Lemmy was a personal hero to me, says sculptor

"Motorhead are the hardest, loudest band in the world – why wouldn't you make those your heroes? We're from Stoke-on-Trent and Lemmy's one of us."

Those are the words of sculptor Andy Edwards who has created a statue of the band's frontman, which will be unveiled in the town of his birth on 8 May.

Lemmy was born Ian Kilmister in Burslem, in 1945 and his family later moved to Newcastle-under-Lyme. He died in 2015, aged 70.

The rocker's connection to north Staffordshire has endured among locals. And some of Lemmy's ashes will be interred within the statue's plinth by guitarist Phil Campbell.

"Lemmy was a personal hero to me," Mr Edwards said.

He first saw the band play live at Hanley's Victoria Hall in 1979, shortly after a school friend had told him to listen to their album Overkill.

It is a photo of Lemmy on the album's back cover on which the new statue has been modelled.

Mr Edwards – who is perhaps best known for his statues of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor at Derby County FC and The Beatles on Liverpool's Pier Head – said the idea for the Lemmy statue began about three years ago.

He added Motorhead's management had subsequently been in touch and said it would cover the cost.

Mr Edwards also saw the band at Vale Park in 1981, and described this era as their peak.

"The reason for making this statue is to give other people that pleasure that I've had in thinking back, those memories at Victoria Hall, Bingley Hall and Vale Park," he said.

Mr Edwards explained he had contemplated every intricate detail possible whilst creating the statue. This included recreating, as accurately as possible, Lemmy's Rickenbacker 4001 guitar which he was playing at Vale Park.

"I put those details in because if you don't, people sense there's something not quite right and they don't hang around as long," he said.

"You want people to hang about because you want people to go back in time and get their imaginations going."

The sculptor added he had even debated with himself whether to put the star in Wrangler or Levi's jeans.

He said he had combined details with his own memories of Lemmy's swagger, to help get the pose right.

"You've got to care about it, it's got to come from the heart," he said.

Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.