Lemmy also gave in to Christmas, with Dave Grohl and Billy Gibbons
It’s not just being born on Christmas Eve to tie Lemmy Kilmister to the Christmas holidays. Born on December 24, 1945 and passed away on December 28, 2015, at the age of 70 due to an aggressive form of cancer, the Motörhead frontman also indulged in the habit of reread Christmas classics. Next December 28th, on the occasion of tenth anniversary of his death, Rockol will dedicate a special to Lemmy. On the day before Christmas, we announce the “mixtape” dedicated to the rock and roll icon, returning to when he threw himself into the fray and also started singing Christmas songs.
Fans of metal and heavier rock will certainly be familiar with the collection published in 2008 of holiday classics reinterpreted by stars of the genre, but to some – perhaps – it will still seem unusual to think of Christmas themes revisited according to the gospel of the powerful and distorted sounds of electric guitars and relentless drum beats instead of bells and angelic choirs. “We wish you a metal Xmas and a headbanging new year“, published by Armory Records and distributed by Eagle Rock Entertainment, was born precisely from this tension. It is about a Christmas album that he put together central figures of hard rock and metal to face a traditional repertoire without sweetening it, without smoothing its edges, transforming the rituality of the holidays into a sonic declaration of belonging.
Among the tracks in the collection, “Run Rudolph run” occupies a special place. The song, originally written by Chuck Berry but credited to Johnny Marks and M. Brodie due to the trademark registered by Marks on the character of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, is one of the few Christmas classics born already within the language of rock ‘n’ roll. Over time it has been reinterpreted by numerous artists, sometimes with the title “Run run Rudolph”. Keith Richards also offered his own version in 1978, emphasizing the electric nature of the piece rather than the seasonal one. The 2008 version took the concept further, however, with Lemmy Kilmister on vocals, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top on guitar and Dave Grohl on drumsin a meeting that seemed to have been planned on the drawing board, but which actually arose in a more fragmented way, as often happens in the best stories. The result is a rough, direct version, which does not seek irony or parodybut let rock ‘n’ roll be freedom and fun.
Although engaged in a Christmas song and getting involved in one of the most consolidated rituals of the music industry, Lemmy remained Lemmywithout giving up anything of your vocabulary. It’s easy to imagine him singing the Chuck Berry classic with his black jacket and hat, and a voice that seems to come out of a room saturated with smoke and amplifiers, rather than from a studio busy celebrating the holidays. There are videos online in which the frontman of Motörhead performs “Run Rudolph run” in public, as in 2012 when he was a guest with his band on the German television program “TV Total” and sang the Christmas hit acoustically nher unmistakable uniform, come on western and military touches:
To tell the dynamics behind the making of the cover of “Run Rudolph run” was Lemmy himself, with his usual frankness: “If I had to think of my favorite musicians, I would say that I like Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top, even though I’ve never played with him”, the Motörhead frontman said in an interview for “Metal Insider” in 2011. When asked if he hadn’t recorded “Run Rudolph run” with Gibbons and Grohl, Lemmy specified: “Oh yes, we did it, but Billy wasn’t there. He added his solo afterwards. It was just me and Dave recording the tracks.”
Billy Gibbonsfor his part, recalled that Christmas collaboration during an interview with “Forbes” in 2018: “Lemmy and I were good friends and we sincerely respected each other in many aspects and on many topics. We always enjoyed it when he came to spend time with ZZ Top and vice versa. Any time with Lemmy – on tape or in person – was time well spent”.
For Dave Grohl“Run Rudolph run” is also a stage of a deeper bond. Lemmy has always been one of his absolute idolsa key figure even before the Christmas collaboration and participation in the “Probot” project of 2004, born from the desire of the Foo Fighters frontman to reunite the voices that had formed his metal imagination. A respect that Grohl reiterated years later with definitive words: “Before him I had never met what I would call a true rock ‘n’ roll hero before. To hell with Elvis and Keith Richards, Lemmy is the king of rock ‘n’ rollthe. A living, breathing, drinking, snorting fucking legend. No one else comes close”, this is how the former Nirvana drummer presented his contribution to the volume “No Remorse: The Illustrated True Stories Of Lemmy Kilmister And Motörhead”, released in 2024 by Z2 Comics. It is no coincidence that in 2020, with the Foo Fighters, he returned to record “Run Rudolph Run”, as if that Christmas rush had never stopped.
Ultimately, this is also the meaning of that cover of “Run Rudolph run” with Lemmy on vocals: a Christmas that doesn’t ask for redemption or atmosphere, but claims the right to exist according to other rules. And if there’s room under the tree for a voice like Lemmy Kilmister’s, then maybe parties can also handle the volume at maximum.
