In a new interview, drummer Mikkey Dee says there will “never” be a tour billed under the Motörhead name following the 2015 passing of frontman Lemmy Kilmister. That said, the surviving members of the band still intend to cover Motörhead songs in other live formats.
“No,” Dee said when asked by The Metal Voice podcast about a hypothetical Motörhead reunion [as transcribed by Blabbermouth]. “I really don’t think [the fans] want us to do that. That, to me, is stepping over the line. We will never, ever, ever tour with Motörhead as a name ever and bring someone else in [to play Lemmy’s parts]. That will never happen. But what we are doing is doing some shows here and there.”
Dee goes on to say that he’s recently performed Motörhead songs with other musicians and that is was “great to play the old classics again.”
“But it has nothing to do with trying to be Motörhead,” he clarified. “And this is not advertised as Motörhead; it’s advertised [as] ‘Mikkey Dee With Friends,’ for instance. So there’s definitely a line there.”
As for other acts that have had “posthumous” reunions — notably the ongoing Pantera tour — Dee said it’s important for fans to distinguish genuine celebrations from obvious cash grabs.
“I just don’t get it [as to why fans complain so much about that],” Dee said. “I just don’t get it. Because all [fans] have to do, if they have such a problem with it, just stop listening and stop following. But there is people out there that still wanna hear these songs. But with that said, it has to be done in a respectful and tasteful manner. And I won’t mention any bands or names here, but everyone does not do that, and they’re kind of overstepping, where it kind of becomes so obvious that there only is money that they’re out for.”
While Motörhead are effectively over as a live band following Lemmy’s passing in 2015, the band’s camp has continued to pull from the archives to offer fans previously unreleased live albums and studio tracks. Most recently, two shelved studio-recorded tracks from the Bad Magic sessions were unearthed for an expanded reissue of that LP.
You can watch the full interview with Mikkey Dee below.