Sculptor Alan Williams recently shared insights into the creative process behind the Lemmy Kilmister bust commissioned for the Bloodstock festival.
In an interview with Bloodstock TV’s Oran O’Beirne, Williams described the challenges of creating a lifelike representation of the legendary Motörhead frontman. “It was a real challenge for me because I work with scrap metal and found, recycled materials. I’ve done portraiture before, but they wanted a real-life likeness of Lemmy,” Williams explained.
For the materials, Williams turned to iconic sources, including Harley-Davidson. “I went to places like Harley-Davidson and found some Motörhead fans there who were just like, ‘Raid everything!’” he said. “And at my usual scrap places, there’s a motorbike shop, and they were Motörhead fans too. I lucked out with people who were fans of the genre.”
Williams also incorporated elements with deep military significance, reflecting Lemmy’s known passion for military memorabilia. “The top pockets of his jacket are made from Challenger 2 tank track couplings. That’s from a project I did for an army regiment, so I had all this surplus stuff they gave me,” he shared.
One unique aspect of the sculpture is that it houses some of Lemmy’s ashes, which Williams was asked to incorporate into a lockable safe within the bust, positioned near where his heart would be. “That was quite a tough brief,” Williams noted. “I sourced a lockable safety deposit box and created a mechanism to access the back and view the ashes through a window at the front…that was really tough.”
When it came to the bust’s aesthetic, Williams and the team chose to capture a youthful version of Lemmy, rather than the more common depictions of him as an aging rocker. “We wanted to get this kind of youthful Lemmy, circa ’81 to ’84, when he was a handsome young devil!” Williams explained.
After its debut at this year’s Bloodstock festival, the Lemmy bust was escorted by 55 bikers to its semi-permanent home at Nottingham’s Rock City.