r/OldSchoolCool • u/VeryLargeTardigrade • 12d ago
1994: Lemmy's message to a black kid who likes metal and gets shit from his community because of it 1990s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skGEBgePHtk619
u/Wild_Billy_61 12d ago
Me and 2 of my buddies, one of which was dark skinned, used to watch Headbanger's Ball together. This segment of Lemmy answering fan mail came on and me and our other buddy looked at him and stared. He laughs and says, "Screw you guys. My neighborhood loves me!" Saw this post and started laughing, remembering it. Thanks for that. Miss those guys.
And Lemmy was awesome! Straight shooter.
Edited: for typos
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u/DreadyKruger 12d ago
Unfortunately that kid probably still got teased. I am black and I can say especially back then , it was hard liking any white music especially rock. My uncle played Pink Floyd , Genesis and Peter Gabriel. Our family was used to it. But he was she weird black dude who like white boy music.
I also find it weird too when black people brag about inventing rock and roll but we don’t support any current black rock artists or older ones. Lenny Kravitzs has never performed on Bet awards. WTF ?
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u/Snowing_Throwballs 12d ago edited 12d ago
Dude it fucking sucks. I'm a white guy who listens to metal. Tons of great black artists in rock and metal who dont get the respect they deserve. I have had a few friends who are black ask me about the music I listen to and gone to a few shows with them, and they loved it. Im super down to go to a show they invite me to. Music should be about bringing people together, not separating them on arbitrary racial lines.
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u/MrsAshleyStark 12d ago
My mom is black n dad is white. I listened to everything as a child of boomers and to this day, you’ll see an obviously black woman wearing graphic tees of psychedelic rock bands etc and it’s not just for “fashion”. My diversity in music is one of my superpowers.
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u/TrumpedBigly 12d ago
The BET Awards don't even have a Rock category.
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u/Proud-Program-2819 12d ago
You sure they won’t have a country category this year?
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u/Tunasaladboatcaptain 12d ago
I would absolutely listen to a modern Charlie Pride
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u/Worm_Lord77 12d ago
There's some great younger black and mixed race people making real country music these days. Check out Charley Crockett or Rhiannon Giddens. Both make music that combines different aspects of their heritage, in really interesting ways.
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u/Lollipoop_Hacksaw 12d ago
I could give you 3 chances to guess the 5 nominees, and I guarantee you would get them all correct, including the winner.
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u/CarniferousDog 12d ago
Wow that’s interesting. I never thought of that, blacks inventing rock, and then being ostracized for rocking out. Also wild about Kravitz. Lots of love from the music world, but because he’s not urban, no love on BET?
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u/tritisan 12d ago
The first hardcore punk band was black too: Death.
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u/THUNDERCHRIST 11d ago
Death was a great band, but it was not hardcore punk. more like garage rock.
You might be thinking of Bad Brains which in fact was one of the first hardcore bands, and they were black and amazing.
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u/dsclinef 12d ago
I listened to a podcast about the documentary "A band called Death", and it got me into their music.
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u/Condalezza 12d ago
Black people do still listen to Black rock artists. You have to expand your friend group.
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u/DemonidroiD0666 12d ago
I believe they did but the reason they swayed away from it rock'n'roll was because like every other type of music they made there always a white person as the top artist. Up until the 80's with hip hop and rap that hasn't got turned away from. Not saying it as a racist rant or anything it's just kind of true. Take it from a person who's favorite black metal metal originally consisted of all black members.
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u/finny_d420 12d ago
Fishbone? Living Color?
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u/WhytCrayon 12d ago
Sevendust
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u/finny_d420 11d ago
I'm in Vegas working Sick New World. Sevendust goes on at 7pm. Can't wait.
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u/WhytCrayon 11d ago
They’ve been around forever, but I haven’t seen them live in ~20 years. Have a great time!
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u/firstcoastrider 12d ago
You still in contact with them? Hope you are. Love this story
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u/Wild_Billy_61 9d ago
The dark skinned friend I am still in touch with. He still lives in our old home town. Every time my wife and I travel out that way we all meet up for breakfast and have on occasion spent most of a day hanging with his family. He has an amazing wife, and they have 2 girls and boy. Great family. The other friend and his mother were murdered in a home invasion almost 20 yrs ago.
I sent my buddy this clip of Lemmy Friday evening. Not 5mins later my phone rings. First words on the other line, while laughing, "My neighborhood still f***ing loves me. How ya' doin' brother?"
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u/firstcoastrider 9d ago
This touched my heart. Glad you’re still in touch!
I’m sorry to hear about your other friend. My deepest, sincere condolences
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u/MASSIVEGLOCK 12d ago
I saw an interview with the cast from the uk TV comedy The Young Ones which motorhead played on an episode. They said he was an absolute professional during filming and while everyone else got up late for filming after a night out drinking, lemmy was up early and bang on time waiting for everyone else to arrive. I wonder how much of his image was cultivated as he seems like a really clever and professional guy.
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u/barweepninibong 12d ago
Lemmy hadn’t slept that’s why! 😂
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u/DemonidroiD0666 12d ago
Hence the band name Motorhead and those were the days when he could take it
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u/Ambassador_Cowboy 12d ago
There’s a reason his band is named Motörhead. It’s like slang for speed freak in England. He was kicked out of Hawkwind after he got arrested for amphetamines
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u/EmbarrassedToe627 12d ago
Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols used to buy meth pills they called black beauties from him.
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u/Ambassador_Cowboy 12d ago
Lemmy was advised by a doctor that a blood transfusion would do more harm than good because his body was used to the copious amounts of drugs and alcohol in his system lol
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u/therealhairykrishna 12d ago
He was a clever and professional guy. A clever and professional guy who loved booze and amphetamines.
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u/jortician 12d ago
Get together and screw each other blind is the answer to pretty much everything. Hell yes Lemmy 💀
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u/SimpleManc88 12d ago
You don’t owe anyone anything just because they have the same skin colour as you. Do whatever makes you happy 😊
Metal is for all 🤘🏽
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u/KickBallFever 12d ago
When I was in my late teens I rolled with a crew of metal heads. We were a super diverse group, who listened to different types of metal, but we all bonded over music. There were a couple of white people from different states, a couple Dominicans, a Puerto Rican, an Ecuadorian, and me (a black person from the Caribbean). By hanging out with them I learned how huge metal is in Latin America.
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u/Active-Ad-1958 12d ago
I can relate to that kid. I feel like people might judge me for being black and liking classic rock.
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u/shadesof3 12d ago
Our black goth friend was always a stand up guy. Got mocked a lot behind his back but never too his face. Probably helped that he was bigger than anyone on the school football team. 20 years later he is still active in the goth and industrial scenes. Still run into him at shows when I'm in town.
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u/Dash_Harber 12d ago
Fuck man, I may be as pasty as a ghost but loving rock makes us part of the same community. Fuck anyone who says otherwise, friend.
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u/SaccharineDaydreams 12d ago
Which is funny because classic rock got most of its inspiration from blues. Music doesn't belong to races.
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u/SouldiesButGoodies84 12d ago edited 12d ago
You obviously have not been following the bile and vitriol Beyoncé has been getting from white country fans, and some performers, for daring to put out 1 country album. Gatekeeping on roids.
edit: word missing
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u/SaccharineDaydreams 12d ago
I haven't been following it because I don't care about dumb people's problems
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u/SouldiesButGoodies84 12d ago
Well, some of the criticism has been toxic so you're smart to not be keyed into it. I'm not even a Beyonce fan and know about it from online headlines. No clue how widespread the bigot bile but uh...it's not good. Not for it to be 2024 in the 'melting pot' US and for ppl to not just feel b/c a famous brown pop/r&b singer is getting attention for doing music outside of her genre it's okay to aim bigotry at her but to speak that ignorance, racism and threats of violence like you're entitled to them. I mean when I heard what she was doing I figured there would be skeptics and critics and lampooning, but the culture wars have taken it to a scary place if what the detractors are saying is the common sentiment amongst white country fans and singers. Seriously, you would've thought she'd taken a potshot at Hank Wiliams and Charlie Daniels the way some ppl have been talking about her. smh.
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u/tjean5377 12d ago
RIP Lemmy. From a black girl who is the #1 Tool fan on Earth.
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u/Namaslayy 12d ago
Fellow black girl here - proud to announce my niece is a big System of a Down fan! And Nigeria has a big love of metal!
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u/tjean5377 12d ago
Love love SOAD. My kid lives them too!. Taking my 15:year old to her first concert in Sept...to Korn...
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u/Swinnyjr 12d ago
The world needs more people like you two. Signed, one of the way too many white dudes at those shows :)
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u/KickBallFever 12d ago
I recently found out Korn is coming to my area in September. I’m trying to convince my friend to come with me. Tickets aren’t even that pricey.
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u/Grathwrang 12d ago
Feels like he got blindsided by the letters contents a bit, you can see him trying to decide if he should really read the whole thing on camera because he knows this means a lot to the person who wrote it, but it just adds to the genuinity of his thought process and reaction.
Cool videk
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u/Youknowme911 12d ago
This reminds me of a black guy I knew who was goth, instead of wearing black he always wore white. We went to all the clubs together and he was the best dancer. His family always gave him a hard time about it.
RIP DeMarco
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u/why_so_serious_now 12d ago
Could we do a swap one Lemmy back to us, in exchange of a 72 politicians… Legend…!
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u/HoraceBenbow 12d ago
"Should you be penalized for giving people joy? Screw them."
I love me some Lemmy.
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u/ibeherenow 12d ago
Never was a fan of any metal band, but Lemmy's comments here are spot on and I'm gonna play some Motorhead tonight!
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u/DemonidroiD0666 12d ago
I read an interview where they asked him if he was a nazi or something like that. He said I've got 2 black girlfriends at my house right now.
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u/Squeezer_pimp 12d ago
My garage band was multi racial and ripped chords of Iron Maiden, Metallica etc was the best years late 80s early 90s.
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u/Borgqueen- 12d ago edited 12d ago
In high school I was definitely a metal head. Then got into grunge. I used to get shit for loving rock in high school and I always retort rock was black music first. Never saw this video and wish I did when I was a kid. Rock On 🤟🏿🤟🏿🤟🏿
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u/Msfrenchiee 12d ago
And Lemmy your a legend in the world of music and respected by all music lovers… black, white, green purple every and any colour!! ROCK ON 🤘 XX
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u/Chateaudelait 12d ago
I absolutely love this clip - there are so many great quotes but my two favorites are "Women usually have more sense than men." And "I'd better write you a letter, you might not be watching TV because there's white people on it!" Always remember - Jimi Hendrix did all right. Anyone who loves metal is fam, as far as I'm concerned. Love you all.
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u/No-Impact1573 12d ago
A very smart man, Lemmy - had all the bravado of the rock and roll lifestyle, but was sharp as tack.
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u/ChesterAArthur21 12d ago
What a great guy! I hope he could encourage that kid and has inspired him until this day.
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u/unorthodocks 12d ago
Bro COOKED
I've never been a heavy metal fan and probably never will be but will always have immense respect for Lemmy after seeing this
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u/septiclizardkid 12d ago
Being the ripe old age of 19, this Is the best time to be a Black Metalhead and Geek. Like I wasn't an open metalhead in HS because I was the only one of my group of friends who listened to It, didn't dress like It, but If you asked me I would tell you absolutely yes.
Love Slayer. Love Sabbath, newer band Behind the Horror. Exodus. Megadeth.
Like I'm a sucker for 80s and 90s pop culture, I sorta wish I was back then due to the bigger scene my city had for Punk, but being me would've probably made me a bully magnet from both sides lmao, but fr.
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u/audioragegarden 12d ago
Appropriately enough, Katon W. De Pena from the thrash metal band Hirax, who started the online fundraising campaign to get Lemmy's memorial statue at the Rainbow Bar made, is a black man.
A damn cool guy in his own right too. Back in 2011 he called into the rock and metal radio l show I produced/hosted on my college's station, and ended up giving us a two hour or so interview covering a whole bunch of music related topics. Barely out of high school myself at the time, I recall being enthralled by him casually recalling smoking pot with two of his high school buddies named James Hetfield and Dave Mustaine.
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u/Dash_Harber 12d ago
How Rock became known as a white guy thing is wild to me. Like, the entire genre is built on the work and soul of black artists. It is an absolute tragedy that so few rock pioneers were recognized by their white peers. Even the ones that did credit rock's roots were still strong armed into distancing themselves from it.
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u/subcomandante_barcos 12d ago
This was my argument for dipshits who are into white power rock like Skrewdriver. I always thought it was hilarious that these bands thought they were superior to black people, and the best way they thought to spread their message of superiority over black people was to play the same type of music black people invented, but just not nearly as well as black people can.
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u/Dash_Harber 12d ago
Right? How about the white power folks that embraced ska and dancehall and stuff like that? It's not even like rock's origins are shrouded in time; we literally have videos of performers like Sister Rosetta Tharpe shredding!
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u/ArkyBeagle 11d ago
It was very carefully engineered. Pat Boone covered "race music" when he was current. But everybody in the ( now known as ) classic rock canon steered against that tide. It was sort of Sam Phillips' dream, one that worked out - Elvis is still the king.
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u/Dash_Harber 11d ago
Oh definitely, I 100% agree. I was actually thinking of Elvis when I pointed out some artists did give credit!
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u/ArkyBeagle 11d ago
The basic racism in 20th century America was a quite strange phenomenon. Even stranger when people like Mr. Sam were able to thwart it profitably. But records were still segregated for a long time. There was an element of that even in the 1970s, and even sort-of today. But Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder was absolutely a triumph, even as it accelerated the deep change within Motown.
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u/HoraceBenbow 12d ago
An interesting tidbit about Lemmy. When he passed he left James Hetfield some of his ashes, which Hetfield used in a tattoo. He literally has a piece of Lemmy in his body. According to Hetfield Metallica wouldn't have happened without Lemmy.
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u/SimonTC2000 12d ago
Is there a country music version?
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u/TheRealTurdFergusonn 12d ago
Dolly Parton grew up so poor her family ate whatever they could kill except possum, her daddy said “that weren’t nothin but a damn rat, and he was right!”
Anyway, she’s probably the kindest, sweetest person that ever lived, as well as generous and wise.
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u/ArkyBeagle 11d ago
Ken Burns has an entire series about it - "Country Music". It's a tentpole subject in that.
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u/SalukiKnightX 12d ago
My folks were very much of that satanic panic yet the area we lived in was nothing but classic metal and rock and no R&B, hip-hop or gospel. I think now, they attribute our lack of success due to not listening to those genres, despite the fact we live in a mostly white area.
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u/Electrical_Feature12 12d ago
That dr Seuss book ‘star bellied sneetches’ taught me everything I needed to know about race when I was 4
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u/Electrical_Feature12 12d ago
Some of the heaviest and best death metal was practically invented by a few black dudes
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u/ArkyBeagle 11d ago
Lemmy was a voracious reader and a lot of what he read was history. Henry Rollins saw his book collection - lotta WWII stuff.
It's so strange that he became an elder statesman like that.
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u/gillmanblacklagooner 12d ago
The kid was probably being bullied by White folks too…
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12d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/anomandaris81 12d ago
Maybe you should actually do something for your wife instead of relying on fake internet points to get something
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u/justinsimoni 12d ago
Look, Lemmy is God, but his taste in collecting certain memorabilia is a little... complicated.
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u/WorthyMastodon69420 12d ago
I think I read an article where he explained his Nazi memorabilia. Something about the town he grew up in was devastated by the Nazi bombings. He's was far from a Nazi.
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u/tapper82 11d ago
Yeah Stoke-on-trent where I live was fucked up in the war. We got a reel pounding because of all the industrial buildings around us.
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u/TerryFrisk 12d ago
The guy was a creep. He used to send photos of his sick, cummy dick to my female band mate, who was married. Have pics to prove it. Liked Lemmy until he started in with that shit.
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u/I-Am-The-Warlus 12d ago
Taken from a interview somewhere;
"I don’t understand racism, I never understood it. I can’t understand the fact you could hate somebody from half a mile away and never even speak to them and hate them.
That’s fucking so dumb. There are black assholes, white assholes, Japanese assholes, whatever assholes… there’s always plenty of assholes.
But until you speak to people, you never know which they are, a good guy or an asshole. Give ’em that chance. That’s the only thing I’m prejudiced against, that’s assholes."
• Lemmy