Struggling to nail Metallica’s punishing riffing? Don’t worry, even James Hetfield admits he finds it tricky at times
If you’ve ever found yourself frustrated when trying to learn a Metallica riff, don’t beat yourself up. James Hetfield has shared that there are two of their own songs he still gets nervous to play, and that each member has their own list of songs they find most tricky.
Metallica are often honest about not always getting things perfect, especially when they’re out playing live and juggling differing setlists. Their colossal M72 world tour, which will resume in May this year, often sees them play two nights with two individual set lists in each city they attend.
READ MORE: “Not many people want to watch a band stand in front of their amp line”: Metallica guitar tech thinks ditching real amps helped the band improve spectacle of their live shows
Hetfield tells The Metallica Report (via Ultimate Guitar), “We all have our own certain songs that are a little difficult. Moth Into Flame, Master of Puppets, those are two that are, ‘Wow, those are a little difficult.’ I’m sure Lars [Ulrich, drummer] has his list; we all have our list. But we push through, and we help each other with it,” he explains.
On a previous appearance on the same podcast, Hetfield was also open and honest about how they accept and handle any mistakes they make while on the road. “It’s not a mistake, really,” he said. “That word is kind of ridiculous. It’s just a unique way of playing it that night. Everyone gets to enjoy whatever happens right then.
“Frankly, I think it’s a challenge when a song falls apart. It could be devastating to other bands, for us it’s just, ‘Okay, we fucked up! Let’s start it again! Let’s take it from here!’”
Mistakes or no mistakes, even Dave Mustaine, who famously has a fraught relationship with the band, has complimented Hetfield on his playing a number of times over recent years. As a final hurrah before they retire this year, Megadeth released their own cover of Metallica’s Ride The Lightning, and upon confirming the track, Mustaine said he wanted to do it out of respect.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, he called Hetfield a “fucking powerhouse” and said he’d “always respected him” as a player: “I wanted to do something to close the circle on my career right now, since it started off with [Mustaine’s band before Metallica] Panic and several of the songs that ended up in the Metallica repertoire, I wanted to do something that I felt would be a good song,” he said.
To find out where you can catch Metallica on tour, head to their official website.
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