During a recent interview with BraveWords scribe Carl Begai, Toronto rocker Danko Jones opened up about his friendship with Motörhead legend Lemmy, who passed away in December 2015.

Danko: "It's been over a year and it's tough to talk about only because I want to make sure I say the right thing. At the same time it definitely affected me when I first heard the news. We, the band, were so close to the Motörhead juggernaut; the crew, the guys in the band, we were all on great terms. Some of Motörhead's crew have even gone out with us, so there was definitely more of a connection than us merely being fans of the band playing on the same stage at a festival."

"Lemmy's death was a shock for a lot of people. We've all seen those YouTube clips where Lemmy had to stop the shows because he wasn't in the best of health, but he had this persona of living forever, he had this persona of invincibility. I think that's why it really shocked a lot of people; regardless of his state of health Lemmy was invincible and he was going to live through it. It's a tough go, man, it's a rough thing to deal with." 

"Now, a year later, does rock have it's next leader? Does rock have Lemmy's successor? Because really, he was the king of rock n' roll. I don't think that question has been answered and it's left people wondering. At the same time I don't think that rock n' roll needs a leader at this point. I've said this before... we were able to meet, perform with and hang out with a guy who is going to go down in history as being almost mythological. It's almost like Lemmy is a character in a story, and Danko Jones got to hang with the guy. That's what I tend to think about when I think about Lemmy."

Watch for the complete interview coming to BraveWords soon.