Metal
Phil Campbell died of multi-organ failure. That was the finding of the inquest held on Friday 2 October at St Pancras Coroner’s Court, which covers inner north London, six and a half months after the guitarist’s death on 13 March at the age of 64.
The court heard that Campbell had undergone two liver transplants and bowel surgery at the Royal Free Hospital in London earlier this year. The second transplant worked, but complications followed; after the bowel surgery he was moved to intensive care and deteriorated rapidly. He had been seven years sober. “My view is that there is nothing here to suggest his death could have been prevented,” said coroner Dr Richard Brittain.
In February, Phil Campbell And The Bastard Sons — the band he had with his sons Todd, Dane and Tyla — cancelled their Australian and European dates from March to May “due to medical advice Phil has just received”, with no further detail. In March the family spoke of “a long and courageous battle in intensive care following a complex major operation”.
“He was the funniest guy I have ever known and the best rock guitar player I have ever played with,” Motörhead drummer Mikkey Dee wrote at the time. “We wrote 12 studio albums together, and he never stopped surprising me with his extreme talent.”
Campbell joined Motörhead in 1984, when Lemmy was looking for a replacement for Brian Robertson and decided to keep both him and Würzel. His first solo record, “Old Lions Still Roar”, came out in October 2019, and the last Bastard Sons album, “Kings Of The Asylum”, in September 2023 on Nuclear Blast. In the more than thirty years he spent in the band, he was its only guitarist for the last twenty.
Text by Roger Estivill