Late Motorhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister had a bit of a strange relationship with the Grammys when he was alive. It took the legend 30 years to win a Grammy and when he did it was for a cover of a Metallica song. Still, that didn’t stop the 2016 Grammys from paying due respect to the hard rock legend. After yet another speech about Lemmy from the Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp, and Joe Perry paid tribute to Lemmy via a set as the Hollywood Vampires.
The trio were joined by Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum of Guns N’ Roses and the band played an original song called “As Bad As I Am” before launching into “Ace Of Spades.” The set for the tribute was appropriately metal, with massive fireballs launching into the air behind the band as they played.
Cooper had previously told Rolling Stone that he felt Hollywood Vampires was a fitting band to do the tribute.“We started this band as a means to toast our ‘dead drunk friends’ at the Rainbow, all the ghosts in the bar, and now I guess Lemmy is involved in that, too,” he said.
Cooper added that Lemmy was “impossible not to like.”
“Lemmy was one of those salt-of-the-earth guys. Find me somebody who didn’t love Lemmy.”
The Grammys performance caps off several months of Lemmy tributes. Foo Fighters’ frontman Dave Grohl permanently inked an Ace Of Spades tattoo on his body. Slash tore his way through “Ace Of Spades.” Even porn sites were getting in on the game. Now, the awards show that regularly kept him out gave the main stage over so rock legends could pay homage.
