And, luckily for us, they were on hand for a chat.
Youve both been involved in the music scene for a long time, as directors and writers.
So, how did theLemmyproject come about?
And I just kept thinking about it.
I kept listening to the record over and over.
Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash covers.
Lemmys such an interesting guy, and hes a badass.
Hes the ultimate rock and roll badass.
Theres so many other sides to him.
So, I said, Greg, I know who we should do a movie on.
That was the only idea we came up with and we just drank for the rest of the night.
We could have a hundred more ideas, and a hundred of them wont happen.
So, we were really lucky that it fell together instead of apart.
How did you go about organising it, and getting Lemmy on board?
And basically we auditioned for Lemmy as human beings.
And his manager was like, He really liked you guys.
That was the longest hes ever sat down at a business meeting!
And so, were like, well, if this is business with Lemmy, then were excited.
WO:This is the business we want to be in!
So, how did it develop from there?
How long were you filming him and following him around?
GO:We didnt plan it, man.
We didnt have an agenda.
We just told him we wanted to make an honest portrait of him.
So, we didnt know what we were going to film.
We just knew we had to spend time with him.
We didnt really feel like we had everything.
And then we started to edit everything together, and we were like, Fuck, man!
We have a lot of stuff.
Dude, we have a movie!
We just needed to get the ending.
So, did the films structure become more apparent during the editing process?
We knew we had to get some of his history in there, and learn about his other bands.
But you dont know what youre going to get otherwise.
You dont know what journey youre going to go on with him.
It was stressful trying to imagine it as we were shooting it.
We shot all kinds of stuff with him, but it fell together at the end.
You dont know what youve got until you start digging in and editing it.
And what did the man himself think of it?
GO:Oh, Lemmy loved it.
Lemmy lovedLemmy, let me tell you!
WO:Well, he had final cut.
GO: He could tell us what to take out.
So, Wes and I got to make it entirely on our own and then show it to him.
We actually took the rough cut of the film to his apartment.
Hes going to make us take this out, and take this out.
And there was just silence!
He was sitting there.
I have this video that I snuck of him watching the film and hes like laughing at himself.
I love that song so much.
We were done with the song, with that moment.
And hes like, Argh!
You cut off the sax solo!
That was the biggest thing that he protested about: Put the sax solo back in!
And we were like, Thats it?
GO:Thats one thing that bothers me.
And I pride myself in trying to make the film look better than most.
As good as I could.
So, we spent a lot of time.
But this is not a concert movie, its a documentary.
WO:Theres so many people involved in the Metallica organisation, and we didnt ask any of them!
GO:I was so nervous, man.
And Hetfields like, tall, a big dude.
And were back stage, and they rehearsed the song, and Lemmy leaves and everyones leaving the room.
And Hetfields standing there, and Im like, Excuse me, James.
Uh… And he looks at me.
Would it be all right if I follow Lemmy up on stage with the camera?
And he pulls this earpiece out of his ear.
WO:An in-ear monitor!
GO:And I was totally fucking nervous man.
And I go, Can I go on stage with Lemmy?
And he says, Hell yeah, man!
If youre going to do this, do it right!
WO:Thats one of the really special things.
Theres so many films out there, and Im a major music nerd.
I have hundreds of music DVDs, but there is a lack of intimacy.
Theres the crane shots, or the tripods in the back of the arena.
You should see, we have this really great footage on the DVD.
We have 35 minutes of that whole Metallica experience, in surround sound.
Let me tell you, dude, when you hear that surround sound turned up, its fucking thrilling.
It looks way more beautiful.
I feel its way more fun for the viewer, so it was worth the stress.
GO:Its cool, man.
As intimidating as Metallica is, Lemmy is that way to them.
They are like little kids.
They were so excited to have him on stage.
James is like, Yeaaaahhh.
Im standing next to Lemmy!
Wes:And you dont see that when you see Metallica.
GO:No, theyre like, mighty, with firewalls and shit.
And theyre so tough.
We love that he just destroys all that.
And they went up to meet them.
And Hetfield tells the story like, Wow, its Motorhead and theyre swimming!
And theyre all geeking out over Lemmy.
It seems to show that his influence isnt just restricted to that one genre.
People know Lemmy and they dont know any Motorhead songs.
Maybe they knowAce Of Spades, but maybe they dont even know that.
You packed so much into the film.
There must be loads left on the cutting room floor.
GO:Well, theres four hours of bonus material thats going to be on the Blu-ray/DVD!
And thered be more if we could fit more on there.
Our distributors were like, What, you have that much material?!
But it was so fun.
There are mini-documentaries on Mikkey Dee, the drummer, on Phil Campbell.
Theres one on the super fans.
Theres so much fun stuff, and you spent three and a half years with these guys.
And you would not expect to interview Triple H. We expected him to be [grunts] Lemmy!
But he an was articulate, wonderful person.
He gave us an hour of amazing interview.
So, that whole thing is on the DVD now.
Lemmywill receive a limited release from December 7th.
The DVD/Blu-Ray set comes out on January 24th.
