Legendary Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister passed away in his Los Angeles apartment on December 28, 2015 from complications due to prostate cancer among other health issues. In an interview with Classic Rock, Ozzy Osbourne reveals he spoke to Lemmy the morning he died. Osbourne said he couldn't figure out what Lemmy was talking about throughout the conversation, and "wanted to talk to someone else who was there." Which is tragic beyond words, but maybe nice that Osbourne got to hear his friend's voice one last time.
"He was a good man, Lemmy was. All the guys from Motörhead have gone now, from the original band. It's hard to lose anyone you love. I was talking to Lemmy on the morning that he died, but I couldn't understand what he was talking about. I wanted to talk to someone else who was there, but they kept giving the phone to Lemmy."
Osbourne has always spoken highly of Lemmy, and even named him his "rock god" in a 2021 interview.
"My rock god is Lemmy Kilmister. Lemmy was a guy – he shot from the hip every time. 'That sucks,' or, 'I like that.' I'm good at starting lyrics, but I can't finish them. And he'd go – he'd write a bunch of lyrics for my songs – 'Mama, I'm Coming Home.'
"So, I'd give him a tape, and I had this book on World War II. I haven't read it and I told him, 'Tell me what you think. And I have a bunch of these lyrics – whenever you can…' I'm thinking, it's gonna be a week. And he says, 'Come back in about four hours.' So I got back, and he goes, 'What do you think about these?' And I go, 'Oh, great.' He then goes, 'What about these?' I go, 'Oh, you got two…?'
"He goes, 'No, I got another one – three.' I go, 'You had written three sets of lyrics?!' He said, 'Yeah, and that book was crap!' I said, 'What book?' He says, 'The book you gave me.' He was a speed-reader! He could read really fast. He was amazing! You look at people like Lemmy and you think, 'Oh, he's a yob [a rude, noisy, and aggressive young person].' But he was very well-educated."
Osbourne also released the 30th anniversary edition of No More Tears in 2021, which included a special version of "Hellraiser" featuring Lemmy on vocals. Check that out below.
