Motörhead’s Mikkey Dee details near-death sepsis diagnosis

Former Motörhead drummer Mikkey Dee says he’s lucky to be alive after being diagnosed with sepsis during the holidays.

The Swedish percussionist shared news of his health scare on social media on Thursday (December 2), explaining that he was hospitalized with a blood infection that he described as “very serious.”

“I was hospitalized for three weeks, but now I’m at home fighting this bastard germ,” he shared. “Thankfully, I received excellent care at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in my hometown of Gothenburg.

“So thank you to all the doctors and nurses who provided me with the highest quality care,” he added. “After several surgeries, I’m back home now and all the numbers are trending in the right direction. I still have a lot of recovery and rehab ahead of me.

Interviewed by Swedish media Evening NewsDee expanded on this experience. He told the media what started as a simple sprain on the weekend before Christmas quickly turned into something more serious.

“The ankle swelled really bad and then took on a strange shape and appearance, like an overcooked ham,” Dee said. “I was very ill, so I had to take an ambulance to Sahlgrenska, where they found that I had extremely high values, so I became a priority there.

“Surgery came right away, the first of three. They cut out the dead, infected and badly infected stuff. It was not a good journey for me… One day, I’ll be in heaven playing drums with Lemmy, I can say that.

In some strange synchronicity, Dee’s brush with death comes nearly nine years after the death of his Motörhead bandmate Lemmy Kilmister on December 28, 2015. His death was reported prematurely following a health scare weeks after the rebuttal.

Dee first came to prominence in the 1980s as a member of the Danish band King Diamond, and while working with Don Dokken, Dee was recruited by Motörhead to replace drummer Phil ‘Philthy Animal’ Taylor. Dee remained with the band until it disbanded following Lemmy’s death in 2015, and joined the German rock band Scorpions the following year.