Motörhead have tipped their hats to Aussie-bred rock n’ rollers Airbourne following their new musical tribute to late legend Lemmy Kilmister.
The veteran Melbourne riff-slingers have just dropped a new RnFnR anthem all about the Jack-drinkingest, bass-shreddingest, devil-dancingest dude there ever was — their friend and mentor, Lemmy — dubbed It’s All For Rock N’ Roll.
Lyrically, the song is all about exalting Lem as the rock n’ roll god he was and will always be, and the matching video features footage of the Great Man’s cameo in the 2007 video for Airbourne’s Runnin’ Wild, inter-spliced with clips of the band performing under Motörhead’s legendary Bomber jet skeleton lighting rig.
“We really like this,” Motörhead posted on Facebook. “Thank you Airbourne, for this spine chilling tribute.”
Just FYI: for all intents and purposes, Motörhead died with Lem, but their social media presence seems to be continuing on through drummer Mikkey Dee.
Airbourne were fortunate enough to share the stage with the speed-metal icons on multiple occasions over their decade-plus career — both in Europe and Australia — and in his own statement, frontman Joel O’Keeffe says ‘It’s All For Rock N’ Roll’ was not only recorded to honour “one of rock’s most revered and influential figures”, but also to “celebrate the hard rock genre as a whole, the loyalty and the legacy…”
“When Motörhead played, Lemmy was there for the fans and the fans were there for him,” he says. “It didn’t matter what was happening in the world at that point, because Motörhead was onstage; the crew had everything dialled in, and the crowd were there and lovin’ it – all for rock ‘n’ roll…
“Whenever we were on tour, we looked forward to seeing the festival posters with the big Motörhead logo on there, and now there’s just a big black hole. ‘We are Motörhead, and we play rock ‘n’ roll’, we were so used to hearing that, and when it’s not there anymore, it hits you hard…
“Lemmy meant so much to us, and so much to rock ‘n’ roll itself…”
Catch Airbourne’s musical tribute to Lem — which has been sliced off their 2016 album Breakin’ Outta Hell — below.
