Heartbreaking: Randy Rhoads has made the worst decision of his career as he is set to…

Lemmy, the cigarette-huffing, handle-bar-donning force of nature, cut the figure of a road-weary gunslinger at the O.K. Corral or a stylised character from a graphic novel. Living a life that reads like a page-turning slice of fiction, he saw things that would make mere mortals weep, and from the moment he first heard the sounds of American rock ‘n’ roll, he would chart a course in a parallel universe that was full of madcap adventure.

He was, in many ways, the definitive rock titan. His frenetic speed metal attracted legions of acolytes, who paid their respects to him and his fellow apostles in Motörhead under a spell of drink and amphetamines, with their devil horns raised high in the smoky air. They were met with the gruff Lemmy towering at the front of the stage like the son of Satan sent to spread his message and bring the youths down with him.

Outside of music, Lemmy was a character cut from rare cloth. Despite his hell-raising lifestyle, he remained remarkably resilient. It was rare to see him lose his cool, even under the haze of alcohol and drugs. While many of his contemporaries, like former boss Jimi Hendrix, succumbed young to misadventure, something within the naturally hardy Stoke native kept him pushing on until he eventually succumbed to cancer at 70. Despite his relatively young age at the time of his death, his life and career were nothing short of inspirational.

In his globe-trotting odyssey, Lemmy crossed paths with some of the best. This includes the only man who is a better fit for the title of ultimate rock titan, Ozzy Osbourne. Gaining notoriety as ‘The Prince of Darkness’, the Brummie native emerged from the same superhuman gene pool as Lemmy, with him biologically impervious to the debilitating effects that regular doses of narcotics would cause, hence his propensity for extremes.

Breaking out as the vocalist of the metal progenitors Black Sabbath, who crafted a doom-laden sonic character with lyrical tales of the supernatural, it was in his solo career that his hard living and connection to the dark side of life would be bolstered. It only takes a mention of that highly mythologised moment he bit the head off a live bat. That was the kind of stunt that even Bram Stoker’s nefarious Transylvanian Count wouldn’t have undertaken.

Osbourne’s music took a notably darker turn with his return as a solo artist in 1980’s Blizzard of Ozz. A heavy metal staple, the album surprised everyone with its quality, especially given the disappointing output at the end of his tenure with Black Sabbath. This resurgence was largely credited to his new partner in crime, guitar hero Randy Rhoads, who gave Osbourne a renewed sense of purpose. In his brief time with the former Black Sabbath frontman, Rhoads pushed metal forward and pioneered the neoclassical spin-off. He became a hero to virtuoso players everywhere with tracks like ‘Crazy Train’ and ‘Mr. Crowley’.

While Lemmy always distanced himself from the world of metal, insisting he was a true rock ‘n’ roller despite his incidental connections to the genre, it made sense that Motörhead supported Ozzy Osbourne. They opened for him during the first half of the North American leg of the Blizzard of Ozz tour in 1981.

While Lemmy was never a fan of Black Sabbath when they broke out, he was living in America during Osbourne’s re-emergence. His opinion of him changed considerably after watching him perform his solo material alongside Rhoads every night. Despite being a fan of no-nonsense rock music in its least ostentatious forms, even Lemmy couldn’t resist the brilliance of the diminutive guitar hero.

In an outtake from the Thirty Years After The Blizzard DVD, Lemmy explained that the young Rhoads impacted him because he understood his craft and pushed himself to the limit. Labelling him “brilliant”, Lemmy recalled: “He took risks. He wasn’t scared. I mean, he knew his instrument, so he’d just go for it. That’s what I used to like about him. And you could, like, Ozzy used to throw him around, throw him up on his shoulder while he was playing. He never missed a note.”

It says a lot about Randy Rhoads – who was only 24 during the tour – that he confidently blew everyone away each night and didn’t crumble under the burning gaze of the storied Lemmy. Being in the presence of two metal titans must have been exceptionally energising.