“Each instrument has a personality, has a voice,” Rob told Howard. Robert Trujillo, for example, came to the Stern Show studio rocking a fretless bass guitar once owned by jazz icon Jaco Pastorious. These days, Metallica is so celebrated that even their musical instruments have become the stuff of legend. “There’s that freedom because there’s trust, and when there’s the trust there’s the love.” Kirk’s Black Magic Guitar “Thankfully, with this bunch of guys, when we go into a song writing situation we leave our egos outside,” Lars said. I can’t pick that,’ and it will be a challenge … So, there’s a lot of pushing of each other.” “He’ll say, ‘Hey, can’t you do something in another key?’ … It’s like, ‘I wouldn’t do that. “Lars doesn’t know how to play guitar, and he will arrange stuff,” James said. It wouldn’t reach its final form until he took it to Lars, who suggested Kirk tweak the riff just a bit by repeating the first part three times and then adding a “tail.” “Three repeats and then a tail - then you have a workable riff,” Kirk said. The riff was still in its infancy, he explained while playing the original version for Howard. Kirk told Howard it came to him one night at 3 a.m. “You simplify the riff, so the vocal has its place to jump around,” he said.Īnd just where did that now-iconic riff originate? To make his point, Hetfield started jamming out to “Enter Sandman,” the band’s first platinum single and the opening track of their critically and commercially adored self-titled album from 1991. “For me, as a vocalist, I try to insert where the guitar isn’t.” “It definitely starts with the riff,” James told him. Metallica is one of the most successful rock acts of all time, so it’s no surprise Howard wanted to hear all about their songwriting process. There are thousands and thousands and thousands of people that want something different than the formulaic stuff they’re being fed,’” he told Howard. “It was one of those monumental days like, ‘Holy shit. Ulrich vividly recalled how he felt when “One” premiered at number one. “I think it was Cliff and a few other people who kind of came up with this idea of doing a video in the spirit of that ‘Johnny Got His Gun’ movie and actually intercutting it with that footage.” “There was something dark about that song,” Lars said. “When you douse a little bit of cynicism on top of that, it’s like, ‘Fuck you - we don’t want to be on MTV.’”Īll that changed when the band made a music video for their first Top 40 single, “One.” “There was definitely an element at that time of ‘We don’t belong, we don’t fit in, and we’re not part of that cool club,’” he called. They wouldn’t touch us,” James said of the network, which eventually changed its tune after Metallica’s massive fanbase demanded representation.Īs Lars remembered it, the band took pride in not being mainstream. Metallica dropped four multi-platinum albums in the 1980s while cementing itself as one of the most popular heavy metal acts of all time, yet they somehow didn’t make it onto MTV until 1989 when the band released its epic music video for “ One.” “We’d been playing in the minors for years, and now we were in the majors,” Lars concluded. Hanging with Ozzy and the other A-list people in his orbit, Metallica knew they had finally made it. “We opened with ‘Battery’ and … ‘Master of Puppets.’ The first couple songs, was kind of looking up going, ‘What is this racket?’ And then 45 minutes later they were all moving their fists and getting into it.” “The first show was in Wichita, Kansas - there we were in front of 15,000 people in the middle of America and we couldn’t believe it,” Lars continued. Metallica’s move from small theaters to massive arenas in the span of just a few years proved surreal. The time before he took us out he took Mötley Crüe out … It was our turn in ’86,” Lars said, crediting Ozzy and his wife Sharon Osbourne for being “kind enough to take us out and give us that shot.” “ was known to bring out bands that were on the verge of breaking. It was a game changing year for the band, which had just released its first gold album (“Master of Puppets”) and was setting out on the road with metal legend Ozzy Osbourne. Starting near the beginning, Metallica took Howard back to 1986. Lars Ulrich performs during a 1986 concert Photo: Getty Images
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