Dee Snider recently spoke with VintageRock Pod about his friendship with Lemmy Kilmister. The Twisted Sister frontman claimed that the entire music industry attended Lemmy’s funeral, along with a family that held a particular place in Lemmy’s heart: “We’re at the Lemmy Memorial, and I’m sitting with my wife, and everyone was there.” Ozzy was there, as were Slash and the Foo Fighters, and the list goes on and on. However, his shoemaker was present. Pascal Cooper, a family that followed him over Europe, and Lemmy would always welcome them backstage since they were always following him. They were all present, and they all stood up and talked.” Dee then shared his wife Suzette’s idea that Lemmy was a celestial person, and he explained why it spoke to him: “My wife is a very spiritual person, and she leans over me and says, ‘I think Lemmy was an angel.'” ‘What?’ I exclaimed. ‘They claim they send angels down to Earth to guide us on our trip,’ she says. And I answered, ‘I suppose Lemmy may have been sent down.’ Pay attention to what these folks are saying. Everyone has a tale about how Lemmy influenced, altered, or helped them along the way.
Every single one of these people is coming up there, and everyone has a story to share about how Lemmy influenced their life.” Snider also claimed that, while he was initially opposed to the idea of a motorcycle pirate being an angel, Suzette persuaded him: “And I said, ‘So you’re saying God sent down a biker pirate to guide me on my way?'” ‘Would you have listened to someone with long flowing robes?’ she asked. I just gazed at her and then listened to the stories people were telling. So I’m not the most spiritual person, but that was Lemmy.” As Dee stated, Lemmy influenced the lives of many people, including Motörhead drummer Mikkey Dee. Mikkey noted in an interview in 2016 that after becoming ill, Lemmy became overprotective of both his own health and the well-being of others around him: “I’m not sure I want to sit here and say what he was and wasn’t doing with drugs.” I can say this: he stopped doing everything for a long time since he was surprised when he fell unwell [in 2013]. I only remember him telling me, ‘The day you try drugs, you’re f*cking fired.
‘ [Laughs] I’ve never experimented with drugs. I drink beer, but he made sure I never tried narcotics. If I had done it, the entire system would have crashed.” The Prince of Darkness expressed his thoughts and feelings regarding Kilmister in a separate interview in 2022: “I think about Lemmy all the time.” He was a wonderful person. He’d say things like, ‘That album you just recorded was fucking trash’ or ‘I really like that one.’ ‘Your best record was ‘No More Tears,’ was his favorite line. You c*nt, since you wrote on it!” Ozzy also stated how powerful Lemmy’s final remarks to him were: “‘I’m pretty sure I’m going to die. I never expected to make 70, but I did well.’ ‘I could have lived a lot longer and taken better care of myself, but I lived my life the way I wanted to live, and I ain’t got no regrets,’ he said. That’s all right!” The entire interview is available below.
