In their first televised appearance at last night’s Grammy Awards, hard rock supergroup Hollywood Vampires paid homage to recently deceased Motorhead vocalist and bassist, Lemmy Kilmister.
The band, consisting of Alice Cooper, Joe Perry, Matt Sorum, Duff McKagen, and none other than actor Johnny Depp, performed a blistering cover of the Motorhead classic “Ace Of Spades”. It followed a segment which saw Foo Fighters’ frontman Dave Grohl pay tribute to Lemmy with few spoken words. Grohl also didn’t fail to include original Motorhead drummer, Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor in his verbal tribute. Lemmy was also featured as a part of the “In Memoriam” segment at the show, which honors all those in the music industry who have passed away in the last year.
The Hollywood Vampires performance, which also included an original song “As Bad As I Am” in addition to the Motorhead cover, marked virtually the only representation for hard rock music during the show. Though it may have been a brief showing, the inclusion of McKagen and Sorum allowed for some crossover into the Guns N’ Roses reunion camp, so multiple bases were covered.
The band released their debut album in 2015, Hollywood Vampires, which mostly featured covers in the realm of 1970’s rock. During that decade, Cooper formed a drinking club called the Hollywood Vampires, which also featured drummer Keith Moon of The Who and Beatles’ drummer Ringo Starr as primary members. In addition to the band name, one of the two original songs on the album is titled “My Dead Drunk Friends” which directly pays tribute to Cooper’s friends and the turbulent times of years past.
Ultimately, the Grammys performance was a solid showing, and injected some variety into the show. Depp didn’t look overwhelmed, and the Lemmy tribute was fitting. Even though it lasted a mere twenty or thirty minutes in a show that lasted well over three hours, it appears that hard rock has not been completely wiped off of the mainstream music radar.
Leave a Comment