LEMMY FOREVER

The Motörhead icon may be gone, but he lives on in bullet casings, statues and tattoos. This is how Lemmy’s ashes were spread around the world

WORDS: PAUL TRAVERS

Andy Edwards’ amazingly detailed statue of Lemmy takes pride of place in the great man’s birthplace of Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent

GETTY/RYAN JENKINSON

Given Lemmy’s views and lyrical swipes at organised religion, it’s anyone’s guess what sort of afterlife he’s having. ‘No one knows, friends or foes, if Valhalla lies beyond the grave’ he declared on Deaf Forever. Still, it would be nice to think the old road warrior is sneakily pouring his Odin-approved mead into the nearest plant pot and replacing it with Jack Daniel’s.

One thing is for certain: Lemmy’s physical presence remains here on Earth, at least in some fashion. Following his death on December 28, 2015, some of his ashes were locked into bullet casings and sent to some of his family and closest friends.

“They have screws so we can put the ashes in, and then we lock in the screw and you can’t open it,” says Motörhead’s long-time manager Todd Singerman, who is part of a small ‘committee’ of people who take care of Lemmy’s legacy, including distributing the ashes. “We gave him to a lot of his friends that he loved, family. Now he’s with them for life - they can carry him with them. I guess our goal is to let him be with the people he loved in the places he loved.”