The underrated Southern Rock band James Hetfield said he loves

James Hetfield was heavily influenced by Punk Rock and bands from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, inspirations that were essential in shaping his fast and heavy guitar playing and songwriting style. Alongside drummer Lars Ulrich, he formed Metallica in 1981 and over the past decades, they became the biggest Heavy Metal group in the world.

However, Hetfield’s musical taste is much broader than just Metal. He has often expressed his appreciation for other styles, including Southern Rock. Throughout his career, he has mentioned several bands from that genre that he admires, including a quite underrated one.

The underrated Southern Rock band James Hetfield said he loves

James Hetfield is a big fan of Southern Rock and one of his favorite bands from that genre is Gov’t Mule, which is quite underrated. One of the biggest reasons why he loves them is Warren Haynes, the band’s guitarist and vocalist.

Hetfield listed in an interview with Vic Garbini, their song “Temporary Saint”, from self-titled debut album, as one of his favorites. “Warren Haynes just blows me away. Our accountant worked with him in the Allman Brothers, and turned me on to Gov’t Mule.”

“You listen to this song and sense there’s a solo coming up. You really hear certain shit in your head, and that’s exactly what he plays! His voice is amazing as well. There’s a lot of Stevie Ray and maybe some Robin Trower stuff in there. He gets a little hippy-dippy, but he definitely puts you in a trance,” James Hetfield said in the 90s.

A couple years later he had the chance to meet the band and interview them for Guitar World magazine. During their conversation, the Metallica frontman praised Haynes’ lyrics, saying he liked them a lot. Also that there was “a lot of sarcasm and rich versus poor imagery. (…) But there’s a definite underdog vibe to your lyrics that I really dig,” he said.

Warren Haynes is only three years older than James Hetfield and began his musical career after the Metallica vocalist. He became a professional musician in 1982, first gaining recognition as a member of The Dickey Betts Band before joining The Allman Brothers Band. Haynes was with the band led by Gregg Allman from 1989 to 1997 and again from 2000 to 2014. He had worked in those bands with the bassist Allen Woody and drummer Matt Abts, who would later help him to form Gov’t Mule.

The song James Hetfield recorded with Gov’t Mule

James Hetfield had the chance to record with Gov’t Mule in 2002. He was part of the song “Drivin’ Rain’, which also featured as special guest the Primus bassist Les Claypool. Curiously, the bass guitarist had auditioned for Metallica a couple of years before.

Warren Haynes and Hetfield share the vocals of the song, which was written by the Gov’t Mule frontman. The track was featured on the band’s album “The Deep End, Volume 2” (2002).

That record had many other special guests like Metallica’s bassist at the time, Jason Newsted. He guested in the track “Trying Not to Fall”. “Gov’t Mule has done some amazing arrangements. Warren Haynes, very good songwriter,” he said in an interview with Greg Prato in 2013.

Other special guests on that album were Jack Casady, Phil Lesh, Tony Levin and Chris Squire. Although the band is focused on Southern Rock and Blues, they also played Heavy Metal a couple of times, especially paying tribute to other artists. More recently, in 2025, the band opened a concert playing Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” to honor the late Ozzy Osbourne.

The band led by Haynes is not the only Southern Rock group that Hetfield likes. He is also a big fan of Lynyrd Skynyrd, the guitarist Gary Rossington even played “Tuesday’s Gone” with Metallica in 2011. The Thrash Metal band had covered the song on their 1998 album “Garage Inc.”

The band

Gov’t Mule was formed in Atlanta, Georgia in 1994. So far they have released 13 studio albums, the most recent one being “Peace… Like a River”. Besides Haynes, their current line-up has Matt Abts (Drums – Since 1994), Danny Louis (Keyboards, guitar, trumpet, vocals – Since 2002) and Kevin Scott (Bass – Since 2022). The original bassist Allen Woody was a member of the band until 2000 when he passed away at the age of 44.

Other past members are Andy Hess (Bass – From 2003 to 2008) and Jorgen Carlsson (Bass – From 2008 to 2023).