5 Minutes Alone with PHIL CAMPBELL (AND THE BASTARD SONS/MOTÖRHEAD)

Written by: Tom Wilson – Sense Music Media

After the death of Lemmy Kilmister in late 2015 spelt the end for British legends MOTÖRHEAD, guitarist Phil Campbell recruited his three grown sons (Todd, Tyla and Dane) and singer Neil Starr for a hard rock crusade of festivals, stadiums and even opening for GUNS N ROSES on their wildly successful 2017 tour. Ahead of the release of their second album, We’re the Bastards, he got on the blower to SENSE.

What are some of the great qualities that you like about each of your sons?

They’re all really talented, very creative. They don’t get into trouble – I’ve never had the police coming back and forth to the house. They’re just great kids, you know? I can talk to them about anything, and [we] help each other, and they play great music.

Most kids, when they’re young, find their dads a bit embarrassing, but kids can say that their dad was in MOTÖRHEAD. I wonder – did that give you “cool dad” points? Or did they still think that you were a dork?

I really wouldn’t know. I guess they probably thought it was pretty cool at certain ages. It depends what situation they were in, I guess. I hope the word “dork” never came into it. [Laughs] You never know what’s [going on in] kid’s minds growing up – hormones flying everywhere!

What kind of dad do you think you were? Being a rock musician, do you think you let them get away with a bit? Or do you think, because you’ve seen some of the trouble people can get themselves into in your time on the road … How did that affect you as a parent?

Basically, I was away for a lot of it, on the road with MOTÖRHEAD. We were working nine to ten months of the year, every year. My wife basically brought them up. I was around, but not as much as I would like to have been. I was out on the road. I guess … they’ve learned from some of my mistakes, probably. They learn good things and bad things from life on the road and partying and stuff like that. I don’t know – they turned out to be great kids, that’s the main thing, you know? I’m making up for lost time now, [being] in the band together.

You’ve already released one album [as PHIL CAMPBELL & THE BASTARD SONS – The Age of Absurdity in 2018], and you toured with them. What was that like?

We’ve been touring for ages now. We do our own tours. We’ve done stadiums and things – GUNS N ROSES and some really big gigs, loads of big massive festivals. It’s a lot of fun! When we’re hitting it on stage, sometimes it’s quite easy to forget that there’s three of my kids up there on the stage, you know? I’m so ensconced in playing, and I’m in the middle of playing with a kick-ass rock band, and a lightbulb moment comes on in your head, and you think, “Oh yeah, three of my kids! Jesus – sounding good tonight!” Yeah, there are a lot of plus points.

You’ve had decades of success with MOTÖRHEAD. You’ve had this great career. What keeps you hungry? Do you feel that you still have things to prove? Or are you just enjoying yourself?

Basically, just enjoying myself. You always want to write the next song – there’s always a next song that can be better. It’s not a search for perfection, but just a good ride along the way. You always experiment, and want to try new ideas and things. We haven’t been all around the world yet with the kids. They’ve been to loads of places, but it would be great to play in some places they’ve never been before … Just to be accepted, and do this for a living, you know?

You were playing with MOTÖRHEAD from the mid-80s until its dissolution. What were some of the biggest changes in touring culture you observed over the years?

I dunno. We had so many people working with us on the road, we didn’t really see the half of it. We’d just leave the hotel at the last minute possible, we had separate dressing rooms for the last ten or fifteen years, which worked out better for us, because we all had so many guests and different things that we wanted peace and quiet. Obviously, because of what has happened this year, things are going to change again, you know? Until everything is proven to be 100% safe, hanging out backstage is probably going to be a thing of the past, and meet-and-greets and all that. The main thing is to have artists playing to live audiences, in a way that works for the audience and works for the artist, you know? I don’t know how ridiculous it’s going to get … it’s definitely a messed-up situation that nobody saw coming.

It’s been a few years since we lost Lemmy. How often does he pop into your head?

Every day. Oh yeah, every day, a bunch of things will come up – a bunch of memories and things.

If you don’t mind me asking, what are some of the things that reminds you of him?

I’m not going to go into specifics. Mostly, it’s a lot of the laughs we had, you know? [Something will remind me of] some time in the studio, or some time travelling, something that happened at a gig or whatever. Normal kind of stuff.

You recorded this album in lockdown. What were some of the challenges of getting that done?

It was quite smooth actually, because we’ve got our own studio. Todd runs it. It’s a couple of miles from the same area where we all live. We’d written it, the album was all ready to go. Last year, we decided we wanted to put an album out by the end of 2020, so we’d kind of got all our shit together by the end of February/very early March. The lockdown came in March at some point, and we just went down, individually, with Todd. Sometimes there would be three of us there in separate rooms, and we would all distance. So we didn’t have any rush or anything like that. We could go in when we wanted, and made the album we wanted to at the end of the day, and came out of there with thirteen brand new songs, fantastically well-produced and recorded. If nothing else, in this crappy year, the band has managed to get one hell of an album out of it. I’m thankful for that, at least.

What are some of your favourites?

I like them all. I like the first track, We’re the Bastards. I like the last one, Waves. I like them all, at this point, you know? They all have a different groove, and make a different statement. We didn’t put any filler tracks in there, you know? That’s not what we set out to do. We didn’t keep nothing back. We had thirteen killer songs, and we put thirteen on [the record]. I don’t think there’s anything floating around spare at the moment. We give you the lot! We give you the full five courses on this one!

Thank you for taking the time to speak to me today mate. I know you like to keep it short and sweet!

That’s my pleasure, my friend. Give my love to everyone down there. Hopefully, when the time is right, [we are] definitely bringing the boys down to Australia, because we know there’s a bastion of hard rock fans all over that country. It’ll be great to come down there one day. Keep flying the flag for us my friend!

We’re the Bastards is out November 13th on Nuclear Blast Records.

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