. I remember going to A&M studios, Howard Benson was producing and we’re in the big room, me, Lem and Mikkey and we ended up arguing about something. Howard said, ‘I can settle this for you now, I’ve been recording the last 20 minutes.’ We all go into the control room and he plays it back, and it turns out Lem was wrong.
Lem was eating this cheeseburger, and suddenly rammed it into the mixing desk, getting all this cheese and lettuce gummed up into this two-million-dollar desk. Poor Howard, he had to call out and say, ‘Can we get a repair man? Lemmy from Motorhead’s just trashed our desk with a cheeseburger.’”
How tough was that final tour?
“He had good days and bad days, but whenever we said, ‘Lem, maybe we should take a break’ he refused. He wanted to just keep going. That last week was chaos. I was hospitalised because I was bleeding to death; something had burst in me and we had to cancel a gig. But nobody realised Berlin was going to be the last show. We knew Lem wasn’t well, but he was determined to carry on. We never knew it’d escalate how it did. His passing was a big shock.
My doctor said I wasn’t allowed to fly to Los Angeles for the funeral, so I got my friend Miko Brando – Marlon Brando’s son – who owns a flower shop in Los Angeles, they got this flower display so it was a big mirror and a line of speed, made out of flowers. That’s what I sent to his funeral. I was gutted I couldn’t be there but I made sure to send him one last line of speed though.”
If he was still around today, what do you think he’d be doing?
“The same thing he always did; we’d be playing in Motorhead. We never talked about the end, we always talked about the next album, the next tour, the next gig, the next song. We’d still be blasting away, like it or not.”
Why do you think we’re still talking about Lemmy today?
“Because he was Lemmy. There was nobody like him before, and won’t be ever again. People loved him.”
Read more about Motorhead in the Metal Hammer cover feature from November 2025 and the ultimate Motorhead playlist – as picked by members of Metallica, Judas Priest, Lamb Of God and more.
