Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister, iconic frontman of Motörhead has been immortalized in a life-sized statue at his favorite hangout, the Rainbow Bar & Grill on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood.
Los Angeles-based artist Travis Moore was selected to create a realistic likeness of Lemmy for the life-size cast bronze statue, which stands at just over six feet tall and will be permanently housed in a special shrine that was constructed in the patio bar area at the Rainbow.
A native of Texas, Travis did his part for free, but there were considerable costs associated with the actual process that ultimately made the statute a reality. A funding campaign was launched by Katon De Pena from classic underground thrash-metal band Hirax, who raised about $23,000 to support the building of the statue.
Lemmy, photo credit Robert JohnIn an interview recently Moore discussed the making of the statue
“I know they were searching for that hat-coat combo. Photographer Robert John had taken so many good pictures of him and I think that was about the time that they were at the Grammys and ‘Ace Of Spades’ was re-charting. There was really a resurgence for him and you can see that it was a happy time and he looks healthy and good.
“We just wanted to stay away from portraying him in a way that wouldn’t be proper, and he needed to be rocking, a tough-looking dude with a full face and that was the idea.
“There was initially some debate about would he be with a guitar? Would he be sitting at the bar? Would he have a bottle of booze? There were a lot of different options, and coincidentally, even the photo that Robert took, he’s standing there smoking a cigarette. We took that out, more of a liability reason, because someone could break that joker off or get caught on that.
“We don’t need lawsuits or anyone injured or definitely have the statue damaged on top of anything else. But there was a lot of consideration that went into this thing and everyone involved, their number one focus was honoring Lemmy.”
