Since 2015, I have published an annual obituary for Lemmy Kilmister on this blog. I became a Motörhead-fan at the age of 12 and have remained one ever since. Lemmy was a true anarcho-individualist: no aloof meta-musings, but lust for life, integrity, and work for what you love.

A couple of days ago I thought: If Motörhead had been an art collective, they would not receive any funding these days. Funding in the arts is now inextricably and explicitly linked to social and ethical commitment. At worst, a culture of Hofschranzen emerges, since all begin to superimpose ethical terms on their respective practices, whether they live them, whether they believe in them or not.

Lemmy, in turn, insisted on the liberating force of political incorrectness. He emphasized his deep distrust of those who, under changing ideological guises, pretend to want to improve the world, aspire to power, and impose conditions on others. He saw in this the survival of religion and authority. In fact power has always spoken in the name of reason, the good, the holy, the beautiful. And power changes people. Especially when it feels reasonable, good, true, and beautiful, thus potentially legitimizing not-so-reasonable, not-so-good, not-so-true, not-so-beautiful measures taken in its name.

Well, the good thing is that Motörhead were not an art collective, but an independent rock 'n' roll band (although Lemmy said in our last interview (2014) that he considers Motörhead to be art – something he had previously rejected). Motörhead and Lemmy were influential, but they were powerless for sure. True art always is. Rather than subscribing to new religiously tinged movements, Lemmy remained a power-critical skeptic and described his approach as "sheer, dogged, pig-nosed fucking persistence and refusal to listen to the evidence".

Unfortunately the "refusal to listen to the evidence" is these days mostly associated with political reactionaries and revanchists rather than with anarchistic resistance against organized "good" power. It's about time to bring it back – back to the realm of fun-loving defiance, anarcho-individualistic stubbornness and love of the absurd. The best soundtrack to this homecoming is still Motörhead.