Dylan Martinez/Reuters
Lemmy Kilmister, the founding member and frontman of the British heavy metal band Motörhead, has died at the age of 70, just days after learning he had been diagnosed with cancer. The son of an air force pastor, hard-living Lemmy (real name Ian Fraser Kilmister) sprang to fame after their 1980 track “Ace of Spades” became one of the few tracks to cross over from the heavy metal scene of the day to bona fide mainstream chart success. Lemmy—who embodied the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, boasting that he drank a bottle of Jack Daniel’s every day and had slept with more than a thousand women—died while playing a bar-room video game that had been set up in his house, according to a Facebook posting by the band, which urged his fans to “play Motörhead loud, play Hawkwind loud, play Lemmy’s music LOUD,” and “Have a drink or few” to toast his memory. Lemmy never married, saying that the love of his life, a woman named Susan Bennett, died of a heroin overdose at age 19.