kilmister was known as the growling , whisky - drinking , mutton - chops wearing frontman , famous for turning his amplifiers up to the maximum and for positioning his microphone above his head so that he had to sing looking upward .
as the band release their 22nd studio album , bad magic , he explains how 50 years of hard rocking have taken their toll lemmy is as much a collection of myths and legends as a man .
heavy metal band motörhead 's lead singer ian ( lemmy ) kilmister has died at the age of 70 , the band announced via its official facebook page monday night .
he will be sadly missed .
after cutting his teeth in beat bands in the 1960s , he the motörhead frontman has changed his lifestyle – he has switched from whiskey to vodka – in the battle for health .
some of the legends he has tired of – he ’s fed up of being asked about being jimi hendrix ’s roadie , being sacked from hawkwind – for what , at heart , appeared to be taking the wrong kind of drug ( speed , rather than the hallucinogens the rest of the band preferred ) – and about the nazi memorabilia collection ( anyone who has seen the documentary about him will know how extensive it is , seemingly taking up most of his apartment in west hollywood ) .
 
the band stated that the singer , who was commonly known as lemmy , found out he had cancer on dec. 26 .
in the popular imagination , he ’s made up of equal parts jack daniel ’s , amphetamine sulphate , nazi memorabilia and extreme - velocity noise .