Ex-Thin Lizzy guitarist didn’t enjoy performing Whiskey in the Jar with Metallica: “They said, ‘When we do this, we tune our guitars a whole tone down.’ I thought, ‘A whole tone? The guitar is going to sound like a f**king banjo!’”
Former Thin Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell apparently did not relish the time he joined Metallica onstage for Whiskey in the Jar, the very song he helped turn into a hard-rock staple decades earlier.
Whiskey in the Jar began life as a traditional Irish folk tune, and it wasn’t until 1972 that Bell electrified it with Thin Lizzy, reshaping the song into a swaggering rock anthem complete with its now-iconic guitar solo.
More than twenty years later, Metallica reimagined the track for their 1998 covers album Garage Inc., giving it a heavier, grittier edge and introducing the song to a new generation of fans around the world.
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Speaking with Guitar World, Bell revisits the unexpected moment he found himself performing the song alongside James Hetfield and co in Dublin – and shares why the whole experience never quite clicked for him.
“I didn’t know anything about Metallica. I’m not into that kind of music, really,” Bell begins. “But it was funny; they got in touch with me. Someone from their setup phoned me and said, “I work with Metallica. We’re doing a world tour. Would love to have you come along to play with us in Dublin and do Whiskey in the Jar.”
“I said, ‘Can you email me what’s going on?’ He said, ‘Have you heard Metallica’s version of Whiskey in the Jar?’ I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘What planet are you living on?’ I said, ‘Jupiter.’ [Laughs] Anyway, this courier arrived on a motorbike about two days later, and he had quite a few records, cassettes and DVDs of Metallica doing Whiskey in the Jar.”
Recalling his reaction to the material, the guitarist says, “It was okay. But once we got to Dublin, the thing that threw me was, I was trying out this Marshall amp, and Metallica walked in sort of like cartoons. They said, ‘Hey, man, when we do this, we tune our guitars a whole tone down.’ I thought, ‘A whole tone? The guitar is going to sound like a fucking banjo…’ But I don’t know; I didn’t really know them.”
When asked whether he actually enjoyed the performance, Bell admits that the moment never sat comfortably with him.
“No. I mean, it was okay,” he says, noting that the tuning mismatch threw him off throughout the song. “I just felt a bit out of place, especially as my guitar was in standard tuning and I was playing along in F instead of G. That’s the only thing that was in my head because I didn’t tune my guitar a whole tone down. If I had the chance again, I’d tune it down because it was tricky playing it in F!”
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