Motorhead were forced to abandon their performance at the Wacken Open Air festival in Germany last night (August 2) due to Lemmy‘s health. Organizers of the festival have issued the following statement on the situation.
“Motorhead rocked the Black Stage for more than 30 minutes and Lemmy gave everything he´s got to play an amazing live show,” they said (via Brave Words). He´s keeping well – but the temperatures and circumstances led to the point that continuing the show would have led to a loss of quality. We are very happy and proud that Phil, Mikkey and particularly Mr. Rock n’ Roll himself, Lemmy Kilmister, played W:O:A 2013 and that they did everything humanly possible to play this gig. Thank you so much, guys!”
Motorhead were scheduled to play 75 minutes, but stopped after only six songs when the singer, bassist and metal icon was unable to continue. Reports from the show said that he looked pale and did not sound good. “I’ve been ill recently,” he told the crowd. “I’ve come onstage to play some rock n’ roll and f— myself even more.” Following the fifth song, he left the stage for Phil Campbell to play a guitar solo, but he came back for ‘The Chase Is Better than the Catch,’ after which the whole band walked off.
In June, it was revealed that he was fitted for a defibrilator to correct lingering heart problems, and suffered a hematoma shortly thereafter. The band subsequently canceled all of its dates through November, but they unsuccessfully tried to make a comeback at Wacken. Motorhead still plans to release their new album, ‘Aftershock,’ in September.
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