Astounding Facts

Lemmy Kilminster has been in Motorhead for nearly 15 years and no one ever offered him a movie part--perhaps producers were scared off by the band’s initial slogan: “If we move in next door to you, your lawn will die!” But now you can see him in (count ‘em) two films. In addition to “Decline,” the irascible metal vet is also co-starring in “Eat the Rich,” a new British black comedy that displays an ex-boxer turned right-wing Home Secretary and a posh restaurant which unwittingly serves human delicacies. Needless to say, Lemmy fits in perfectly--he’s cast as Spider, a rather dim ‘80s buccaneer and rock musician who doubles as an arms dealer to terrorists.

“I dunno how I ended up doing this, really,” Lemmy acknowledged when in town recently. “It wasn’t so bad. Apart from having to get up at 5:30 a.m., the hardest thing was hanging around between shots for hours at a time, which did get boring. But if I didn’t know I was playing myself in the film, I’d say I was pretty competent. I saw the movie and I didn’t cringe once. I like playing bad guys--they seem to get all the good parts.”

As for heavy metal, Lemmy insists that it’s the kind of music which will always appeal to kids eager to shock or scandalize their parents. “It’s the music of rebellion, the stuff your mother won’t let you play in the house,” he said. “It’s the natural successor to early rock ‘n’ roll. If Eddie Cochrane were 19 today, he’d be a guitar player in a heavy-metal band. You can’t imagine him being in Duran Duran, can you?”