We can’t really blame James Hetfield tearing up when Sir Elton John called a classic Metallica tune “one of the best songs ever written.” The pair were guests on “The Howard Stern Show” show, along with singer Miley Cyrus to promote The Metallica Blacklist compilation
The show had the band seated alongside Cyrus in the studio, with John participating via a Zoom call. John and Cyrus covered the Metallica hit “Nothing Else Matters” for the Blacklist album. The iconic intro and outro replaced by John’s legendary piano work.
“That idea came from Andrew Watt, who produced the track and played guitar on it. He said, ‘I want you to start the song and finish the song, because I don’t want it to start with the guitar, because that’s how the original record started,” John explained in 2021. “Listen, this is one of the best songs ever written, to me. It’s a song that never gets old. And playing on this track, I just couldn’t wait. The chord structure, the melodies, the time changes, it’s got drama written all over it,” he added.
Upon herding John regard “Nothing Else Matters” so highly, Hetfield began to tear up. Proving once and for all you can still be metal as hell while expressing emotion.
“I have to say, it was a no-brainer playing on this song,” John added. “Metallica are probably the crème de la crème of those kind of bands. You can’t really define them. They’re not a heavy metal band. They’re a musical band. Their songs aren’t just heavy metal. They’re beautiful songs. This is such a melodic song — it’s f**king great, actually.”
“If you could have said 40 years ago when James and I started … that 40 years later we would still be functioning, we’d be sitting here with one of the greatest stars in the world (Cyrus) next to us, with Elton on a Zoom, and doing your radio show, and talking about the accomplishments and what this record means to so many people, that would be the mindf**k of all mindf**ks,” chimed in Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich.
“To be able to hear what you just said, Elton, sitting next to James … the reaction I can feel in his body language when you said it was one of the greatest songs ever written … it’s just incredible to hear,” he continued.
The Metallica Blacklist album is currently available through Amazon. You can check out the emotional interview between these music legends below:
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