White Line Fever: The Autobiography

By Lemmy Kilmister and Janiss Garza

“Few could claim with any conviction to have taken more drugs, drunk more bourbon, or entertained more women than Motörhead’s lead singer.”—Sunday Times

“The heaviest drinking, most oversexed speed freak in the music business."

Ian Fraser Kilmister was born on Christmas Eve, 1945. Learning from an early age that chicks really do appreciate a guy with a guitar, and inspired by the music of Elvis and Buddy Holly, Lemmy quickly outgrew his local bands in Wales, choosing instead to head to Manchester to experience everything he could get his hands on. And he never looked back.

Lemmy tripped through his early career with the Rocking Vicars, did roadie work with Jimi Hendrix, and was a member of Opal Butterfly and Hawkwind. In 1975, he went on to create speed metal and form the legendary band Motörhead.

During their forty-year history, Motörhead released over twenty albums, won a Grammy, and conquered the rock world with such songs as “Ace of Spades,” “Bomber,” and “Overkill.” Throughout the creation of this impressive discography, the Motörhead lineup saw many changes, but Lemmy was always firmly at the helm.

White Line Fever, a headbanging tour of the excesses of a man being true to his music and his pleasures, offers a sometimes hilarious, often outrageous, but always highly entertaining ride with the frontman of the loudest rock band in the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Dec 30, 2003
• ISBN: 9780806538327

Reviews for White Line Fever

[flip_martian · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Entertaining look at his life and career in music - which almost seemed to be 1 and the same, once he was in adulthood. Not a fan of his band particularly but that doesn't matter. Anyone with any interest in the music business would still get something from this. Written with humour and, while co-written with another (or perhaps ghost written), it actually reads for the most part like an extended series of interviews - Lemmy's voice and way of speaking is well preserved and the book gallops along and never drags. His thoughts on his band, former bandmates and other musicians are given, no holds barred, along with many of his exploits. An entertaining read.

[megpyre · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

i read this one years ago. i dug it quite a bit. it's not an easy read because it's written very strangely, a paragraph will start somewhere in the 70's and end in the 90's then the next paragraph will jump to some point in the mid 80's. makes things a little tricky to follow at points, but lemmy's such a wild character that it's well worth the effort.

[elahrairah-115856 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Lemmy's autobiography delivers exactly what you expect it to. Rock n roll excess. But that's about it. If you like that, you'll like this, but somehow its kind of boring.

[duchenef · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"Everything louder than everything else". Lemmy est rock, sincère, le style sans prétention, mais direct et enlevé. La biographie rock ultime.

[sofiaandersson_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Halfway through the book I gave up. I began to feel trainsick and reading about Lemmy's experiences didn't help. But it's worth reading, I'm not a Motörhead fan,just borrowed the book from a friend and I thought it was interesting.

[bemislibrary · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When a celebrity dies, there is talk about how he or she did it their way. In the case of Ian Fraser Kilmister, fondly known as “Lemmy”, He really did do it his way from his years in school, relationships, and hard living musician. This autobiography follows his life from birth up through March 2003. He openly describes his carefree attitude about sex and drugs. There is an intrinsic honesty and naiveté inside look at the world of hard rock and heavy metal. You have to see it to believe moments run the gambit from overwhelming sad to belly laugh funny. A rockumentary film called Lemmy was released in 2010. This is a must read for Motörhead fans. All heavy rock followers will find the book and movie very entertaining. Lemmy died on December 28, 2015.