Kaaos TV conducted an interview with vocalist Mike Muir of the long-running Venice Beach, California thrash/punk band SUICIDAL TENDENCIES before the band’s January 18 concert at the Hartwall Areena in Helsinki, Finland as the support act for SLIPKNOT. You can now watch the chat below.
Asked for his feelings about the recent passing of iconic MOTÖRHEAD frontman Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister, Muir said: “Well, we just did… [MOTÖRHEAD] did that Motörboat cruise [last September/October], and we were just on it, and [Lemmy] didn’t look good.
“A lot of people will sit there and say, ‘Oh, I love this person.’ I wasn’t a big metal person, and so I wasn’t really familiar… I was like a lot of people — I knew ‘Ace Of Spades’, but I wasn’t really into a lot of those music. I got into music through punk rock, and that motivated me, because there was a couple of punk rock bands I liked and a whole bunch I did not like.”
He continued: “When someone dies, you’re supposed to say good things, but it was sad on [Motörboat], ‘cause [Lemmy] shouldn’t have been there. And I think there’s people that… There’s something to be said going out the way you want, but you know what? He wasn’t healthy, hadn’t been for a while; they’d been canceling shows. And as a person, that’s not [how] someone that was in family I’d want them to be treated. So… People won’t like it, but I shouldn’t say anything, but that’s what I feel like, you know…”
Muir added: “I appreciate anybody, on the good side, that spent so much of their time and their life to do music and do good things for other people. But I think there’s also, as I was saying earlier [in the interview] about SLIPKNOT and their crew and all the other stuff around, I think there’s people that around [Lemmy] that probably should feel pretty bad, ‘cause they didn’t handle it right.”
Lemmy, who celebrated his 70th birthday on Christmas Eve (December 24), learned two days later that he was afflicted with an aggressive form of cancer. He died two days later, on December 28, at his home in Los Angeles.
Lemmy’s manager, Todd Singerman, told Rolling Stone that when doctors told the singer that he had two to six months to live following the discovery of tumors on his brain and neck, he said, “Oh, only two months, huh?” The doctor responded, “There’s nothing anyone can do. I would be lying to you if I told you there was a chance.”
Singerman was going to keep it private, but Lemmy told him to make it public, adding that he wanted people to know. The plan was to put out the release after family and friends were contacted, but the end came sooner than anyone thought. “Here’s the shocker for me and everyone else,” said Singerman. “He’s been to a thousand doctors and hospitals throughout the world, but nobody caught this. To be told you have terminal cancer with all the blood tests he’s taken in his life and everything else? It’s very hard to grasp that. It’s not like he had a chance here. This was outright: ‘You got no more than six months.'”
Singerman and members of the band’s organization had noticed in the days prior to Lemmy’s death that he was having trouble speaking and seemed completely exhausted.
Lemmy had dealt with several health issues over the past few years, including heart trouble, forcing him to cut back on his famous smoking and Jack Daniels habits.
MOTÖRHEAD was forced to cancel a number of shows last year, although they did manage to complete one final European tour on December 11.
Source: Blabbermouth
