Phil Campbell

Phil Campbell was Motörhead's guitarist from 1984 to 2015 — thirty-one years, the band's longest-serving member after Lemmy himself. Born in Pontypridd, Wales, in 1961, he came from Persian Risk and joined the group alongside Würzel, forming the guitar pair that replaced Fast Eddie Clarke and changed the band's architecture: from trio to quartet, with two guitars trading where there had been one alone. When Würzel left in 1995, Campbell became the sole guitarist again and remained so to the end. His role was thankless by definition — to sustain, on his own, the only melodic line in a band whose bass played chords and whose drums never backed off — and he fulfilled it with dirty blues riffs and short solos, without declared virtuosity and without ever trying to compete with Lemmy's presence. It is the kind of contribution you only notice by its absence. He recorded most of Motörhead's discography: from No Remorse (1984) to Bad Magic (2015), by way of 1916 (1991), Bastards (1993), Inferno (2004) and Aftershock (2013). With Lemmy's death and the end of the band, he formed Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons alongside his three sons — Todd, Dane and Tyla — releasing The Age of Absurdity (2018), We're the Bastards (2020) and Kings of the Asylum (2023). He also issued the solo record Old Lions Still Roar (2019).