Book Review: Booze, Bass, Bombers & One of Rock ’n’ Roll’s Greatest Characters
Author: Lemmy Kilmister with Janiss Garza
Published: 2002
Genre: Music / Autobiography / Rock ’n’ Roll
Riff Report Rating: 🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸 5/5
There are rock autobiographies.
There are outrageous rock autobiographies.
And then there’s White Line Fever.
If you’re expecting Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister to spend several hundred pages thoughtfully contemplating fame while staring wistfully through the window of a country cottage, you’ve picked up the wrong bloody book, butt.
This is Lemmy.
Motörhead. Hawkwind. The Rickenbacker bass. The moustache. The boots. The Jack Daniel’s. The fruit machines. The uncompromising attitude. And enough rock ’n’ roll stories to make your average tour manager spontaneously develop a nervous twitch.
Published in 2002 and written with Janiss Garza, White Line Fever is exactly what a Lemmy autobiography ought to be: funny, filthy, opinionated, occasionally outrageous and gloriously uninterested in behaving itself.
And underneath all the madness is something even better.
It feels like Lemmy is sitting next to you telling the stories himself.
Grab a drink.
Turn Motörhead up.
We’re going in. 🤘🔥
⚡ Before Motörhead… There Was Ian Kilmister
One of the joys of White Line Fever is discovering just how much happened before Motörhead even existed.
Lemmy’s story doesn’t begin with Ace of Spades.
It begins with Ian Fraser Kilmister, born in Stoke-on-Trent in 1945, growing up in post-war Britain and eventually becoming completely consumed by rock ’n’ roll.
The young Lemmy was fascinated by music, girls and the rebellious possibilities that came with both.
And that’s important.
Because throughout the book, you realise Lemmy never really treated rock ’n’ roll as a career.
It was a way of living.
He belonged to that generation who witnessed rock music transforming from teenage entertainment into something dangerous, rebellious and culturally enormous.
The Beatles arrive.
The Stones happen.
Amplifiers get louder.
Hair gets longer.
Parents get increasingly worried.
Beautiful.
🎸 The Road to Hawkwind
Before Lemmy became synonymous with Motörhead, he spent years bouncing around the British music scene.
There were early bands, roadie jobs, endless gigs and enough strange characters to fill several autobiographies.
One particularly fascinating part of Lemmy’s pre-Motörhead life is his connection with Jimi Hendrix.
Lemmy worked as a roadie during Hendrix’s time in Britain, giving him a front-row view of one of the most extraordinary guitarists who ever lived.
Imagine that for a CV.
Previous employment:
Roadie for Jimi Hendrix.
Bass player in Hawkwind.
Founder of Motörhead.
Professional destroyer of hearing.
Tidy. 😂
🚀 Hawkwind: Space Rock Meets Lemmy
Eventually Lemmy joined Hawkwind, and things became considerably stranger.
Hawkwind were already operating in their own psychedelic universe, blending space rock, electronics, improvisation and counterculture weirdness.
Lemmy initially wasn’t exactly your conventional bassist.
Which turned out to be perfect.
His approach helped create that distinctive distorted bass sound that would later become absolutely central to Motörhead.
Rather than sitting politely underneath the guitars, Lemmy effectively treated the bass like a rhythm guitar with anger-management problems.
And it sounded magnificent.
His years with Hawkwind produced some fantastic music, including his unmistakable contribution to “Silver Machine”, one of the band’s best-known songs.
But this being Lemmy, things weren’t destined to end quietly.
💊 Getting Fired From Hawkwind
This section alone could probably have inspired a film.
During Hawkwind’s North American touring adventures in 1975, Lemmy was arrested in Canada on drug-related charges.
The situation ultimately contributed to Hawkwind deciding that Lemmy’s time in the band was over.
He was fired.
For many musicians, being kicked out of a successful band would be catastrophic.
For Lemmy?
It was basically the opening credits.
Because shortly afterwards, he decided to start another band.
And that band would become…
♠️ MOTÖRHEAD.
Ohhhh yes.
Now we’re cooking. 🔥
♠️ The Birth of Motörhead
The formation of Motörhead is where White Line Fever really shifts into another gear.
Lemmy wanted something loud.
Something fast.
Something dirty.
Something that combined the aggression of punk with the volume and power of hard rock.
Eventually the classic trio emerged:
Lemmy Kilmister – bass and vocals
“Fast” Eddie Clarke – guitar
Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor – drums
Three blokes.
An obscene amount of amplification.
Absolutely no interest in subtlety.
Motörhead weren’t exactly metal.
They weren’t exactly punk.
They weren’t exactly traditional rock.
They were simply Motörhead.
And that’s perhaps the greatest compliment you can give them.
🔥 When Motörhead Nearly Fell Apart Before They’d Even Started
One thing White Line Fever makes very clear is that Motörhead’s eventual success wasn’t guaranteed.
Not remotely.
There were difficult gigs, record-label problems, money issues, personnel changes and moments when the whole thing looked ready to collapse.
At one stage, Motörhead were considered such a hopeless proposition that their future looked practically nonexistent.
Which makes what happened next even better.
Because eventually the world caught up with them.
Albums including Overkill, Bomber and Ace of Spades transformed Motörhead into one of Britain’s most formidable rock bands.
And suddenly the three maniacs everyone had underestimated were becoming legends.
♠️ ACE OF SPADES
You can’t discuss Lemmy without eventually arriving at that riff.
You know the one.
DA-DA-DA-DAAAAAA…
“Ace of Spades” became Motörhead’s signature song and one of the most recognisable tracks in rock history.
But one of the funniest things about Lemmy was that he never seemed particularly interested in treating it like some sacred masterpiece.
To him, it was another Motörhead song.
A bloody good one, obviously.
But another song nonetheless.
That attitude runs throughout the autobiography.
Lemmy isn’t particularly interested in constructing his own legend.
If something went brilliantly, he’ll tell you.
If something was rubbish, he’ll tell you that too.
If someone annoyed him forty years earlier?
Oh, he’ll definitely tell you. 😂
🍺 Sex, Drugs & Rock ’n’ Roll
Right.
We should probably address the elephant wearing cowboy boots in the room.
This book isn’t exactly a health-and-wellness manual.
Lemmy’s legendary lifestyle features heavily, and he recounts stories involving drinking, drugs, relationships, touring and general rock ’n’ roll excess with remarkably little filtering.
Some stories are hilarious.
Some are unbelievable.
Some make you wonder how anyone involved survived until breakfast.
But what makes White Line Fever work is that Lemmy rarely appears to be bragging.
He’s simply telling you what happened.
Sometimes that distinction gets very, very funny.
There is also a fascinating cultural difference between reading the book today and imagining how it landed in 2002.
Some attitudes and stories belong very clearly to another era. Modern readers may occasionally find themselves raising an eyebrow somewhere towards the ceiling.
But sanitising Lemmy would completely defeat the purpose.
This is his story told in his voice.
Messy bits included.
😂 Lemmy Is Bloody Funny
Perhaps the biggest surprise for readers who only know the intimidating Motörhead image is just how funny Lemmy could be.
His humour is dry.
His observations can be brutal.
And he possesses a spectacular ability to cut through nonsense.
That makes White Line Fever ridiculously readable.
It doesn’t feel like some carefully manufactured celebrity autobiography where every anecdote has been polished by twelve PR executives.
Instead, it feels like somebody pressed record and said:
“Right, Lem. Start at the beginning.”
And Lemmy responded:
“How long have you got?”
That conversational quality is one of the book’s greatest strengths.
🎰 Lemmy the Collector, Gambler & History Nut
Another fascinating element is everything that existed outside Motörhead.
Lemmy was famously interested in history and military memorabilia, particularly material connected with the Second World War.
He was also a committed gambler and became almost as associated with fruit machines as he was with Jack Daniel’s.
These interests help flesh out the man behind the enormous public image.
Because beneath the leather, volume and chaos was someone who was curious.
He read.
He collected.
He remembered.
He had opinions about practically everything.
And Lord help you if you asked for one. 😂
🤘 Motörhead Wasn’t Always One Big Happy Family
If you’re hoping for a fluffy story about three lifelong mates skipping happily into the sunset together…
Nope.
Bands are complicated.
Successful bands are even more complicated.
And successful bands spending months together in vans, studios, hotels and backstage rooms while playing music at approximately the volume of an aircraft engine?
Yeah.
Things happen.
Lemmy discusses the changing Motörhead line-ups, departures, disagreements and frustrations with characteristic bluntness.
The relationship between Lemmy, Fast Eddie Clarke and Phil Taylor remains one of the most fascinating parts of the band’s history.
They created something absolutely ferocious together.
But keeping that chemistry functioning indefinitely was another matter entirely.
🔊 The Bass Sound That Changed Heavy Music
It’s impossible to finish White Line Fever without appreciating how unusual Lemmy’s musical role really was.
He didn’t play bass like a conventional bassist.
He created this snarling, distorted wall of sound that occupied the space between bass and guitar.
Then he stood at the microphone — famously positioned high so he could tilt his head upwards — and delivered that unmistakable gravel-covered voice.
There has never really been another Lemmy.
Plenty have copied the clothes.
Plenty have copied the distortion.
Plenty have tried the attitude.
But the whole package?
Impossible.
❤️ There’s More Heart Here Than You Might Expect
For all the drugs, booze, arguments, sex and touring insanity, White Line Fever isn’t simply a catalogue of debauchery.
There are moments of genuine affection.
Friendships mattered to Lemmy.
Music mattered enormously.
Loyalty mattered.
And his respect for the musicians who genuinely impressed him comes through repeatedly.
That gives the book heart beneath the armour.
Lemmy might have cultivated one of rock’s toughest images, but White Line Fever repeatedly reveals the intelligent, funny and surprisingly thoughtful bloke underneath it.
📖 Does the Book Still Hold Up?
Absolutely.
In fact, it might be even more fascinating now.
Lemmy died on 28 December 2015, just days after his 70th birthday, bringing one of rock’s most extraordinary lives to an end.
That inevitably changes how you read the book today.
Stories that once felt like another chapter in an ongoing adventure now form part of a completed legacy.
And what a legacy.
Motörhead influenced generations of metal, punk, thrash and hard-rock bands.
Metallica adored them.
Punk bands respected them.
Metalheads claimed them.
Rock fans loved them.
And Lemmy?
He largely ignored everyone’s attempts to categorise him and carried on playing rock ’n’ roll.
Proper job.
🎸 THE RIFF REPORT VERDICT
White Line Fever is everything you want from a rock autobiography.
It’s outrageous without feeling manufactured.
It’s funny without desperately chasing punchlines.
It’s packed with rock history without reading like a textbook.
Most importantly, it sounds like Lemmy.
You can practically hear that gravelly voice coming off the pages.
It’s imperfect, occasionally uncomfortable, completely unapologetic and absolutely bursting with personality.
For Motörhead fans, it’s essential.
For rock and metal fans, it’s close to essential.
And for anyone wondering how one bloke from Stoke-on-Trent ended up becoming one of the most instantly recognisable figures in the history of loud music, this is a cracking place to start.
Lemmy famously insisted Motörhead played rock ’n’ roll.
Not heavy metal.
Not punk.
Rock ’n’ bloody roll.
And White Line Fever might be one of the purest rock ’n’ roll autobiographies ever put on paper.
⭐ RIFF REPORT RATING: 🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸 – 5/5
Loud. Filthy. Hilarious. Unfiltered. Completely Lemmy.
Put Ace of Spades on the stereo, pour something strong — responsibly, mind — and get reading.
Because legends like Lemmy don’t come around twice.
Long live Motörhead. ♠️🤘
💬 OVER TO YOU, RIFFERS!
Have you read White Line Fever?
What’s your favourite Lemmy story — and where does Motörhead sit in your all-time list?
Get stuck into the comments.
Proudly Welsh. Proudly Loud. 🐉🤘
The Riff Report Blog
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