Phil Campbell (musician)

Welsh guitarist

Philip Anthony Campbell (born 7 May 1961) is a Welsh rock musician, best known as the guitarist in Motörhead from 1984 to 2015. The band disbanded upon the death of founder and frontman Lemmy. He currently tours with his own band Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons, featuring his three sons: Todd, Dane and Tyla.

Campbell was born in Pontypridd, and started playing guitar when he was 10 years old, inspired and influenced by guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi, Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, Jan Akkerman, Michael Schenker and Todd Rundgren. At the age of 12, Campbell met Lemmy after a Hawkwind gig and asked him for an autograph. By the age of 13, Campbell was playing semi professionally with a cabaret band called Contrast. He later played with a pub rock band called Roktopus (not to be confused with Rocktopus) at gigs in and around South Wales. He bought his first Les Paul in 1978 at a New Year's Day guitar sale at a shop on Ealing Broadway, London. The guitar was later stolen but returned. In 1979, Campbell formed the heavy metal band, Persian Risk, playing on their 7" singles, "Calling For You" (1981) and "Ridin' High" (1983). Compilation albums have been issued which feature some of his work with Persian Risk.

On 8 February 1984, following the departure of Brian Robertson, Motörhead held auditions for a new guitarist, narrowing the candidates down to two guitarists: Michael "Würzel" Burston and Philip Campbell. Though Lemmy had first planned on hiring only one guitarist, he hired both Würzel and Campbell upon hearing them play together. On 14 February 1984, Motörhead were the musical guest for The Young Ones episode "Bambi". One of the band's most popular compilations, No Remorse, followed shortly, it was released on 15 September. Campbell subsequently toured the world with the band and remained a constant member of Motörhead until they disbanded. On 28 December 2015, band founder and sole constant member Lemmy died. The following day, drummer Mikkey Dee announced that Motörhead had disbanded, stating: "We will not be doing any more tours or anything. And there will not be any more records. But the fire survives, and Lemmy lives on in the hearts of everyone." In April 2020, Campbell opened up about how hard it was to see Lemmy struggle towards the end of his life saying that Lemmy “wasn’t quite himself” and that he had been “ageing a little bit more” on Motörhead’s final tour. He also admitted that the end of Motörhead was not easy to adjust to at first.

In February 2016, Campbell entered the studio along with former Slipknot percussionist Chris Fehn to record a new solo album. Campbell’s first solo album Old Lions Still Roar was released on 25 October 2019 and features guest vocals from Alice Cooper, Rob Halford, Dee Snider and Benji Webbe.

Campbell resides in Pontypridd, Wales with his wife Gaynor and their three children.

Campbell uses an LAG Explorer Signature model guitar both live and in the studio, fitted with two Seymour Duncan humbuckers and a single (volume) control. He also uses DBZ, Charvel, Caparison, a couple of Framus Custom Shop guitars on stage, with an occasional acoustic Dean. He has also been known to play ESP, PRS, Minarik Infernos, Tokai Love Rock (Les Paul copies) and a Parker Nitefly guitars. He also uses guitars built by luthier TC Ellis. So far, Ellis has built him a Les Paul styled, a Stratocaster styled, and one modelled after Lemmy's custom built Rickenbacker 4004. Like Lemmy, Campbell uses Marshall Amplifiers and Cabinets when playing live, currently using Marshall JVM410H, JVM410H JS, JCM 900 4100 and 1959RR heads. In the studio he has been known to use Line 6, ENGL, Bogner and Laboga Amps. Earlier in his career he occasionally played Gallien Krueger amplifiers. He mainly uses Dunlop pedals (Micro Amp, Micro Chorus, Phase 90 (Script or EVH), Carbon Copy, Smart Gate, Slash Octave Fuzz & 95Q wah), strings (10–46) and picks (.88).