Mikkey Dee tells Undercover that Motörhead sound “better than ever” in their 35th year.
Undercover was lucky enough to have a chat with longtime drummer Mikkey Dee from rock icons Motörhead prior to their Australian tour.
At the time they were charging through the US with Valient Thorr and Clutch. Like the manic fans that cause support acts to get Slayerfied (i.e. getting drowned out by chants of “Slayer!” until they get off stage before the thrash legends), I suspected Motörhead fans might be equally unforgiving.
Clutch apparently have no troubles. Dee chuckles, “They go down like a storm, they’re such a good band. There’s no problem there.”
“We have had bands that have had a problem, yes,” he ponders, “But I don’t quite remember off the top of my head who that was. We have had bands that don’t go down as well but it doesn’t mean they’re a bad band or anything. Maybe they just didn’t fit with our tour.”
Over the decades Motörhead have played far and wide, supporting some massive bands themselves, including a jaunt through Australia with a reformed Motley Crue. So they’ve never felt worried as a support themselves?
“No, not really,” Dee says. “I can’t say I have. We’ve gone down super good or less good, but not really.” So even though critics were less than kind twenty years ago, they’ve never been sent running? “No, we’ve never been booed off stage,” Dee smiles.
Motörhead’s forthcoming tour has an apt synergy with cult ‘70s psychedelic rockers Hawkwind’s visit to Australia. Since figurehead Lemmy Kilmister was actually a part of the line-up of Hawkwind at one stage (he’s joked in the past that he was booted out of the band for taking the wrong drugs), I asked if there was any chance he’d appear with them ever again?
“We don’t have time for that,” Dee says. “We’re touring right up until the Australian dates. I don’t think Lemmy even knew that. Maybe he got asked. But we’re touring so hard we don’t have much time for other events.”
Motörhead’s twentieth studio album The World Is Yours sees them on a new label – their own. Their previous label SPV went bankrupt so, Dee says, “we just took the best personnel who we know and have worked with for so many years, who really stayed close, and we formed our own label, basically.”
They can certainly call their own shots now. From a mind-boggling guest slot on The Young Ones in 1984, they’re now playing to millions on huge tonight shows like Leno, Letterman and Conan.
As with everything else, Dee seems magnanimous about the move to icon status. Tonight show performances are “a good chance to get the album out. Conan was really cool and it has gone down really well.”
It seems new fans are jumping on board well into the band’s fourth decade plus, Dee says “the old fans are clinging on to Motörhead so we’re moving forward, big time.”
While most rock fans would give up a limb to tour the world for decades with Motörhead, I ask whether Dee has any regrets after giving so much of his life to the road.
“I’m sure there’s a million things that I would’ve liked to have done,” he muses. “Nothing that I can think of right at this moment. But there are opportunities to do little bits and pieces here and there. I’m glad I went to the jungle in Malaysia, for instance.”
‘The jungle’ was his 2009 stint on his home country of Sweden’s version of the reality TV series I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here called Kändisdjungeln.
“It was one of those things some people didn’t understand and I said they gotta be crazy,” he recalls. “I’ve been touring non-stop since 1984 and I wanted to go up to the jungle for three weeks. It got accepted after I did it but I would’ve been very regretful if I didn’t do it.”
Mikkey Dee actually took third place on the show. While he says, “I was just happy to be there,” he also insists, “I could’ve won the whole thing. I kinda screwed it up myself not to be in the final but that’s a long story. It was great and I was just happy I lasted that long.”
Speaking of the screen, we’re right at the apogee of Lemmy love, following the huge success of the recent documentary centred around the rock warrior with the handlebar mo.
Dee shares the same respect that seemingly everyone in the music biz does for Lemmy. “I think he’s done a lot in his career and I think it’s great that people respect him the way they do,” Dee admits. “He’s a great frontperson which I think is extremely good because otherwise the band wouldn’t be where we are. It’s just good. I don’t really think about it.”
Lemmy is now 65. Motörhead have been a band for 35 years. The World Is Yours is album number 20 and it’s 20 years in the band for Mikkey himself. How much do they think about landmarks?
“It’s just numbers to us, really,” he shrugs. “There will be a DVD recorded this year, it will be the 36th anniversary, I would think. For us, it’s just numbers. Everyone else keeps coming up with the numbers. We keep going and roll with it. We don’t think it about twice.”
And with Judas Priest retiring and AC/DC talking about it, Motörhead have no plans on the horizon. “Why would we?” Dee posits. “We sound better than ever. There’s no reason to retire.”
Tickets are on sale now for Motörhead's Australian tour.
Motörhead Tour 2011
Saturday 26 March – Festival Hall, Melbourne
Monday 28 March – Big Top, Sydney
Wednesday 30 March – Theabarton, Adelaide
Friday 1 April – Convention Centre, Gold Coast
VIDEO: Check out our interview with metal king Dave Mustaine from Megadeth below.
