Ian Frasier Kilmister, best known as "Lemmy" the frontman of British rock and roll band Motörhead, has passed away at the age of 70.

Following a series of cancelled shows due to exhaustion and well-publicized illnesses-- including a hematoma for which he underwent surgery --Kilmister was very recently diagnosed with cancer. He succumbed to illness two days later on December 28th.

He told British music journalist Mark Beech, "I will be killed by death. I might be killed by too much booze, women, or music, but it's not a bad way to die." 

Kilmister's decades-long career in rock and roll kicked off with a brief stint as a roadie for the Jimi Hendrix Experience before being hired into Hawkwind, whose sound he helped forge and popularize before being fired for "using the wrong drugs," as he wrote in his autobiography, White Line Fever.

Later he would go on to found, and remain the only consistent member of Motörhead, singing and playing bass for over 40 years with one of the most iconic rock bands ever.

Lemmy's attitude towards living the rock and roll lifestyle was uninhibited by age, illness, gravity, or cancer. In recent years, he was known to have switched from whiskey to vodka and orange juice, as he understood it, for "health reasons." 

[anad]

But beyond the madness and music, Lemmy was known to be an ultimately sincere, albeit cynical human being and deeply loved by many.

Take a look at the video below from an old segment called "Ask Lemmy." The first and last questions are silly, but the second is tough, and we can see Lemmy's heart show through his motor head with his answer.

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[via The Guardian] [Feature Image Courtesy Instagram]