The story about Lemmy Kilmister was told by Scott Ian of Anthrax.
Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian told an unusual story about his friend Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead . Lemmy died in December 2015 after being diagnosed with cancer, at the age of 70.
Asked if Lemmy seemed ill in the months before his death, Ian said: “No, he wasn’t that sick at that point. But he wasn’t as healthy as he had been. He was diagnosed with diabetes at some point. I remember he had stopped drinking Jack and Coke because of the sugar. In the rock world, that was huge news. He had switched to vodka.”
That's when Ian revealed the story about the time a cigarette prevented Lemmy from having toes amputated. "He literally almost lost some toes because he didn't know about the diabetes yet. They had turned black because of the lack of circulation," Ian said.
“He went to see a doctor in LA and he said, ‘Oh, you need to amputate those toes immediately.’ He decided to go to London to see another doctor for a second opinion. They said the same thing. He needed surgery, it was an emergency. So he went to have the surgery and he was smoking a cigarette in the operating room. Someone said he couldn’t smoke there, they asked if he was crazy. He replied, ‘If I’m going to lose a toe, I’m going to smoke a damn cigarette.’ Even so, they wouldn’t let him. He just walked out and didn’t have the surgery. Then he ended up seeing another doctor who said he would be fine, he just needed to change his diet a little.”
Lemmy changed his eating habits and didn't have to have surgery. "A cigarette literally prevented him from having fingers amputated," Scott added. "That's when he stopped drinking Jack and Coke. The doctor said, 'start drinking diet coke and you won't have to have your fingers amputated,'" he laughed.
