Phil Campbell (Motörhead) Passes Away
The sad news has just broken that Phil Campbell, known as the guitarist of Motörhead, has passed away after a long battle in intensive care following a major operation. His passing was announced in a social media post by Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons, in which his sons Todd, Dane and Tyla shared that he passed away peacefully following a long and courageous battle in intensive care after a complex major operation.
Philip Anthony Campbell was born on 7 May 1961 in Pontypridd, Wales, and began playing guitar at the age of ten, inspired by guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix, Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin. At the age of twelve, he met Lemmy after a Hawkwind gig and asked him for an autograph. By the age of thirteen, Campbell was already playing semi-professionally with a cabaret band called Contrast, and he later played with a pub-rock band called Roktopus at venues across South Wales. In 1979, Campbell formed the heavy metal band Persian Risk, playing on their singles “Calling For You” (1981) and “Ridin’ High” (1983).
From 1984, Campbell shared the stage with Mikkey Dee and Lemmy Kilmister in Motörhead. On 8 February 1984, following the departure of Brian Robertson, Motörhead held auditions for a new guitarist, narrowing the candidates down to Michael “Würzel” Burston and Philip Campbell. Though Lemmy had first planned on hiring only one guitarist, he hired both Würzel and Campbell upon hearing them play together. This line-up remained a constant until Würzel left the band in 1995. For the last twenty years of the band’s existence, Campbell was its sole guitarist, appearing on classic releases such as “Orgasmatron”, “1916” and “Bastards”, among others.
The band continued until its frontman and figurehead Lemmy Kilmister passed away in 2015. Rather than stopping, Campbell chose to carry on performing Motörhead’s music with his own band, Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons. The Welsh rock band was established in 2016 and featured his three sons alongside him. In total, four studio albums were released, among them “Kings of the Asylum” in September 2023 through Nuclear Blast Records, and there were also numerous tours on which the work of his former band took centre stage.
Campbell also released a solo album, “Old Lions Still Roar”, on 25 October 2019, featuring guest appearances from Rob Halford, Dee Snider and Alice Cooper. In February of this year, shows in Australia and Europe were cancelled due to medical reasons.
Phil Campbell was 64 years old.
