GUNS N’ ROSES Bassist DUFF MCKAGAN Reveals He Also Received Some Of LEMMY’s Ashes

GUNS N’ ROSES bassist Duff McKagan has revealed that he is one of a small group of people who received a bullet from late MOTÖRHEAD frontman Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister as a personal gift.

Duff discussed the Lemmy ashes during the latest episode of his Planet Rock show “Three Chords & The Truth”, which he co-hosts with his wife Susan Holmes McKagan.

After playing Dave Grohl, Lemmy and Billy Gibbons‘s cover of “Run Rudolph Run”, Susan said: “Dave is a good friend of ours, and a friend of us all. We also want to take a special moment to mention Lemmy Kilmister [who] passed a few years back on December 28th. Long live Lemmy. We love you.”

Duff added: “Lemmy lives forever. [He was] a good friend of Grohl. We got a little tie in there. They did music together, they did PROBOT together as well.”

Susan continued: “You got to play the Grammys with Johnny Depp and Joe Perry [HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRES‘ 2016 tribute to Lemmy].”

“Listen, I’m an honorary MOTÖRHEAD member,” Duff replied.

“That’s right,” Susan said. “We actually have some of his ashes here [at home] with us. He will never leave our hearts. “

Duff‘s bullet is not the only one whose existence has been publicly revealed. In June 2022, former HANOI ROCKS singer Michael Monroe shared photos of the Lemmy bullet he received and the accompanying letter on social media, and he wrote in a caption: “I just received an extremely special and touching gift-a bullet which has part of Lemmys’s ashes inside it. Lemmy is in the room whit us tonight!”

The letter that accompanied Monroe‘s bullet came from West Hollywood, California’s legendary venue Whisky A Go Go, which, like Lemmy‘s favorite drinking establishment Rainbow Bar & Grill, is owned by the Maglieri family.

The letter reads: “Michael,

“We all know Lemmy knew many people, but had few that he considered friends and even fewer that he considered family. Being that you are one of those people he considered family, we would like to share a little piece of him with you.

“Lemmy touched all of our lives in a way I don’t think any of us could ever forget, but with these ashes you keep not only the memories you have, you keep Lemmy with you forever.

“He was Lemmy. He Played Rock ‘n’ Roll. Don’t Forget Him”.

In November 2021, JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford confirmed that he also received a Lemmy bullet. He told to the “SpeedFreaks” radio show: “When Lemmy passed away, I had this beautiful opportunity to speak at his memorial. We had a great get-together; all of us musicians from all over the world, we met in Hollywood and we talked about Lemmy and his great life and the things that he’s left us. And then, not too far back, I get something in the mail from the Lemmy people; Lemmy‘s office, his manager and everybody still work tirelessly to keep his name with us, as he always will be. They sent me — it’s a bullet [laughs], it’s a bullet with some of Lemmy‘s ashes inside of it.”

He continued: “This is nuts. This is the kind of thing that Lemmy would have loved to have done. However you choose to interpret what I’ve just said, that’s entirely up to you. But to be thought of, to be brought into this small circle of friends where you actually own a little bit of Lemmy‘s ashes and you wear it around your neck on a pendant and he’s close to your heart in the truest sense in terms of his mortal remains, that’s just mind-blowingly powerful. To use an object like that to carry his remains is just so Lemmy — it’s provocative, it makes you think, it makes you talk. But as far as having a beautiful part of Lemmy physically with me right now in my house, that’s just magical.”

In March 2022, German metal queen Doro Pesch said that she also received one of the Lemmy bullets and called the experience “one of the most intense moments of my life, indescribable heartbreaking and touching.”

In May 2021, Doro spoke about the Lemmy bullet in an interview with Brazil’s “Inside With Paulo Baron”. She said: “Two weeks ago, I got a little box from America. It came to my mom’s house. At the moment, I’m in Germany. I go back to the States in two weeks. But I was in Germany. And then my mom said, ‘Hey, do you expect something?’ And I said, ‘No.’ And then she said, ‘Shall I open it up?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, open it up.’ And she said, ‘There’s a letter in it. And there’s a little box in it. It’s jewelry or something.’ And I said, ‘Okay. I’ll wait. I’ll get it.’ And it was the bullet of Lemmy with Lemmy‘s ashes in there. And I tell you, I almost dropped dead. It was, like, ‘Wow.’ And then I heard that somebody said Lemmy wrote a list and he wanted his closest friends or family to have his ashes. And I’ve got this bullet right here. I had no words for it. It’s pretty moving and touching. But in the letter, it said, ‘He liked you a lot’ or ‘he loved you a lot,’ and I thought, ‘Oh, man. That feels so good.’ That makes you feel like… Now I’m motivated for the next hundred years to do good and to rock the fans. That gave me so much love and so much energy.”

In March 2021, former “Headbangers Ball” host Riki Rachtman said that he was also mailed a bullet, calling it “the greatest gift I’ve ever received in my life.” He added that he was “getting it made into a necklace so I can keep it on me everywhere I go.”

In 2020, tennis player Pat Cash shared a photo of another Lemmy bullet, saying it had been gifted to UGLY KID JOE singer Whitfield Crane.

“#Lemmy (RIP) from #Motörhead asked that his ashes be put in some bullet and given out to his closest friends, last night one was presented to my mate #whitefieldCrane whilst we were having dinner at ‘Lemmys bar’ in ‘The Rainbow’,” Cash wrote on Instagram in February 2020.

Lemmy died in December 2015 at the age of 70 shortly after learning he had been diagnosed with cancer.

A custom-made urn containing Lemmy‘s ashes is on permanent display in a columbarium at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood, California.