When Lemmy’s Fast Work Amazed Ozzy Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne remembered the time Lemmy Kilmister proved how fast he worked by writing three sets of lyrics and reading a book in a single four-hour period.
The Black Sabbath singer described the late Motorhead frontman as his “rock god” in a recently broadcast interview with BBC Radio 2. He also discussed the experience of writing the song “Mama, I’m Coming Home” with Kilmister for Osbourne's 1991 solo album No More Tears.
“I’m good at starting lyrics, but I can’t finish them,” Osbourne said. “He’d write a bunch of lyrics for my songs. … I’d give him a tape, and I had this book on World War II. I haven’t read it, and I tell him, ‘Tell me what you think. And I have a bunch of these lyrics [for] whenever you can.” He expected to hear from Lemmy in about a week but instead the bassist told him: “Come back in about four hours.”
“So I got back, and he goes, ‘What do you think about these?’ And I go, ‘Oh, great.’ He then goes, ‘What about these?’ I go, ‘Oh, you got two?’ He goes, ‘No, I got another one – three.’ I go, ‘You have written three sets of lyrics?’ He said, ‘Yeah … and that book was crap!’ I said, ‘What book?’ He says, ‘The book you gave me.’”
Describing Kilmister as “a guy who shot from the hip every time,” Osbourne noted that "he was a speed reader. He could read really fast. He was amazing! You look at people like Lemmy and you think, ‘Oh, he's a yob.’ But he was very well-educated.”