The music group Reverend Horton Heat has released a recording of them covering the Motorhead song “Ace of Spades” on Fun-Guy Records. The song has recently become a staple in the live shows of the band.
Reverend Horton Heat had a long relationship with Lemmy Kilmister the lead singer and bassist for Motorhead.
Jim Heath said:
Lemmy was always at our L.A. and Hollywood shows which was really flattering for us. Then, that friendship eventually led to us recording with him, having him the band onstage for a tour and a North American tour with Motorhead.
During our rehearsals for the tour where we backed up Lemmy, I asked him if we were going to play “Ace of Spades”. Lemmy said in his somewhat gruff English accent, “No, we won’t be doing that song!” I replied, “C’mon Lemmy, “Ace of Spades” is probably your biggest song, that’s just giving the people what they want!” Lemmy then said, “Never give them what they want, give them what they need!”
Looking back on what he said, I still don’t think I understand what he was talking about! But we had worked up the song already – we knew it. So, we would play it sometimes with friends sitting in and singing, then I just decided one day that I would sing it. Now, it has become a staple of our set, so we decided to record it.
In April of 2024, the band with Jimbo Wallace on bass and Jonathan Jeter on drums went into Empire Sound in the Dallas area and recorded “Ace of Spades”. It’s a rollicking and fast rendition with a bit of the Reverend Horton Heat’s own style mixed in with much of the same arrangement as the original Motorhead version. Heath says, “We did kind of morphed our approach more toward a metal type of feel, but it’s obviously still us. It’s fun. It’s all about fun.”
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