Motörhead drummer Mikkey Dee has emphatically stated the band will “never, ever, ever tour” under the name again.
Dee, who took over the sticks for the British heavy metal icons in 1992, stated that the band are over as a live act following frontman Lemmy Kilmister‘s death in 2015. However, he did add that wouldn’t stop surviving members from covering Motörhead songs live.
“I really don’t think [the fans] want us to do that,” Dee told The Metal Voice podcast – see the full interview below. “That, to me, is stepping over the line. We will never, ever, ever tour with Motörhead as a name ever and bring someone else in. That will never happen. But what we are doing is doing some shows here and there.”
When asked about the fact that the Swedish drummer himself has played Motörhead songs live with other musicians since Lemmy’s death, Dee simply said it was “great to play the old classics again”.
However, he added: “It has nothing to do with trying to be Motörhead, and this is not advertised as Motörhead; it’s advertised [as] ‘Mikkey Dee With Friends,’ for instance. So there’s definitely a line there.”
Given the demand for acts to continue touring, with or without original or key members, Dee gave his own thought on the controversial subject of “posthumous” reunions. “I just don’t get it,” he said when asked about the idea of a band touring after the passing of key members. “Because all [fans] have to do, if they have such a problem with it, just stop listening and stop following.
“But there is people out there that still wanna hear these songs. With that said, it has to be done in a respectful and tasteful manner. And, I won’t mention any bands or names here, but everyone does not do that, and they’re kind of overstepping, where it kind of becomes so obvious that there only is money that they’re out for [sic].”
While Motörhead are effectively over as a live band following Lemmy’s passing in 2015, the band’s surviving members and camp have continued to pull music from the archives for fans in the form of previously unreleased live albums and studio tracks.
Most recently, two shelved studio-recorded tracks from the Bad Magic sessions were unearthed for an expanded reissue of that LP. One outtake from the recording of their 22nd album, came in the form of ‘Greedy Bastards’.