Bob Dylan’s opinion on Metallica and Heavy Metal

Bob Dylan was one of the first musicians to truly write his own songs and sing about many different subjects.. He became a major influence on many remarkable artists in the 1960s, including The Beatles, sparking a real revolution in the music business by encouraging bands and artists to write their own material.

Although he has spoken less with the press over the past few decades, unlike many artists from his generation, he has remained genuinely interested in what happened after he became a successful artist. Over the years, he has paid close attention to many different kinds of music, even commenting on Heavy Metal and bands like Metallica.

Bob Dylan’s opinion on Metallica and Heavy Metal

Surprisingly for many Bob Dylan is actually a fan of Metallica and went to see them play a couple of times over the decades. He has also mentioned artists such as Ronnie James Dio, Yngwie Malmsteen and Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan and has explained why he believes bluegrass and heavy metal are quite similar. “Performers and songwriters recommend things (new artists and songs) to me. Others I just wake up and they’re there. Some I’ve seen live.”

“The Oasis Brothers, I like them both, Julian Casablancas, the Klaxons, Grace Potter. I’ve seen Metallica twice. I’ve made special efforts to see Jack White and Alex Turner. Zac Deputy, I’ve discovered him lately. He’s a one man show like Ed Sheeran, but he sits down when he plays. I’m a fan of Royal Blood, Celeste, Rag and Bone Man, Wu-Tang, Eminem, Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, anybody with a feeling for words and language, anybody whose vision parallels mine,” Bob Dylan said in an interview with Wall Street Journal in 2022.

Although he saw Metallica play live twice he did not go backstage to meet them. After reading what Dylan had said the band’s drummer Lars Ulrich sent a message to Bob through the press saying that he was welcome at their shows anytime and anywhere. But he also said that next time he should go backstage because they would love to finally meet him. “I saw that. I don’t know if Bob reads the NME or not. But I have one thing to say to him: ‘Bob, you’re welcome at any Metallica show anywhere in the world at any time. But please come backstage and say hello. We’d love to meet you and pay our respects!’” he told NME in 2023.

Bob Dylan also talked about Ronnie James Dio and Duff McKagan

Curiously Bob Dylan is also aware of the late legendary singer Ronnie James Dio who James Hetfield has already said was the greatest singer of all time. The Folk Rock legend mentioned him and Rainbow’s classic song ‘Stargazer’ when speaking with the Wall Street Journal about how songs can have different meanings for different people.

“When you first hear a song, it might be related to what time of day you hear it. Maybe at daybreak – at dawn with the sun in your face – it would probably stay with you longer than if you heard it at dusk. Or maybe, if you first hear it at sunset, it would probably mean something different, than if you heard it first at 2 in the afternoon.”

He continued:

“Or maybe you hear something in the dead of night, in the darkness, with night eyes. Maybe it’ll be ‘Eleanor Rigby,’ and it puts you in touch with your ancient ancestors. You’re liable to remember that for a while. ‘Stargazer”, the Ronnie James Dio song would probably mean a lot more to you if you first heard it at midnight under a full moon beneath an expanding universe, than if you first heard it in the middle of a dreary day with rain pouring down,” he said. During that same conversation, he mentioned Duff McKagan’s solo song “Chip Away”, saying it has a profound meaning to him.

The story of when Rob Halford met Bob Dylan

The Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford had the chance to meet Bob Dylan once but at the time the American artist didn’t know who he was. Their meeting happened in Sony Studios in New York in the mid 90s when Halford was the frontman of Fight.

“We were just hanging out, and one of the label people says, ‘Bob Dylan is around the corner. Because he was on the same label and who wouldn’t want to meet Bob Dylan? ‘Yeah, let’s meet.’ So he takes me through a couple of corridors and we go into the room, like a green room. Bob Dylan is in the room with a lot of women! A lot of women and a lot of fruit. So there’s the women, there’s the fruit, and there’s Bob Dylan. We walk in, and the label guy says, ‘Hey Bob! This is a guy from a band that’s on the same label.”

He continued:

“His band’s called Fight. This is Rob Halford. And Bob goes, ‘Hey man, what’s goin’ on?’ I go, ‘Hey Bob, it’s a real pleasure to meet you.’ ‘Where you from?’ ‘Oh, I’m from a place called Birmingham, in the Midlands.’ And Bob Dylan looks at me and he goes, ‘Yeah, yeah… How’s Ozzy doin’?’ And that was my one-and-only-time meeting Bob Dylan! Then I was whisked off,” Rob Halford said in an interview with Metal Edge in 2022.

Already back in the 1980s Bob showed that he was quite aware of the hard rock and metal scene. In a BBC documentary he can be seen talking with a few kids and saying “Oh yeah? You like Ozzy Osbourne? How about Ratt?” as he asks them. He has always stayed up to date with other music genres and liked artists that many people would never expect him to like. George Harrison’s son Dhani even said a couple of years ago that it was Dylan who made his father respect Hip Hop music when he told the Beatle that those artists were the only ones really saying something in music in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The kind of music Dylan said would make Yngwie Malmsteen scratch his head

Bluegrass is a genre of music that first emerged in Kentucky and Tennessee in the United States in the 1940s. It features stringed instruments and emphasizes off beat rhythm. It is usually played on instruments such as banjo, fiddle, mandolin, guitar and upright bass. In his 2022 book Philosophy of a Modern Song, Dylan explained why he believes this genre is similar to Heavy Metal, mentioning Dio and Yngwie Malmsteen.

“Bluegrass is the other side of Heavy Metal. Both are musical forms steeped in tradition. They are the two forms of music that visually and audibly have not changed in decades. People in their respective fields still dress like Bill Monroe and Ronnie James Dio. Both forms have a traditional instrumental lineup and a parochial adherence to form.”

“Bluegrass is the more direct emotional music and, though it might not be obvious to the casual listener, the more adventurous. On this track (‘Ruby, Are You Mad?), Bobby Osborne’s daredevil vocal swoops, sustained notes, and the drive of the twin banjos with lightning runs combined to make something so staggeringly propulsive it would most likely make Yngwie Malmsteen scratch his head. This is Speed Metal without the embarrassment of Spandex and junior high school devil worship,” Bob Dylan said.