Motorhead and Hawkwind

Prior to his career as the lead singer of heavy metal band Motörhead, Lemmy Kilmister (1945-2015) was part of Hawkwind, but his relationship with the band ended in 1975 after being arrested for substance possession. Shortly before being dismissed from the group, Lemmy had written a song titled ‘Motorhead’, with the intentions of working on it with fellow band members. Given the circumstances and although Hawkwind ended up releasing the track without Lemmy, the latter decided to create his very own project and used his song’s name. That’s how Motorhead was born. Speaking to Rolling Stone magazine, however, the ‘Ace of Spades’ hitmaker revealed that the relevance of the track was only related to his second band’s name. He said: “The song was about speed, and it was an issue to Hawkwind, and that’s why I got fired. I never asked them what they thought of Motorhead after that. I didn’t care what they thought of it. I don’t think of ‘Motorhead’ as a defining song, though. That song’s long gone for me now.”