THE MISADVENTURES OF BLACK FRANK – Pt. 2: Shopping With Lemmy (Yes, THAT Lemmy)


SHOPPING WITH LEMMY
By: Frank Webb

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When I arrived in Louisville, Kentucky from the Bay Area, I had a wife and a young son. I immediately got a job as assistant food and beverage director at a big hotel downtown. It sucked, but I had to do it. Then, rock radio station, 100.5 The Fox happened to me, which led to ‘The Metal Pit’, an hourly metal genre based radio show I hosted at midnight on Saturdays. The boss at the hotel thought I was Satan. Oh well, didn’t like the job anyway.
Now, with a family to support, I had to find another job, fast. One of the main sponsors on the early Fox was a fellow from the east coast named Marc Suna. He ran a number of bars over the years, like Club Caddys’, and now he had taken over the old Grand Theater in New Albany, Indiana (just across the Ohio River from Louisville) and planned to turn it into a nightclub. He was always at the station, doing his own commercials in a thick accent. “It’s not New Yawk… It’s New Awwl-bah-nee”
One morning, I run into Marc, and, after a conversation about his plans to have rock bands at the Grand, he offers me a job as “Entertainment Director” I need a job, so I take it.  A couple of weeks in, I’m wondering when we’re going to have a show. Finally, Marc calls me in and says “I think I got ya a rock band”  so I ask, “Who?” He then asks, “Have you evah heard of Motah-head? I can get ’em pretty cheap.” I instantly thought to myself, “Holy shit, Motörhead?!” I tried not to act too excited, finally answering answering him, “Yeah, go ahead and book them, but I’m doing the commercials.”
After a few frantic weeks of promotion, it was showtime. Motörhead was on tour with Black Sabbath at the time, were on a night off, and were picking up a few extra bucks. I was there bright and early in my dual roles as club host and radio host. When I got there at 9 in the morning, the bus was already parked in front, locked up tight. After a while, the door opens and, before anyone else, out pops iconic front-man Lemmy Kilmister, probably dressed in the clothes he wore on stage the night before, complete with the leather vest and vintage motorcycle hat, truly a larger than life figure standing in front of me in downtown New Albany holding a cocktail in his hand at 10 in the morning.
I introduced myself and we went inside to conduct an interview that we broadcast live on the station. Two things became quickly apparent, Lemmy is very well-educated, articulate and he didn’t need me to ask him any questions. He just let out a stream of everything he and the band were doing and ordered everyone to buy a ticket or face dire consequences. Makes doing an interview pretty easy.
Afterward, I asked him if there was anything he needed and his reply caught me off guard. “I want to go shopping. Do you know any good antique stores?” he asked in his thick English accent. They didn’t have Google back then, so I looked in the phone book, found a couple, and off we went, me and Lemmy, in my blue Ford Escort Wagon, shopping.
We found a shop that had a bunch of old Nazi patches and insignia. Lemmy knew what every patch signified and told stories about each one, to the amazement of the store owner. Then he bought them all. A short time later, we found ourselves in the mall. Seeing heavy metal icon Lemmy of Motörhead in full uniform walking down the hall turned a lot of heads, but nobody spoke until finally, someone yelled “Hey Lemmy, how’s your liver?” Without missing a step, Lemmy replied, “I don’t know, I’ve never seen it!”
Later on, back at the Grand, we played several games of pool and I made a futile attempt to keep up with him on cocktails. Where the fuck does he put it? The crazy thing is that he never appeared the least bit drunk. Motörhead, a four piece at the time and very loud, did a fantastic show that night for the fairly small crowd that was there. Marc seemed scared of the rabble and the music was too loud for him, so he stayed in his office. He never booked another show like that and the idea of the Grand being a rock club went away fast, as did my job there. Motörhead has not played in the Louisville area since. Over 20 years ago. It’s about time that they came back. Maybe Lemmy and I can do some more shopping.

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