Q and A: Phil Campbell (Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons)

By BRIAN GIFFIN

WELSH rocker Phil Campbell was the guitarist with the legendary Motörhead for 31 years. After that great band ended with the passing of Lemmy Kilmister in December 2015, Campbell made a slow return in a band made up of himself and his three sons, Todd, Dane and Tyla. Within a year they had found former Attack! Attack! vocalist Neil Starr and were performing festival dates under the name Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons. Three albums later and with Joel Peters now out front, Campbell and the band will be touring Australia for the first time in September, with a swag of Motörhead tunes as part of the deal.

Hot Metal: Phil, I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with you a couple of times before. Once, a very, very long time ago when you toured Motörhead here with Mötley Crüe, and then more recently when you did your solo album. It’s very special this time, because you’re bringing the Bastard Sons to Australia.
Phil Campbell: “Yeah, and we’re all looking forward to it. It’ll be the first time for us playing down there as a band. My one son has been to Australia for a vacation, but the other two haven’t been there yet, so we’re all excited and we’re going to be a good set together, mixing Motörhead songs with our own originals songs. It’s going to be fantastic. We’re stoked to be coming down at long last.”

HM: A lot of us will be looking forward to this. It’s been very many years since we’ve had the pleasure of having you here, Phil and it’s been 10 years this year since Lemmy passed on. You’re doing Motörhead songs on this tour – it’s a remarkable legacy because you were in that band longer than anyone else except Lemmy himself. What’s it like for you performing those songs now, with other people?
PC: “We play ‘em great! It was very strange at first, not having Lem by my side. Even to this day, you get flashbacks on stage. Weird things go through your head. I’m comfortable with the boys onstage now. We make the songs sound great – we do ‘em proud, so I think Lem would be proud as well! They’re all great musicians and they’re a tight band, and the songs still rock. There’ll never be another Motörhead and we don’t want to be Motörhead, obviously, but the fans still want to hear a few Motörhead songs here and there. So we’re going to play bunch of them, and a bunch of our own. But it’ll never be the same. Nothing lasts forever. Motörhead… we did have a great fun and I’m proud of all that we achieved. Lem said to me, ‘I just set out to create an unforgettable rock and roll band,’ and I think he achieved his ambition, without a doubt.”

HM: There was something very special about that band and as you’ve said, you’re proud to have been part of it for such a long time. It must have been a great shift for you when Lem passed. What were you going through when that happened? Were you ready to give up being a musician?
PC: “We knew Lem was ill, but he just wanted to carry on as long as he could. We never talked … we never spoke about the end of the band. We just talked about the next tour, the next song, the next album… It was still a shock and for about four months I was in a state of shock and, to be honest, I was just going to retire and not play anymore. Then my boys said, ‘Come on dad, let’s play a few shows.’ Because we weren’t called the Bastard Sons then but I did have a band with my kids between tours when Motörhead was going. In the downtime we’d just got out and play cover songs for fun. Do the odd gig or two. Things kind of escalated a bit after four months of Lem passing. We decided to go out and we did Bloodstock Festival playing covers and Chris Jericho came sang with us, and we started writing our own material and then a while after that the boys changed the name of the band. I didn’t call it the Bastard Sons. That was one of my boys’ ideas. It sort of escalated from there, and now we’ve gone from nothing to doing 10 shows with Judas Priest this year. We got a whole arena tour coming up with Alice Cooper and Judas Priest. We’ve done stadiums with Guns N Roses the last few years. It’s going well and I’m still enjoying it, and after half a lifetime away from my boys, it’s nice to give something back and be on the road with another kick ass rock n roll band. They’re all fantastic players and they’re all so tight. We’re looking forward to coming down and breaking a few windows and crumbling a few ceilings!”

HM: You are in a very unique and fortunate situation to have three sons who love what you do to the point where they are in a band with you. There aren’t really that many dads that would tour with their sons in that capacity.
PC: “Yeah it’s pretty unique, and we all have great fun. And while we’re all having fun, we’ll keep doing it. I have no plans to stop. At some point, I suppose, I’ll be too old to give it my best on stage but at the moment, everything’s going great. I don’t want to just go through the motions if I’m not feeling it. I’d rather go out on top. But it’s not going to be for a long time yet!”

HM: That’s great to hear because there’s still a lot of music to create. The first thing most people got to hear from you post-Motörhead was the solo record, that had some stuff on it that was maybe a different than what we’d heard from you before.
PC: “Yeah. But we’ve got a bunch of songs written for the next album, as well. We’ve got about eight songs so far. We have recorded they, just roughly so we don’t forget the damned things! But we’ll probably, in all honesty, try to find some time in the next year to record them properly. Hopefully some time before the end of next year we’ll have the next record out. That’s what we’re aiming for.”

HM: What’s great is that people have embraced it without expecting it to sound like Motörhead.
PC: “Some of it’s going to sound like Motörhead because I wrote all the riffs for Motörhead. I just can’t change my style for the sake of it. I want us to be a kick ass rock n roll, so it’s going to sound like Motörhead here and there, but everyone’s contributing to the songwriting big time. I take a bit of a back seat now and then, because the boys are quite competent and I’m a bit lazy now, in my old age. So I let them do a lot of work and then come in and do my bits and some songs of my own, and some of my riffs. It all works out great.”

HM: It’ll be great to have your kick ass rock and roll band down here soon.
PC: “We’re really looking forward to it and hopefully if all goes well, in two years’ time we can come back and do it all again. We’ve just to make sure we sell enough tickets so we can come back, so if anyone’s reading this, get your tickets early to avoid disappointment. We’re gonna come down and rock your roofs off!”

GET TICKETS HERE

PHIL CAMPBELL AND THE BASTARD SONS AUSTRALIAN TOUR

16 SEPTEMBER: Rosemount Hotel, Perth
17 SEPTEMBER: Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide
19 SEPTEMBER: Eatons Hill Hotel, Brisbane
20 SEPTEMBER: Manning Bar, Sydney
21 SEPTEMBER: Northcote Theatre, Melbourne