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Motorhead frontman, hard-rock hero ‘Lemmy’ Kilmister dies

Posted at 9:27 PM, Dec 28, 2015
and last updated 2015-12-28 21:27:29-05
Lemmy from Motorhead performs on The Pyramid Stage during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 26, 2015 in Glastonbury, England. Now its 45th year the festival is one largest music festivals in the world and this year features headline acts Florence and the Machine, Kanye West and The Who. The Festival, which Michael Eavis started in 1970 when several hundred hippies paid just £1, now attracts more than 175,000 people. (Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images)

Lemmy from Motorhead performs on The Pyramid Stage during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 26, 2015 in Glastonbury, England.  (Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister, the Motorhead frontman whose outsized persona made him a hero for generations of hard-rockers and metal-heads, has died.

Agent Andrew Goodfriend tells The Associated Press that Kilmister died on Monday in Los Angeles after a brief battle with aggressive cancer.

Known simply as “Lemmy” to most, he was as famous for his mustache, mutton chops and the mole on his face as his music.

But he was deeply respected and revered as a rock master and innovator, from his time with the seminal psychedelic band Hawkwind in the early 1970s to his four decades in Motorhead, best known for their 1980 anthem “Ace of Spades.”

Each of the band’s legendary live shows would begin with Kilmister’s loud announcement: “We are Motorhead! We play rock and roll!”