After “Fast” Eddie Clarke left Motörhead in 1982 during the Iron Fist tour, he joined forces with Humble Pie drum legend Jerry Shirley and a new singer from Dublin by the name of Dave King. Fastway was formed and the band’s debut album went through the roof, hitting the Top 40 in the US, which Motörhead had never done. To this day it is one of the finest debut albums in hard rock/metal history in 1983. And King’s voice led the charge with such classic as “Easy Livin’”, “Say What You Will”, “Feel Me, Touch Me (Do Anything You Want)” and the epic “We Become One”. Fastway disbanded after three albums including 1984’s All Fired Up and 1986’s Waiting For The Roar, which was an incredible departure for the band and a pretty big disappointment for fans.
On Dave King’s birthday today (he turns 63; December 11th, 1961), we revisit our chat with him this past summer at Summer Breeze in Germany.
“What happened basically was record company bullshit,” King agreed about the Waiting For The Roar album and era. “It’s funny, we talk a lot about bands like Def Leppard who have changed a lot. So they got rid of Jerry and Charlie (McCracken) from Fastway, which broke my heart, and I said, ‘This is probably going to be my last album, cuz I’m not really into it you know.’ Obviously all these bands that we are talking about like Maiden, are still around. We didn’t have that in Fastway. It didn’t grow like that, so I basically had to do my own thing and grow up myself. I didn’t make any money.”
BraveWords: Where were you when Fast Eddie died? When we lost all the original Motorhead members, that was tragic.
King: “Philthy used to live with me in LA. He used to stay in my flat. But Eddie had health issues, but I didn’t even know Eddie was sick. I was in the middle of a tour in Europe, like festival season, when I heard he passed away. Myself and Eddie hadn’t talked in a few years you know. It was sad, but there were a lot of issues there between the two of us.”
BraveWords: Were you actually a Motörhead fan when you got hired?
King: “Yeah, I mean I literally had seen Motörhead three weeks before he left.”
BraveWords: Although I was too young to attend, Fast Eddie’s final show with Motörhead was the Iron Fist tour at the CNE in 1982. That’s when then the band imploded.
King: “He was very upset at the thing they did with Wendy O’ Williams from The Plasmatics. Eddie was very upset by that. I’ve got a great story. I was at a pub called the Prince Of Wales in London. And a lot of people drank there. Joe Strummer drank there. So did Lemmy. They hired a friend of mine to help me out, help me adjust. They just hired him so that I’d be OK. Because it was a whole new world to me you know. I was 18 years of age and knew fuck all, and we are in the Prince Of Wales pub and my friend went over to talk to Lemmy and he asked him, ‘Do you think you’ll ever get back together with Eddie?’ He said ‘No’ and he pointed at me. I was at a pinball machine and Lemmy points at me and says “Because of him.”
BraveWords: Did you ever drink at the Whiskey then?
King: “Lemmy was fine, Lemmy was brilliant. He was a fucking genius. He didn’t give a fuck. He ruled his world. Flogging Molly toured with Motörhead a few times and he was always, always, always a really intelligent, smart man. His company was great. Him and Eddie always got on after he left Motörhead.”
BraveWords: What was your fave Motörhead record then?
King: “I’m the live album guy. No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith was my album. UFO, their live album as well. I was really into live albums. I think that’s the reason Flogging Molly is a live band, I love live music.”
