Motorhead lead singer and British heavy metal icon Lemmy dies at 70

Lemmy Kilmister, the founder and lead singer of British heavy metal band Motorhead, has died at the age of 70 on 28 December, four days after his birthday. According to a post put up by the band on their Facebook page, he passed away "after a short battle with an extremely aggressive cancer".

According to the band, Kilmister died "at home, sitting in front of his favourite video game from The Rainbow which had recently made its way down the street, with his family".

Born Ian Fraser Kilmister in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, in 1945, Kilmister earned the nickname Lemmy while in school. In 1975, he formed the band Motorhead after being kicked out of the band Hawkwind following his arrest for drug possession.

As guitarist, vocalist and songwriter, Kilmister was instrumental in producing the band's most popular tracks including the classic Ace Of Spades, and 22 albums. He worked on collaborations with other artists as well and is known to have written a number of songs for Ozzy Osbourne's No More Tears album.

Mourning the loss in a Twitter post, Osbourne called him a "warrior and a legend".

Kilmister had been battling a number of health issues. He suffered a lung infection earlier this year and a haematoma in 2014. In 2013, he had to be fitted with a defibrillator to correct a problem with his heart. Despite these setbacks to his health, following years of heavy substance abuse, the band continued to tour aggressively to promote their latest album, Bad Magic.

In an interview with Rolling Stone in August, the Motorhead star said: "I'm all right, you know. I'm not dying yet."