It was an absolute pleasure to have a chance to speak to WWE Vice President of Global Talent Strategy & Development Paul "Triple H" Levesque on our pro wrestling-meets-metal podcast Squared Circle Pit. One of the highlights of the conversation was asking Triple H how it feels knowing he is responsible for getting a lot of wrestling fans into Motorhead.
Triple H noted to me that a few years after he began coming out to his now-famous Motorhead intro song, "The Game," he saw legendary frontman Lemmy Kilmister backstage before a Motorhead gig. According to HHH, Lemmy told him "You’ve gotta look out there tonight. Wait until you see all the kids that are at our event. We didn’t have any of that before we started with you."
“He said, ‘It used to be an old-timer event at our shows where it was all these old metalheads that had kinda aged out. All of a sudden, we’re like this cool, young band and we’ve got kids here and teenagers and young adults that are at our shows again. It’s been like a refresh for us.’ To me, there was no bigger compliment.”
Can you imagine Lemmy thanking you for anything? What an honor! Triple H talks about some of his other favorite bands including Black Sabbath, Metallica and KISS.
Triple H also shares some great stories about his friendship with Tool guitarist Adam Jones, and seeing Jones lose it at a Triple H birthday bash watching ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons performing live.
I also had to ask Triple H about what WWE owner Vince McMahon listens to. Vince is a notable AC/DC fan, but in general like's a lot of classic rock. “He’s sort of a classic rock kind of guy. AC/DC is the big thing for him. The Stones, Bob Seger — those are the things that really resonate with him.
Triple H noted Vince is a big soul guy, he loves Motwon and ultimately “he loves the music, but to him, it’s the experience. Kid Rock, ZZ Top — all that stuff where they can give you that performance as well. Not just the music, but the performance is big, too — he loves that.”
Did you get into Motorhead through WWE? Listen to the entire, awesome interview below.
