RIP Phil Campbell. The roar of Motörhead from 1984 to 2015.

On Friday, March 13th, Motörhead’s enduring guitarist, Phil Campbell, passed away. The impression he made on rock ’n’ roll will live forever.

Motörhead ‘Orgasmatron’ back cover photo, courtesy of GWR Records, 1986. Campbell is on the left.

Phil Campbell is the sixth member of Motörhead to pass away.

Other than Lemmy, he was the band’s longest serving soldier — his tour of duty spanning 31 years.

He wrote a fuckton of the band’s music between the No Remorse cuts from 1984 and their final studio LP, Bad Magic, from 2015.

Phil passed on Black Friday, the 13th of March 2026. I can speak for all Motörhead enthusiasts when I say that his legacy will be enduring.

The thing is, Phil never forgot to rock ’n’ roll. He probably had a weekend too.

To say I am a Motörhead fan is an understatement

To honour the passing of Lemmy, I listened to Motörhead and nothing but Motörhead for the entirety of 2016. My 366 Days of Motörhead blog still stands, rules and all.

So to say I’m devastated to hear of Phil’s passing is no understatement. To note that I’ve been spinning Campbell-era Motörhead LPs on rotation since it isn’t out of the ordinary, but it suddenly hits different.

I never met Phil Campbell. I saw him perform with Motörhead on three separate occasions: Glasgow and Liverpool in 2004, and Melbourne in 2010. He liked a bunch of my tweets. He seemed like an authentic and humble character. He wrote kick ass rock ’n’ roll riffs.

It’s 1984.

Motörhead ‘No Remorse’ front/back cover photos, courtesy of Bronze Records.

Lemmy and Philthy are all that’s left of Motörhead. Taylor was kicking around the idea of following Robbo into a less Motörhead-esque current. The band is about to be dropped by their label, Bronze Records. The label they delivered a #1 album for, agreed to send them off with a double LP best-of.

Lemmy, in his infinite wisdom, suggested they record four new cuts for the occasion, making No Remorse more than a repackaging of what their diehard fans would already have. A new track closed out each of the four sides.

Kilmister, in a new lineup with guitarists Phil Campbell and Wurzel, and drummer Phil Taylor, cut four ripping new tracks — Killed By Death, Snaggletooth, Steal Your Face and Locomotive. Killed By Death fast became synonymous with the name and legend that was Motörhead, as well as one of their most performed live cuts.

Campbell had met Kilmister a few months prior to the audition.

His band, Persian Risk, had opened for Motörhead in Germany, as the Kilmister, Philthy “Animal” Taylor, and Brian “Robbo” Robertson lineup was disintegrating.

If you’re thinking that an ex-Thin Lizzy guitar player would have been a peculiar addition for Motörhead, you’d be simultaneously correct and incorrect. Their 1983 LP Another Perfect Day is one of their strongest offerings ever; Petagno’s hideous vision on the sleeve is unintentionally prescient. Musically, Robbo wove magic with Motörhead like no one else, but his appearance (shorts, just not the right kind), attitude, and reticence to play their older songs were deemed insulting to the band’s vociferous fans.

Motörhead ‘Another Perfect Day’ cover, courtesy of Bronze Records.

Hard to say whether Campbell had smelled blood in the water, but three months later, he and Michael “Wurzel” Burston were the final two guitarists to survive the audition process, each eagerly waiting for Lemmy to hand them a leather jacket and bullet belt.

In a moment of serendipity, they conspired together to present a vision of a four-piece Motörhead, appearing shortly thereafter on the British cult TV series The Young Ones, kicking out the jams as a twin guitar band should until Wurzel’s departure in 1995.

It’s 1995. Lemmy had an affection for Phil Campbell that appeared to be reserved for him and him alone

Motörhead ‘Snake Bite Love’ back cover photo, courtesy of Steamhammer. Campbell is on the left.

Lemmy wouldn’t have been the first fella to pen a lyric about a bandmate, and considering that the Motörhead war machine rolled on for 40 years, across 22 studio albums, he had one or two opportunities. Their objective — rock n’ roll forever — was cut short in 2015 by the onset of an aggressive form of cancer, which took Lemmy’s life.

Sacrifice was the last record they made with Wurzel; the guitarist was described as largely absent from this particular process. Whether motivated by loyalty, heartened by his endurance, or a simple acknowledgement of love and affection for the eccentric Welshman, Lemmy mirrored the sentiment of his 1980 paean to their tireless road-hands — (We Are) The Road Crew, in the cryptically titled Dog Faced Boy, the face-melter that closed out side A.

In Lemmy: The Definitive Biography from 2015, writer Mick Wall recounts Lemmy’s reflection of his bandmate, “…he plays very, very good guitar and he’s my brother.” The ever-pragmatic frontman wasn’t reticent when it came to answering questions about former bandmates, but seldom have I encountered a sentiment from Kilmister that was quite so emotionally exposed.

During his time in the band, Campbell contributed to 16 studio long players, the last 20 years of the band’s reign as the sole guitarist.

People think that Motörhead’s relevance ceased when Eddie left in 1982

People also think Motörhead had one song that they rewrote 250 or so times, so people aren’t so reliable when it comes to this sort of analysis.

The combination of Campbell, Kilmister, and former King Diamond drummer Mikkey Dee made some fantastic records across the latter half of the band’s 40-year run. They got heavier, faster, more experimental, atmospheric even.

They dropped some ripping covers — God Save The Queen and others you’d never imagine — Sympathy for the Devil and Heroes being the most obvious, though considering they performed a Velvets cut during their first live show all the way back in 1975, it’s only those who aren’t in the know who seem struck by these notions.

Even after Motörhead, Phil continued to rock ’n’ roll

Stefan Bollmann, Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons

With his three sons, Todd, Dane, and Tyla, Campbell’s post-Motörhead outfit, Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons released a clutch of records, toured a bunch, and on occasion, played homage to the very band whose legacy he peerlessly perpetuated. His death ruling out their planned Australian tour.

Todd Campbell co-wrote one of Motörhead’s most exceptional cuts from the aughts — Going Down from the 2006 long player Kiss Of Death.

And no, Mrs. Campbell was not amused by the band name.

20 Phil Campbell-era Motörhead cuts you need to know

In chronological order:

1. Killed by Death — No Remorse, 1984
2. Snaggletooth — No Remorse, 1984
3. Mean Machine — Orgasmatron, 1986
4. Eat The Rich — Rock ’n’ Roll, 1987
5. I’m So Bad (Baby I Don’t Care) — 1916, 1991
6. Burner — Bastards, 1993
7. Lost In The Ozone — Bastards, 1993
8. We Bring The Shake — Bastards, 1993
9. Out Of The Sun — Sacrifice, 1995
10. Shake The World — Overnight Sensation, 1996
11. Listen To Your Heart — Overnight Sensation, 1996
12. See Me Burning — We Are Motörhead, 2000
13. We Are Motörhead — We Are Motörhead, 2000
14. Shut Your Mouth — Hammered, 2002
15. In The Black — Inferno, 2004
16. Going Down — Kiss Of Death, 2006 (Feat Cambpell’s son, Todd)
17. Rock out — Motörizer, 2008
18. Brotherhood of Man — The World Is Yours, 2010
19. Going To Mexico — Aftershock, 2013
20. When The Sky Comes Looking For You — Bad Magic, 2015

Thanks for the rock ’n’ roll, Phil. You contributed something magical to a band that’ll never be bettered.

Motörhead for life!