The tour manager who worked for iconic bands such as Motorhead, Black Sabbath, Rush and Hawkwind has revealed the wildest times she had while traveling around the world with music’s biggest names.
Kim Hawes, from ‘a small farming village in Lancashire,’ has been described as ‘a pioneer for women in the music industry’ and ‘spent years sleeping underneath’ Motorhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister on the band’s tour bus.
She was Motorhead’s tour manager for 10 years.
To promote her book, Lipstick and Leather: On the Road With The World’s Most Notorious Rock Stars, Kim took to Reddit for one of the social-media platform’s famed AMAs (Ask Me Anything).
Kim Hawes, from Lancashire, was tour manager for Motorhead for 10 years. Recently she did a Reddit AMA
She said she spent years sleeping in the bunk under Motorhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister on the band’s tour bus
And she definitely had lots to tell.
Kim, who started in the music industry aged 19 with selling merch before working her way up to tour manager, said she had ‘feuded with the members of Black Sabbath, tripped mushrooms on stage with Hawkwind, faced down the Hells Angels and escalated band prank wars.’
‘I threw Madonna off stage, turned down an invite from Nelson Mandela (big regret), and dealt with the aftermath of Chumbawamba drenching John Prescott,’ the long-time music fan added.
In one anecdote, Kim, who is now in her 60s, revealed that the original Motorhead lineup took chemists on tour with them after one Redditor asked how illicit drugs were acquired while on the road.
‘I don’t want to get anyone into trouble but I’ll talk about the original Motorhead line up because none of them are still with us,’ she said.
‘They took their own chemistry lab on tour with them! It was two guys (who’d been in the SAS!) [who] came on tour to produce the supplies and ensure it never ran out.’
She also recalled one time a fan who was ‘mad keen’ to get into a Rush gig in the 1980s sent the merchandise people ‘a matchbox full of all these different pills as a bribe.’
But nobody was game enough to allow them access.
Kim has shared some photos of her life on tour with Motorhead from her personal collection
A young Kim from her tour-managing days. She’s been described as a ‘pioneer for women in the music industry’
As for how many people hit the road with bands, Kim, who last toured in 2013, saie she usually had about 75 crew members. One of Kim’s photos from a Motorhead tour
She called Lemmy her ‘friend’ and ‘mentor’ in a birthday post to him on Instagram
Kim, who is now in her 60s, started in the music industry aged 19 with selling merch before working her way up to tour manager
Despite touring with Motorhead for a decade, Kim recalled she was nervous when she first met them.
‘They scared the c**p out of me! I was really young and hadn’t really come across the heavy metal scene. Their appearances and gruff voices scared me,’ she said.
‘Also Lemmy pranked me with a straight jacket the first time I met him. But I came to love them. By the end of the ten years, we were family.’
Even though he had a rockstar persona, Kim insisted he was always a gentleman, but admitted he ‘loved booze and drugs.’
‘Early in working with him, I could never understand how he could stay awake for so long. I was so much younger than him and couldn’t understand why I needed more sleep than he did… until later on of course,’ she said.
‘I’d get into my tour bunk and inevitably be woken up by him asking me to come watch a movie on the buses’ VHS. He didn’t seem to care what the film was, but I remember the first movie I watched with him was Excalibur.’
Lemmy died in 2015 at the age of 70 after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.
One Redditor asked Kim the ‘craziest thing’ she’d witnessed on tour and she listed off a few.
Lemmy pictured with Motorhead bandmates Eddie Clarke and Phil Taylor in 1980
Hawkwind, who were an English rock band and one of the earliest space rock groups, pictured in 1972
Rush band members Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart and Geddy Lee pictured in 1977
‘Honestly you sort of lose a sense of what is “crazy” at a certain point. But to hit a few highlights: the day at a service station in Italy when these guys were being annoying so the truck driver ran over their car,’ she said.
‘The day Chumbawamba said they had some people for the guest list and it was 200+ all at the front gate with no warning!’
As for how many people hit the road with bands, Kim, who last toured in 2013, saie she usually had about 75 crew members, but it depended on the band and how much they could afford to spend.
‘I’ve had many trades (see above re: Motorhead’s chemists!) but the oddest apart from this was a dentist for a certain rock star frightened that their new caps might fall out,’ she added.
Kim said people would be surprised to learn that her job was ‘like babysitting.’
‘You have to keep them still, focused on their homework and prevent them from killing themselves,’ she said.
‘I always used to have the biggest smile on my face on the way home after a tour, when the whole thing had wrapped up, knowing I’d dealt with all the little things that had come my way and the tour had been a success.’
Having retired from touring, Kim plans to coach and mentor other people who are music fans and looking to get their start in the industry.
Her book, Lipstick and Leather: On the Road With The World’s Most Notorious Rock Stars, is out now.
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