Lemmy Kilmister

Lemmy Kilmister once summed up Motörhead's entire philosophy in the line he used to open concerts: "We are Motörhead, and we play rock 'n' roll." For forty years he lived exactly that way, touring almost without pause, playing his Rickenbacker bass at deafening volume and singing with his head tilted back into a microphone set high above him. He outlasted nearly every trend in rock and became a symbol of uncompromising endurance.

He was born Ian Fraser Kilmister on December 24, 1945, in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, in England. Astro-Databank records his birth at 8:30 in the morning, an A-rated time drawn from his own recollection, which puts Capricorn on the Ascendant and his Sun just behind it in the twelfth house. The planets are revealing. His Sun had just entered Capricorn, the sign of endurance, hard work and stubborn persistence, ruled by Saturn. Capricorn is the sign that keeps going when others stop, and Lemmy's career was built on outlasting everyone.

His father, a Royal Air Force chaplain, left the family when Lemmy was a baby, and he grew up largely in Wales with his mother. He became obsessed with rock and roll as a teenager and worked as a roadie for Jimi Hendrix in the late 1960s.

Saturn itself, retrograde in Cancer, adds to the seriousness of the chart. Saturn is the planet of hard lessons, solitude and long endurance, and astrologers have described Lemmy as a kind of Saturnian rock star: weathered, independent, a lone figure who never softened.

His Moon is in Virgo, a sign of precision and dry self-awareness. Lemmy was far more thoughtful and well-read than his image suggested, with a deep knowledge of history, especially of the Second World War, and a sharp, sardonic wit.

Mercury and Venus are both in Sagittarius, the sign of freedom, frankness and adventure. Sagittarius speaks bluntly and loves the open road, and Lemmy was famously blunt in interviews and lived much of his life on tour.

He joined the space rock band Hawkwind in 1971 and sang lead on their hit "Silver Machine." In 1975 he was arrested at the Canadian border for drug possession, and the band fired him. Within weeks he had formed Motörhead. Their 1980 single "Ace of Spades" became an anthem, and the live album No Sleep 'til Hammersmith went to No. 1 in Britain in 1981. Motörhead's fast, loud sound influenced both punk and heavy metal, and bands from Metallica onward have cited Lemmy as a hero.

Mars, retrograde at the very start of Leo, and Pluto in Leo describe raw power and a will to perform. Uranus, retrograde in Gemini, brings a rebellious, unconventional streak.

He spent his later years in Los Angeles, a regular at the Rainbow Bar and Grill on the Sunset Strip. He died on December 28, 2015, four days after his seventieth birthday, shortly after being diagnosed with cancer. The Capricorn Sun kept him on the road until the very end.