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Motorhead Frontman Ian ‘Lemmy' Kilmister Dies Days After Cancer Diagnosis, Band Says

He was remembered as "a warrior and a legend" by fellow rocker Ozzy Osbourne

The frontman of long-running rock band Motörhead, Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister, has died, the band's official Facebook page announced Monday. He was 70.

Kilmister, commonly known as Lemmy, had just received a cancer diagnosis, the post said: "We cannot begin to express our shock and sadness, there aren’t words."

Motorhead was founded in 1975 by Lemmy, who sang, played bass and wrote the music. His biggest hit, 1980's "Ace of Spades," exhibited many of the characteristics that fans loved in Lemmy: hard-living bravado, heavy metal shredding, and his gravely voice.

Kilmister had just celebrated his birthday on Thursday, Dec. 24. According to the Motorhead post, he learned he had cancer on Saturday and died Monday "at home, sitting in front of his favorite video game."

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There is no easy way to say this…our mighty, noble friend Lemmy passed away today after a short battle with an extremely...

Posted by Official Motörhead on Monday, December 28, 2015

The band recently canceled some performances over what it said was a lung infection, NBC News reported. Kilmister told an audience "I can't do it" and walked offstage at a Sept. 1 concert in Austin.

Motorhead guitarist "Fast" Eddie Clarke said Monday that Lemmy was like a brother to him.

"We did so much together, the three of us," Clarke wrote Monday on his Facebook page. "The world seems a really empty place right now.

Fellow musicians quickly flooded Twitter with their condolences. "Black Sabbath" frontman Ozzy Osbourne remembered Lemmy as "a warrior and a legend" in a tweet Monday.

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